I have recently received a collection of material consisting of my grandparents’ personal papers. I have boxes containing a total of roughly a cubic meter of papers, which appear to include diaries, travel journals, daybooks and calendars for over 60 years, extensive correspondence (including a file marked as Grandpa’s letters to and from home during World War II), baby books, and assorted memorabilia (e.g. the program from Grandpa’s high school prom; the bill for the corsage someone bought to attend a funeral in 1951).
What should I do with all this stuff, beyond reading it and storing it, and gaining deeper insight into my forbears? These are the records of normal people, not individuals who make it into the history books, and it was not that long ago (roughly, the records appear to span from the 1930s to the 1990s). But is there some historic value that I can extract and share, from such a detailed set of records of mid-twentieth century life?
More generally, what happens to the vast groves of ephemera in old people’s houses when they die or decide to no longer retain this material? Surely, some — most — or maybe all might be of little to no value, to those who bear no relation to the person who made the record. But what resources do historians have to gain insight into mundane details of ordinary people from times past?
The history of the everyday is definitely a point of interest. Letters like your grandfather’s letters home during his military service, for example, are the basis of many histories about the war (I used a number of them written by men and women stationed in Egypt during WWI for my dissertation, for example).
Some of it may only be of interest to your family, but even that has value for genealogical research (if that’s something you’re interested in).
You might see if there’s a local historical society or amateur historian group in your area. Many of them have tips and ideas for what to do with collections exactly like the one you describe.