Publishing a Historical Primary Source--Question About Rights

Who inherited the letters? Who inherited your Grandfather's estate?

This is just a guess, but if you intend to publish them and perhaps write a foreword or maybe some historical references, or anything that comes from your own writing you could give authorship to both you and your grandfather.
Did you check with the copyright office?

Hi Kitty - I've sort of dabbled in a similar situation. I was given a collection of Civil War letters from one family - but with permission to type them up, annotate them, and sell them as one of the booklet publications to raise money for community endeavors. My opinion is that in this situation if there were ever any sales beyond the community project, rights would revert to the family / estate.

Which is the case for my Dad's unpublished novels and poetry. I can type them up and submit them, but any sales become part of his estate to be shared by his heirs. Thankfully I have permission from my siblings to do whatever I can with his writings. But it is a sticky area to get into. Puma

ETA: I've also typed up my grandfather's autobiography and other family records and distributed them to family members and given copies to the town he came from. The question of rights has never come up and I don't think it would unless I tried to make a bundle off the material.

I, too, am curious about this. In my historical YA novel, I'm referencing some other published materials from the victorian era. If I include a quote from one of them, I have just assumed I would need to give credit. Now I'll need to look into it in more detail. With historical fiction, the learning never ceases!