When my grandma passed away we found all their documents like marrige certificate, Granpa's discharge papers and my Great Aunt's birth certificate. I was going to put my granparent's marrige certificate in a shadow box with a bunch of pictures I found of them through the years, it turns out that my aunt had asked for it a while back and nobody had really remembered about it. Well anyways we are willing to give it to her but I want it back when she passes away.
Is it wrong if I type up an agreement between the two of us to sign stating that I just want my granparent's wedding picture and their marriage certificate? i'm just worried that my aunt's husband will make a huge deal about the fact that I want my aunt to sign this paper. It's really just because I don't want my cousins to turn around and say that their mother had promised it to them. There is already a lot of tension in my family and I don't want this to make it worse. But I just want this one item. She told my mom that she was already going to tell me that the marrige certificate would be mine, but like I said, I just worry my cousins would try to take it for themselves out of guilt of not visiting my grandmother in her final years.
Also what is the best possible way to word an agreement like that?
I would think a handwritten letter from your Aunt stating that the marriage certificate should be left to you in the event of her death (if she can't/won't add it to her will) would be sufficient enough to hold up in court should the document end up in someone else's hands. If your aunt truly wants the original marriage certificate to be in her hands only until she passes, and then return it to you upon her death, I think she shouldn't hesitate to write you a letter and provide copies of the letter for you and other interested family members.
http://presentationsoft.about.com/od/powerpoint2010/ss/110908-How-To-Scan-Pictures-And-Precious-Documents.htm
I just worry that it will end up to my cousins and end up in storage or something.
It sounds really stupid but my grandparent's marrige is the only marriage in my family where they truly loved eachother. My grandma spoke of my grandfather with pure happiness and love in her voice any time she would tell me about when they were "courting" and when they got married and their 49 years of marriage before he passed away... I guess to me, it symbolizes that there are people in my family who can have a normal healthy marriage where the spouse is not controling or always mean or getting in the way of family. I grew up with divorced parents so I've never seen a happy marrige except for my grandparents.
http://www.calarchivists.org/Resources/Documents/Brochure_Series/Papers_in-English.pdf