I started this blog 5 1/2 years ago on the weekend of my mother’s birthday, two years after she passed away. I missed her wit and wisdom—her words—and wished they’d been recorded in more than recipe cards and stray notes. Blogging provides a means of capturing my family’s history in both word and image, something I hope my kids will appreciate some day.
Still, it’s impossible to document everything here. Many moments are stored only in our memories and the external hard drives that hold my images. The kids love to sit in front of my computer and scour the photo library, laughing and remembering, but with nearly 50,000 images (not including our pre- and early-digital days) I feel guilty about all that they miss.
With a new website called LiveOn, we’re creating a family timeline of words and images that will stretch as far into the past or the future as we have content to fill. Using a free LiveOn account, I’m currently starting at the present and working backwards, clicking “Create a Memory” and then uploading photos and describing family events.
Interview questions like “Of all the cities where you have lived, which is your favorite and why?” appear under your timeline, to answer either with a typed response or a video recorded with your webcam. Another interesting feature is called “Narrate a Person,” which allows you to start a timeline for a young child (who can later assume control of it); an older person; or a deceased ancestor. I would love to see my kids and relatives use the site, too, painting a broader picture of our family.
It’s a powerful thing, this storing of memories for the future.
The LiveOn promise:
We promise to keep your memories forever. Not 100 years, not 500 years, but forever. We have an intricate backup system of servers that will act as your personal vault, ensuring your stories are here for all future generations to enjoy. This promise of memory preservation is the number one focus of our company and we will do everything in our power to keep this promise to you.
Click over to LiveOn and watch the video describing their philosophy of preserving memories for generations to come and a tutorial on how to use the site. Use coupon code cgc49 for 20% off LiveOn Rewind, a service that converts your old photos to digital.
Thank you to LiveOn for this sponsored opportunity to blog about storing and sharing my most important memories with those closest to me. Although story ideas were provided, all thoughts and opinions are my own. Please click here to learn more about storing and sharing your most special memories. I was selected for this sponsorship by Clever Girls Collective. All opinions expressed here are my own.
