Why a family stories website? The inspiration.....

When a young life enters this world or when an old life leaves it, we become aware of our own mortality and the need to preserve memories. The inspiration for our site came when my mother passed away. I was approaching 40 and I felt as though I still didn’t really know much about my mum. The irony of youth of course is that you appreciate pretty much nothing until you’re no longer youthful….. My mum had a sister, who has now also died, and with them have gone the family stories of all the generations before them. Yes, we have some old treasured photographs – some of them are fastidiously dated and named even, but the richness of the descriptions is lacking, as is the human narrative. There was no family journal, my mum did not write a memoir, there are no successes and tragedies, no mundane tales of schools, wars, friends, homes, or how it was to live there and then. So, at 42 I found myself sitting and contemplating what a disaster it would be to lose another generation’s memories too (i.e. my own). Whilst my life seems inordinately uninteresting to me, I am now aware that the very fact that I was once a spotty teenager with grey exercise books filled with Latin conjugations, is of such intense amusement to my children that it is in itself precious and something to be retained.

So capture the moment whilst you still can. Save and share your own personal family stories on a timeline. Pass on your own tiny slice of history, in the order it happened, to your children as your family legacy. Do it now.

Helen Spencer, Founder