Their life is larger than the photos in the box.
We turn family documents, photos, and video into a private memoir — a website narrative shaped by the world and places they moved through.
$499 · No charge to reserve · See real examples
You know the box
It came to you after the funeral, or it’s still on a shelf in your parents’ basement. Photographs of people you can almost name. Letters in handwriting you recognize but have never read. Every year, fewer people can say who’s who.
FamilyMemoir is for the person the box ended up with — the one in the family who keeps the stories.
From scattered photos and papers to the story of a life — set in the world they lived through
Not a scrapbook dump. We weave your letters, records, photographs, and video into one researched narrative, grounded in the history of the places and eras they moved through — and deliver it as a private memoir website your family can return to, and pass on. See real examples below.
Transform the story into robust memoirs
Each FamilyMemoir is a private website: chapters of narrative, original documents and photographs, and the history of the places they lived through — not a folder of files.
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Immigrant Polonia
Gus & Nellie Magnuszewski
1896–1978
A boy from a country that wasn’t on the map.
Open full memoirWorld around them
Born 1896 in a Poland erased from the map for a century — partitioned between empires.
More highlights + Fewer highlights −
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In the archive
Wedding portrait, 1916 · Nel’s & Kok’s behind the counter · bees, farm, and racing pigeons.
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The turn
After losing three sons, they opened a Bailey Avenue delicatessen — and worked 29 years.
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Birth of flight
Othmar D. May
1895–1970s
“I estimated the cost of these long before they flew.”
Open full memoirWorld around them
Bound for Alaska in 1915, he stopped in Buffalo — as Curtiss was inventing an industry.
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In the archive
The R-2 on a cow pasture · his draft-exemption letter · Bell “Plane Figures.”
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The arc
From wood-and-wire biplanes to cost ledgers for America’s first jet and the X-1.
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A Hump radioman
Dominic Henry Barone
1916–1997
To his wire crew he was “The Whip.” To everyone else, simply “Mike.”
Open full memoirWorld around them
The Hump — Assam to Kunming over the Himalayas — among the war’s most dangerous flying.
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In the archive
Service record at a glance · Hump Express · his own overseas negatives.
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Hometown echo
Nabisco’s plant paper hailed “Nicky” and the “Burma Telephone Co.” he built by hand.
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No charge today — reserving holds your place. Satisfaction guaranteed, or your money back.
How it works
A collaboration, not a drop-off. You stay close to the story at every step — and everything you send comes home.
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Send or upload what you have
Immigration papers, family letters, photographs, work or medical records, home video — the more the better. Mail it in a box we send you, or share what you can digitally. We’ll guide you.
Originals returned
Your originals are treated as irreplaceable. Every piece you mail comes back to you — tracked shipping in both directions.
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We research and fill in the gaps
Your documents are the starting point. We research the history around them — the towns, the eras, the events they lived through — and fill in what the box never said, until the fragments become one clear, human story.
You approve the draft
You see the draft first. If a detail is wrong or a chapter misses its weight, we hone the story with you until it feels true.
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Receive your FamilyMemoir
A private website — your family’s memoir online. Open it and the box becomes a life: the faces named, the letters finally read, the story whole again. Yours to revisit whenever you miss them, to share at the next gathering, and to pass on to the generations who never got to ask.
Money back if it misses
If it doesn’t move you, we keep refining. If you’re still not happy, your deposit comes back in full.
Every line answers to the record
A memoir is only an heirloom if your family can trust it. Ours are researched and written to an archivist’s standard.
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Their papers are the spine
Dates, addresses, ranks, their own words — facts from your family’s documents are stated plainly, exactly as the record shows them.
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Outside history is footnoted
Context we add from beyond the box — an era, a unit’s movements, a neighborhood’s story — carries numbered footnotes to reputable sources: national archives, historical foundations, encyclopedias.
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Nothing is invented
No guessed medals, dates, or events. If something can’t be confirmed, the memoir says so and lists it as an open question — and if two documents disagree, we flag it rather than smooth it over.
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Your wishes are honored
If you tell us “we never called him that,” it stays out — even where a document uses it. The tone stays reverent and warm, and the feeling comes from the documents, never from embellishment.
You can see this standard in the example memoirs — open one and check the footnotes yourself.
The story gets shorter each time it’s retold. This is how you make it complete again.
Your FamilyMemoir. $499.
Personal historians and custom memoir books often run into the thousands. A FamilyMemoir is $499, complete — no charge to reserve, half when we begin, half when your memoir website is delivered.
Our guarantee
If the first draft doesn’t move you, we’ll refine it with you until it does — and if you’re still not happy, we’ll refund your deposit in full.
Limited families each month — reserving holds your place
Reserve your FamilyMemoir
Tell us a little about whose story you’re preserving. Then save your payment method — no charge today.
Step 1 of 3 — About you
Have a question before you reserve? Email our team and we’ll help — a real person reads every message.
Questions, answered
What exactly do I receive?
How does pricing work?
Will I be charged today when I reserve?
How do you get our family materials?
Will our original photos and documents be returned?
What if I’m not happy with the result?
How is this different from scanning everything myself?
How do I know what’s in the memoir is true?
Is this a good gift for Mother’s or Father’s Day, a memorial, or an estate?
Who can see the finished memoir?
How long does it take?
The box has waited long enough.
No charge today · Originals returned · Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back