Keep your family history alive for future generations! Old photos, genealogical documents, ancestors' stories, and artifacts are vital to understanding your family's past-and they belong to your family's future. This concise step-by-step guide will help you organize and pass your genealogy collection and family history to the next generation. Follow the PASS Process: (1) Prepare by organizing materials, (2) Allocate ownership, (3) Set up a genealogical "will," (4) Share with heirs. Whether you're new to genealogy or have years of experience, you'll find practical ideas and learn how to: sort your genealogy collection into logical categories . . . safely store and label your materials . . . inventory and index for new insights . . . decide what to keep and what to give away . . . write instructions for your collection's future . . . and bring family history alive now. Includes sample forms and links to online resources to help you put a personalized PASS plan into action. Reviewed by genealogy blogger Anna Mathews: "Each chapter in Marian's book is filled with great tips from her many years of experience in taking these steps herself. She shares many resources and stories along the way, showing us by example that organizing isn't taking away precious time from research, it can actually help us in our research, leading to discoveries we might not otherwise make." Reviewed by genealogy blogger Wendy Mathias: "Marian provides a PROCESS for making sure our years of hard work and treasures from our ancestors don't end up in a landfill. I emphasize PROCESS because the book is not a collection of handy-dandy tips and tricks. With what Marian calls 'the PASS system,' the overwhelming job of getting our 'stuff' ready to pass on is made logical and manageable."

The information contained within this book deals with only one branch of the Wood family who lived in the Pasquotank County and Perquimans County areas of North Carolina over the last three hundred years. While there are at least three non-related Wood family lines that fall within this range, this book concerns only my direct line of proven ancestors starting with the William Wood who was born during the late 1600's. This book includes detailed historical fact based biographies for each of my direct ancestors and information concerning William Wood's most probable ancestors. Also included is information about the ancient ancestors of this line that was ascertained from the results of two different DNA tests. Adding to the value of this work for genealogical research purposes is a general explanation on how DNA testing can be used to help trace problem ancestors and a step by step guide on the method used to isolate the facts. This book is fully indexed and contains 333 different surnames (978 full-names).

Letter from Charles Wood and E.J. Wood to Lizzie Wood; and E.J. Wood to Charles Wood.