My closets don't bulge with shoeboxes of photos, postcards, letters and memorabilia. My basement doesn't resemble a newspaper morgue or a Tupperware graveyard. I haven't amassed enough old clothes to open my own thrift store. I don't own every complete set of Arby's commemorative holiday tumblers dating back to 1986.

This might sound like a risky admission for the editor of a publication called Preserve Your Family History. Throughout these pages — and in our bimonthly issues of Family Tree Magazine — we encourage you to stockpile family artifacts. We insist especially that you squirrel away any and every genealogically valuable possession, from the family Bible to your fifth-grade pen-pal letters. If that weren't enough, we also suggest saving the occasional everyday object (think hair barrettes and those holiday tumblers) to pique your descendants' interest.