Preserve the stories behind the names

Broad requests such as “tell me your life story” can be difficult to answer. Ask a smaller question: What did Sunday lunch look like? Who taught you to cook that dish? What happened just before this photograph was taken? Give the storyteller time to remember without filling in the gaps for them.

Note who is telling the story and when you heard it. Write down names and places while the context is fresh. If you plan to record a conversation or share someone else’s account, ask their permission first and agree on who should be able to see it.

Use the storyteller’s own expressions when you can, and distinguish a direct quotation from your summary. Include small details that a later reader would otherwise miss: the neighborhood, an approximate year, the people present, or why the event mattered.

Memory and documentation sometimes disagree. Write “around 1975” or “as Aunt Rosa remembers it” rather than presenting an uncertain detail as settled fact. Two relatives can contribute different perspectives without either account needing to disappear.

Sign in and open your own profile, then choose Add story. Give the memory a descriptive title and write its text. The story composer offers prompts if you need a starting point, and lets you attach a photograph and choose a related family tree.

Identify the people, occasion, and approximate date in the story text so the photograph keeps its meaning. You can tag family members who have Rootstory profiles. For a collection of family photographs, the tree detail page also has a Family Album with an Add Photo action.

Before saving, review “Who can see it?” Story choices are Only me, Related family, and Public after review. Choose the related tree when using Related family. A tree’s settings and an individual story’s audience are different controls, so check both when preparing material to share.

Ask living relatives before publishing personal photographs or sensitive memories about them. A tree share link is accessible to anyone who has it; forward it with the same care as the information it contains. Keep original photographs and source notes in your own organized archive, too.

Make preservation a small habit: capture one memory after a family call, then invite someone to add context. A growing collection of identifiable moments is easier for future relatives to understand than a folder of photographs whose names and stories have been lost.