Self-Hosted Vital Documents

Paperless-ngx, webtrees, encrypted backups, gopass — the OSS self-host stack for birth certs, wills, deeds, and the multigenerational paper trail.

The OSS / self-host way to handle vital documents — birth, marriage, death, deeds, military discharge, immigration, medical, insurance, will + trust originals, beneficiary forms — and the multigenerational paper trail your kids will need. Paperless-ngx is the headline app; encrypted offsite backup is non-negotiable. For the SaaS / paid vault side see Digital Legacy & Vault Apps and Insurance & Vital Documents; for backups see Backup & Disaster Recovery; for password vault see Self-Hosted Passwords; for genealogy / family-tree see Genealogy Software (Self-host); for the broader estate index see Estate, Will & End-of-Life Planning.

Document scanning + OCR + tagging (★ ★)

★ ★ Paperless-ngx — free OSS; the default self-host document manager in 2026; OCR via Tesseract, full-text search, custom fields, tagging, ASN barcodes, consumption folder, mail rules. Replaces the filing cabinet for the entire household. See Self-Hosted Document Management.
- https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx
Mayan EDMS — free OSS; heavier; workflow-engine-flavored; for orgs more than households.
Teedy / Sismics Docs — free OSS; lighter; small-team friendly.
Docspell — free OSS; good auto-tagging via NLP; smaller community than Paperless.

★ webtrees — free OSS; the modern self-host genealogy app; link scanned vital records (birth/death/marriage certs) to people. Pairs with Paperless-ngx beautifully — you store the cert in Paperless, link from webtrees. See Genealogy Software (Self-host).
- https://github.com/fisharebest/webtrees
Gramps — free OSS desktop; mature; great for serious genealogists.

★ gopass / pass — free OSS; GPG-encrypted git-backed password / secret store; perfect for the "exactly four people on earth should ever read this" docs (will instructions, hardware-wallet seed location, master vault recovery).
- https://github.com/gopasspw/gopass
★ Vaultwarden (self-host Bitwarden) — free OSS; secure-attachment field holds small PDFs (passports, SS cards) inside the vault. See Self-Hosted Passwords.
Cryptomator / gocryptfs / rclone crypt — free OSS; encrypt a folder you sync via Nextcloud / Syncthing / Dropbox.
VeraCrypt — free OSS; encrypted container for offline / USB-drive use.

Identity — birth certificate (certified copy), passport, naturalization / citizenship, Social Security card, driver license / state ID, military ID + DD-214.
Family — marriage certificate, divorce decree, prenup, adoption decree, custody orders, death certificates of family members.
Property — deed (recorded), title insurance policy, survey, HOA covenants, vehicle titles, boat / RV titles, livestock / equipment titles.
Financial — most recent statement from each account, beneficiary-form confirmations (see Beneficiary Designations), tax returns (7 years), brokerage cost-basis records, crypto holdings list, hardware-wallet seed-storage location.
Insurance — life, health, home, auto, umbrella, long-term-care, disability declarations pages — see Insurance & Vital Documents.
Legal — will (original + copy), trust (original + copy), POA (financial + healthcare), advance directive, HIPAA release, beneficiary forms — see Wills & Online Will Services, Power of Attorney & Advance Directives.
Medical — immunization records, allergy / medication list, major-procedure records, family medical history.
Pets, household — out of scope per spec, but cross-reference your household pages.

Originals — fireproof / waterproof safe at home or safe-deposit box. Wills + trust originals are usually best at home (safe-deposit-box access is sometimes locked at death). Title docs in safe-deposit box; deed copy at home.
Scans — Paperless-ngx, encrypted offsite backup. Do not skip the scan step — most house fires destroy the originals; scans + offsite are the only thing that survives.

★ 3-2-1: 3 copies, 2 different media, 1 offsite. See Backup & Disaster Recovery.
restic + B2 / S3 / Wasabi — free OSS client + cheap object storage; encrypted at rest with your key.
Borg / Borgmatic — free OSS; deduplicating; great for Paperless-ngx volumes.
Kopia — free OSS; multi-platform; nice UI.
Encrypted USB drive in safe-deposit box — refresh annually.

Tax returns: 7 years (3 federal minimum, longer for amended / fraud / property cost basis).
Vital records (birth, marriage, death, divorce): forever.
Property deeds + title: forever (for as long as you own + 7 years after sale).
Insurance policies: while in force + claims history.
Medical: indefinite for major events, family history.
Bills paid + receipts: 1–3 years unless tax-related.

Paperless-ngx, Mayan EDMS, Teedy, Docspell, webtrees, Gramps, gopass, pass, Vaultwarden, Cryptomator, gocryptfs, VeraCrypt, restic, Borg, Kopia: free OSS.
B2 / S3 / Wasabi storage: paid (a few $/mo for household-scale).
Safe-deposit box: paid (~$50–200/yr).
Fireproof home safe: paid (~$100–500 one-time).

Default OSS scanning + filing system: Paperless-ngx.
Multigenerational records + family tree: webtrees + Paperless-ngx, linked.
Most-sensitive items (seed location, master recovery): gopass + Vaultwarden.
One encrypted folder synced everywhere: Cryptomator + Nextcloud (or Syncthing).
Backup target: restic to B2 + a refreshed encrypted USB in a safe-deposit box.
Originals storage: fireproof home safe for will / trust originals; safe-deposit box for deeds + duplicates.