Thrift stores sometimes have recipe cards in a stranger’s handwriting. Somebody’s family lost that. Keep yours somewhere safe.

Family records are fragile because nobody is formally in charge of them. A card in a box of donations meant something in a particular household until a house got cleared in a hurry and nobody recognised what they were holding. These things rarely disappear dramatically. They get boxed up by people who were not there for the story.

Gather whatever your family has in handwriting into one place: a folder, a box, photographs of it on your phone. Tell somebody else where it is kept. A record only you know about is one accident away from being a stranger’s card.