Collecting Family Stories: 2 Awesome Solutions

I can hardly believe I have been home from the RootsTech 2015 event for two months. I presented on March 14th -- yikes! Where does time go? My intention was to come straight home and write a post or two to share some of the cool experiences I had and here it is April already! Oh well. It's never too late to share good and helpful information, right?

So, I was lucky enough to score a position as a RootsTech Ambassador, which means I had access to the media hub. One of the features there is the chance to create video interviews. I signed up. When I arrived, I figured I'd better go find someone to interview. Luckily I had participated in the Innovator's Summit the day before, where eight companies in what I call the "family tech" space, who had already been selected as finalists were vying for prize money designed to help them further develop and grow their solutions. As I watched this process I chose my two personal favorites based on which services I would most readily use and appreciate. I decided that's who I wanted to interview, so I visited their booths and asked if they would come talk to me on camera. I love that "ask you shall receive" principle. It's a good one. 

So, here is my interview with Adam from History Lines and Nick from StoryWorth ...

I'll be sharing more about both of these companies in future posts, but I hope you will visit their websites and do some exploring.

StoryWorth. As mentioned in the video, I've been using StoryWorth since November and LOVE it. My parents and my husband and I are all writing stories and these stories are automatically shared with other family members and stored in my account. On Sunday night, we talked with Clark (away at college) and one of the first things he said when his picture came up on Facetime was, "Hey Dad, that was a great story you wrote about our family trip to Hawaii." I was cleaning the kitchen Saturday afternoon and overheard Geoff as he recorded the story with his iPhone. StoryWorth is working. We are preserving stories, sharing them and then talking about them. This makes me super happy. 

History Lines. When I conducted this interview, History Lines was in beta, but as of TODAY, the full site is up, running and 100% live. In fact, you can save 40% on an annual subscription through this coming Sunday, April 19th. All you have to do is enter the promo code SHARE40 when you register. I have subscribed at this discounted rate and have already created two stories. To better understand the potential for this service, you'll want to watch their video at historylines.com

As a scrapbooker, I've pondered the importance of photos and words many times and I've spent 20+ years bringing them together, so that family moments and memories will live on. Now, as I look back at what I've accomplished and realize all that I still want to do, I know that what really matters to me are the stories. Photos are wonderful, but without information they have very little to offer in just one generation.

I am after the stories. 
These two websites are helping me in this quest.