How to preserve your family history and pass it on: tree, photos, voices and stories

Every family has a history, but it is scattered. The records are in archives, the photos in boxes and on phones, the stories in the heads of the oldest relatives. To preserve your family history, you bring those pieces together and give them a form the next generation can open and understand.

This guide shows how to go about it, in five steps, and how to pass it on afterwards.

What belongs to a family history?

Four things, which say more together than apart:

• The family tree: who descends from whom, with names, dates and places.
• The photos: how they looked, where they lived, who sat with them at the table.
• The voices: how they sounded, their accent, their laugh.
• The stories and documents: letters, recipes, memorial cards, and what is told at the table.

A family tree without stories is a list of names. Stories without a family tree come loose from the people. Together they make a family history.

Step 1: start with what disappears

Records in archives remain. What the oldest generation knows does not. So start with them. Ask about their parents and grandparents, about the places where they grew up, about who is on the old photos. Record the conversations with your phone.

Not sure how to begin? Our free sheet of twenty questions to ask your parents can be printed and taken along. More tips in how to interview older family members.

Step 2: build the family tree

Start with yourself and work backwards: parents, grandparents, great-grandparents. For each person, note the name, the date and place of birth and death, and where you found it. That way someone after you can check it.

• Many civil and parish records are online. Our guide tracing your family history explains where to begin, and our country guides for Belgium and the Netherlands say where to find each record.
• Keep the family tree in GEDCOM, the format almost every genealogy program can open. That way you are not tied to one program.
• Already have a GEDCOM file? With our free GEDCOM viewer you see at once how many generations it holds and where the gaps are, without an account. The file stays on your device.

Step 3: give the photos a name and a year

Within two generations, a photo without a name becomes a photo of strangers. Gather the family's photos, including those kept by brothers, sisters and cousins, and digitise them. For each photo, write down at least who is on it and roughly when.

If you are unsure of the year, clothing, cars, the format of the print and who is or is not in the picture can help. Read how to date an old photograph and identify the people, and for scanning digitising old photos: scan, photograph or outsource.

Step 4: record voices

For most great-grandparents, not a single recording survives. For your parents and grandparents, there is still time. Record a conversation around a photo: who is this, what were you doing then, why did you move. A phone is enough. Note with each recording who is speaking and when, and keep the file in more than one place.

Step 5: keep stories and documents

Letters, diaries, memorial cards, funeral notices, diplomas, a recipe in grandmother's handwriting: they tell what a record does not. Scan or photograph them, and keep the originals dry and dark. See also how to keep and digitise old letters, diaries and documents.

Also write down the stories told at the table, even if they are only half true. Note who you heard them from.

Ordering: by branch, by person, by place

An order that makes sense to you does not automatically make sense to your grandchildren. What works well: a division by branch of the family (father's side, mother's side), within that by person or family, and for each person the photos, recordings and documents together. That way someone who only knows a name can find everything that belongs to it.

Passing it on to the next generation

• Share now. People who look along today recognise faces and fill in gaps. A family history grows when others contribute.
• Keep it in more than one place. For example on your computer, on an external drive kept elsewhere, and online. One copy is no copy.
• Choose formats that last. JPEG or TIFF for photos, MP3 or M4A for sound, PDF for documents, GEDCOM for the family tree.
• Decide who receives what. Not everyone wants everything. Choose per person, and tell them.

Preserving family history with The Memory Palace

The Memory Palace is a private 3D palace in which you bring your family's history together: on iPhone, iPad, Android and in the browser, in English and four other languages, with data stored in the EU.

• A wing per branch of the family, a room per person or family. The photos hang on the walls, with a name and a year under every frame.
• The voice next to the photo. You record who it was, or add an existing recording.
• The family tree alongside. Build it in the app or bring in your GEDCOM file, and take it out again in the same format.
• Together with the family. You invite relatives to a room or a wing, and they add their own photos, stories and recordings. The rest stays private.
• Passing it on your way. Under Settings, Legacy you choose who receives which wings or rooms, and when. More in digital legacy planning.
• Always take everything along. A full export as a ZIP file, also on the free plan.

Want to see what it looks like first? Walk through a sample palace, no account needed.

Related guides

• How to open a GEDCOM file without software
• 10 questions to ask your grandparents
• Memory keeper app: how to choose one for your family