SUMMARY

When we think of family papers, we first think of our own, our everyday paperwork. They seem all the more unimportant to us because they are not full of history. In the age of paperless lives, we often want to clear the decks. Yet there are legally binding deadlines for keeping some of them. You just have to know what they are. The words "family papers" bring to mind documents given or handed down by the previous generation. They are extraordinarily varied, ranging from the serious (notarial documents, passports, insurance files, etc.) to the moving (school notebooks, points, wedding photos, etc.). We think less about throwing them away and more about keeping them. But how do we classify them so that we can easily find the one we want to show our grandchildren? How can we ensure that these papers, sometimes a century old, or these fragile sepia-toned photographs, live on? Digitising them is one way of safeguarding them, but that doesn't mean that the originals should be thrown away: they need to be protected. Finally, there are the family papers you dream about, especially if you are passionate about genealogy. These are the ones we're missing, the ones we'd like to find out of affection for a forebear who's disappeared or because we want to collect the family memory before it fades away: missing family or military records, missing photos... A search can begin with cousins and uncles, or even the administration and archives. But you still need to know how long these documents have existed and what their history is. This guide answers all these questions, with illustrations to match the documents you are looking for.

AUTHOR

Myriam Provence: professional genealogist in Paris since 1987, long-time president of the Chambre syndicale des généalogistes et héraldistes de France, author of numerous articles and genealogical works.