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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Northern Lights Lodge, post: 1478622, member: 13464&quot;]I couldn&#039;t &quot;just leave them either&quot;. </p><p><br /></p><p>I have boxes of family letters - from the late 1800&#039;s onward; written back and forth from my Cornish grandparents family who they left in Cornwall. It is hard to read them... scrawly script and misspellings and all...but I &quot;CAN&#039;T&quot; get rid of them. Some talk about how things were in Britain during the blitz; lack of food, rations, air raids, family deaths because of...and their responses to my Grandmother after receiving care packages with simple things like a few tea bags, a lb of flour, dried fruit, 1/2 lb of sugar, hand me down shoes... enough to break your heart. </p><p><br /></p><p>I have one I cherish from my grandmother&#039;s teacher in Cornwall - circa 1900&#039;s; written shortly after Gram&#039;s fam moved to the Upper Peninsula ...talking about how much she missed her and her sister and hearing them run down the cobbled streets to come to class.</p><p><br /></p><p>I also have some historic letters from my own notable instructor; to and from her students - including myself... I&#039;m not sure what to do with them.&nbsp; I was &quot;gifted&quot; them by the instructor.</p><p><br /></p><p>I have a small stack of letters I purchased at an antique store...written by a man in the navy during WWI to his sweetie...not romantic (in my way of thinking at all)... although he states that he sure does miss her. It talks about brawls and when he was fired upon. They are &quot;fairly&quot; local family; but, I don&#039;t know if any family still exists in the area.</p><p><br /></p><p>The upshot is: I think time is the important factor in addition to content. There are some things that should truly be kept private; particularly if they are &quot;intimate&quot; letters. Yet, things that shine light on history, what things were like from day to day - are important to keep as documents.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Eventually, our own family letters will probably go to the Cornish archives at the Van Pelt and Opie Library of Michigan Tech. (My daughters made it clear that they will throw them out - unless I specify where they will go.) They are the largest Cornish archives in the US and have already accepted 30+ boxes from my Mother&#039;s 40+ years of research. This did include many letters. We read all of the letters and sent only the ones that really DID discuss mostly genealogy; rather than family health or personal info.</p><p><br /></p><p>In time; the immediate family, of say, the man who was in WWI will have passed away - and perhaps all that will remain of this gent who served will be these letters and his descendents. At that point; perhaps a local museum would LOVE to receive them and in 50 years when his modern descendent&#039;s are researching their family; they may cherish finding letters written by him. As I said; they aren&#039;t particularly intimate. </p><p><br /></p><p>My teacher&#039;s correspondence; will eventually make it to the archives of the groups she was involved with.</p><p><br /></p><p>I had always hoped to find a way to make money off these letters - but as yet, my conscience has not found a way to make that happen...my conscience has also not let me just discard them.</p><p><br /></p><p>My own opinion on all this, of course. I&#039;m sure some of you may disagree...that&#039;s ok. I don&#039;t think there is a clear answer re: this issue.</p><p><br /></p><p>Leslie at the Northern Lights Lodge[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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