Thoughts about inventories

At a ward party a month or so ago, a lady said to us, “Don’t you just love inventories?” And we agreed that we do. Although my knowledge of probate records is limited to my observation of those in Addison County, Vermont, I know that an inventory is a vital part of some of those records. An inventory is just that: a listing of all the worldly goods of the deceased.

Sister Grey is a professor of history at Norwich University in nearby Northfield. She’s a published author of articles about her specialty: Lutherans after the Reformation. Yes my first thought was also who would want to know about that? However, at the university’s expense, she travels to Germany a couple of times a year to study records in Archives so she has a love for the kind of work we’re doing. She often studies long inventories and other records. We enjoyed our conversation with her about old records.

Inventories are sometimes the bane of our existence because they’re very often many pieces of paper glued together. Since our instructions include not changing anything in the boxes, we have to manuver them into place under the camera. An especially long one requires both of us to image. This beauty is 6’ 9” long and listed the worldly belongings of one man--everything from the number of forks in the kitchen to his false teeth. Beside each item is an estimated value. As you can imagine, this wasn’t easy to image. We glance through the inventories from time to time.
Sister Grey’s comments and my own reading of the inventories makes me think about what possessions I’m going to leave on this earth. Having now been away from home for 5 months, I’ve decided there are many things in my home that I’m going to get rid of when I return! An observation Garth often makes to people when he describes what we’re doing is: “Not a one took anything from that inventory with them when they left.”

I hope my inventory includes not material possessions but the possessions most valuable to me—my family, my friends and my testimony. Working with records of those who have passed from this earth makes me think long and hard about the legacy that I want to leave for my children and grandchildren.