While building Family Memories, I’ve talked with people who told me they wish they still had their old family photographs. Some were lost during hurricanes or house fires. Others disappeared during moves, were damaged over the years, or simply ended up somewhere no one can find them anymore. Once those photographs are gone, sometimes a piece of the story disappears with them.

That’s why preserving these memories matters. By digitizing family photographs, stories, recipes, voices, and documents and making them available online, family members can view them, download their own copies, and share them with one another wherever they may live. No system can guarantee that something will never be lost, but the more copies a family has in different places, the better chance those memories have of surviving for the next generation.

You can put a price on scanning a photograph. You can put a price on building a website. But you can’t put a price on giving someone the chance to see, hear, and remember the people they love.