Your ancestors have left you significant souvenirs from them. You have pictures, videos, maybe audio recordings or even a story book written by one of your ancestor. How lucky you are! This is an invaluable gift you have received. Because family history is very important to an individual, having a clear understanding of your family background allows you to have a better perspective of your life.

These are your roots.

Many people get interested in genealogy and research intensively. A study by Genealogy In Time magazine in 2013 found that genealogy websites had 250,000 visitors per day in 2012, and that this number was growing 20% per year. But most of the information they collect this way are administrative details. Once people know where and when their ancestors were born and where and when they died, they still don’t know anything about who these people were. Why did they move from their country of origin to the country you are now living in? In search of happiness or gold? To escape bad living conditions or for adventure? What were their opinions about the political questions of their time? What did they endure to provide you the material conditions you are living in now? This is not something you will find in genealogy searches. These are values, beliefs and emotions, which have created you as you are and that you will only access through rich material.

Now with the pictures, videos and documents that your ancestor has transmitted to you, you can understand which kind of persons your ancestors were. You have access to your roots. You can understand where you come from, and know the story of your lineage. Not just administrative details, but also what were their drivers and the reasons why they took some decisions which still impact your life.

As this material is precious it must be preserved with professional care. You cannot just keep it in a shoe-box and pray no flooding or fire will happen. You cannot cross your fingers and just hope that no badly intentioned person will access it. So your first step should be to digitize your material, if not yet done, and then store and preserve it with professional care. A trusted professional partner can help you.

You can also create bonds with other persons with whom you have common ancestors, just by sharing this material. And they may also provide you with material they have, so that together you will create a clearer and richer image of this common past. Of course this sharing must be done in all confidence, without exposing your intimate material to other persons. A trusted partner can help there as well.

And this material must be preserved for generations to come. Your descendants will be happy to receive it. Particularly if you enrich it with your story, it will become an asset in your family. A study from Emory University found that children benefit if they know about their relatives. Psychologists Robyn Fivush and Marshall Duke concluded that "Family stories provide a sense of identity through time, and help children understand who they are in the world". A trusted partner is needed to transmit this material from generation to generation seamlessly, and in all confidence. It will make sure that your designated heirs still can access this material one hundred years from now.

Preserve Family stories helps you record your family history today from those records that still exist. Then once this memory has been recorded, we preserve it to pass it on to your descendants. We are a trustful partner, and only grant access to the persons you have designated, then to their designated heirs.

Don't worry anymore about losing the memories that are your family's story. We keep them safe for future generations.

The stories that make up your family will live on for generations to come.

Not sure where to start? Don't worry. We have your back at PreserveFamilyStories. Leave your email address and we will send you our free document to get a simple, pragmatic step by step methodology to create the story of your life, using video and meaningful material.