[bonoboTP]

No, the dead can't exert such influence from the grave. You're dead. It's the next generation's turn. If you were the kind of person whose diary the kids or grandkids want to see thrown in the trash, then that's how it is. You had your time on the face of the earth, you don't get to haunt the descendants. You got erased, that's it. Or your story gets retold in filtered ways in the fog of the past.

Im perfectly content knowing just vague information about individual ancestors 3-4 levels up, and basically nothing on level 5, except the odd church record of births, marriages and deaths giving a rough indication of where some of them lived.

The people 5 generations back deserve much less thought space than the community you cultivate around yourself today (including living family).

[Breza]

Preserving the past is how we learn, adapt, and grow.

I got into family history fifteen years ago. As a history buff, it was a fun hobby. I even put together family trees for several friends. When I read old newspapers, it's incredible how similar many problems seem to what we face today.

There's also a practical aspect. Last year the Canadian government declared that I can get a Canadian passport if I can prove my links to that country. Now I've reactivated my Ancestry account and would love it if I had a box of personal diaries to sift through for evidence of my heritage.

[T-RN-R]

This is frankly a selfish take. Society is a compact between the dead, the living and the yet to be born. Having a piece of someone’s deepest thoughts is a treasure for future generations. By deciding to destroy, you choose to destroy the past that the future generations might value.

[bonoboTP]

No, its the natural cycle. What passes away fades away. Anything that is kept up needs to be kept up actively by the generations. That which is valued needs to be preserved, such as wisdom, knowledge, art, science etc. All your drama and idle musings, maybe not. Unless you're deemed worthy by the next ones. I understand that this is a scary thought but our impact is only kept if we act such that the next generations want to preserve it. 5 generations down even your genetic impact is people who share 3% genes with you and 97% other people. Imagine a classroom with 32 people. For each of your descendants 5 generations down (which can be zero or many, the count varying greatly based on choices made by not-you), you're one person out of that classroomful of ancestors.

Sure it's kinda cool to see some fragments here and there. But would I want it to be the standard that we keep all the emails, chat messages, phone camera roll, GPS logs etc of people... Hell no. I'm not advocating for absolutely forgetting everything. But we have to filter.

[Breza]

I disagree strongly with your broader point. We now have the technology to sort through the minutia of the past and learn deep things. Here's one tiny example. I was able to find out where one of my ancestors lived because someone sent him a letter via General Delivery around 1900 that he didn't pick up. The Post Office listed everyone with letters waiting for them. The smallest detail, but it proved useful for me in tracing my family's origins across the Wild West.

[rapnie]

Deeply agree. I think it is the other way round and it is selfish to expect those that come after you to carry that burden. The OP says it is "something that weighed her down for the last 15 years of her life", and that she felt the duty to scan the diaries even after the diagnosis of cancer. Wow, now that sacrifice is a beautiful precious gift, and anyone expecting such gift is utterly selfish imho.

[Swizec]

> Society is a compact between the dead, the living and the yet to be born. Having a piece of someone’s deepest thoughts is a treasure for future generations

If you want to be remembered, live a life worth remembering.