Short answer: if you are researching ancestors in records, use a genealogy service: Ancestry and FamilySearch both let you attach photos, stories, audio and documents to a person, and FamilySearch Memories is free. If the tree is mostly done and you want photos, stories and voices to be the heart of it, shared privately with family, bring the tree into The Memory Palace as a GEDCOM file.
Last updated: 3 November 2026. Every fact about another service on this page was checked on that day or earlier on the service's own help pages; the sources are at the bottom. We leave out prices: they differ by country and change often.
A family tree tells you who someone was: born, married, died. The photos, the voice and the stories tell you what they were like. Most people want both, and most apps are built for one of them first. This page compares four places on the second part: what you can attach to a person, who can see it, and what each is really for.
The options at a glance
| Option | Built first for | Photos, stories, audio | Who can see it | Not the best choice when |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ancestry | Researching ancestors in records | Photos, stories, audio and documents attached to a person in your tree; files up to 15 MB | Follows the privacy settings of the tree | You mainly want a private, shared place for the recent generations' photos and voices |
| MyHeritage | Researching ancestors, with photo tools | Photo features to colourise, repair and enhance | See MyHeritage's own settings | Voice recordings and stories are what you most want to keep |
| FamilySearch Memories | A free, shared family tree | Photos, documents, stories and audio, linked to people in the tree; free with a free account | See FamilySearch's help page on who can view Memories | You want the memories kept within your own family only |
| The Memory Palace | Keeping photos, voices and stories, privately, with family and friends | Photos, videos, voice recordings and written stories in rooms; the tree comes in as GEDCOM | Private by default; only the people you invite | You want to search records, get hints or build the tree from scratch with research tools |
Ancestry
Ancestry is built for research: records and a tree you grow from them. You can upload photos, stories, audio and documents and attach them to a person in your tree, with files up to 15 MB. Those files follow the privacy settings of your tree. That makes it a good home for a scanned birth certificate or a portrait next to the right ancestor. It is less made for a living family to walk through the stories together.
MyHeritage
MyHeritage is also a research service, and it is known for its photo features: colourising, repairing and enhancing old photos. If restoring old portraits is what you want most, it is worth a look. If you colourise, keep the original next to it and say that it was colourised; our guide on labelling restored photos explains why.
FamilySearch Memories
FamilySearch is free, and so is Memories, with a free account. You can add photos, documents, stories and audio and link them to people in the family tree. FamilySearch's tree is shared, so read its help page on who can view Memories before you upload photos of living relatives.
The Memory Palace, honestly
The Memory Palace is your own 3D memory palace: photos, videos, voice recordings and written stories hang in rooms you walk through. Your family tree comes in as a GEDCOM file, which most genealogy services can export, and each person gets a place next to their photos and stories, so that names become people again. It is private by default. You invite family and friends into a room or a wing and choose per person whether they can view only or also add. A relative can answer a weekly question by email by pressing a button and talking, without an account or an app, and the answer arrives in your palace.
- Voices next to the people. Grandmother's voice hangs beside her photo, not in a separate folder.
- Friends too. A wing can be for a friendship or a club, not only for blood relatives.
- You can leave with everything. A full ZIP export on every plan, including the free plan with 1 GB.
What it lacks: no record search, no hints, no DNA. It is not where you do genealogy research. It is encrypted in transit and at rest, but not end-to-end. And it is made by a small team in Leuven, Belgium, much smaller than the big genealogy companies.
Which one fits you?
- You are still finding ancestors: Ancestry, MyHeritage or FamilySearch, and attach the documents there.
- You want something free and shared with a wide family: FamilySearch Memories.
- You want the photos and voices of the last three generations, privately, with family and friends: export your tree as GEDCOM and bring it into The Memory Palace. Our guide on exporting a GEDCOM file shows how.
A simple way to start
Export your tree as a GEDCOM file and look at it first with the free family tree chart, in your browser. Then pick five people and find one photo and one story for each. If you want them in one private place with the tree, you can start a palace.
Read on: how to export your family tree as a GEDCOM file, create a family tree step by step, does the GDPR apply to a family tree, and all guides on choosing an app.
Sources
- Ancestry Support, uploading media: photos, stories, audio and documents (attached to a person in your tree; files up to 15 MB; files follow the tree's privacy settings): help.ancestry.com/hc/en-us/articles/53933347909651-Uploading-Media-Photos-Stories-Audio-and-Documents
- MyHeritage Education, photo features (colourise, repair, enhance): education.myheritage.com/article/myheritage-photo-features
- FamilySearch Memories (free with a free account; photos, documents, stories and audio linked to people in the family tree): familysearch.org/en/memories
- FamilySearch Help Center, who can view Memories: familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/who-can-view-the-items-uploaded-to-memories