01
Gather Physically
Bring every album, envelope and shoebox into one room. Photograph the piles before you separate them — that order often carries meaning.
Why Families Lose Their Own History
Almost nothing is lost dramatically. It is lost gradually: a hard drive that stops spinning, a phone upgraded without a backup, an album that goes to the wrong sibling, a box of photographs where nobody living can name a single face. A digital family archive is simply the decision to gather it once, deliberately, while that is still possible.
What Belongs In A Digital Family Archive
Aim for breadth first, perfection later. A blurry photograph with a name attached is worth more than a flawless scan of a stranger.
- Printed photographs, albums, negatives and slides
- Wedding, christening and holiday films on tape or disc
- Recorded interviews with the oldest living relatives
- Letters, postcards, diaries and handwritten recipes
- Birth, marriage, migration, military and employment records
- House photographs, workshops, shops and family businesses
- Voice messages and answerphone recordings
- The stories behind a surname, a move or a disappearance
How To Build It, Step By Step
A workable order that families actually finish, rather than an archival ideal that stalls at box two.
02
Digitise At Quality
Scan photographs at 600 dpi and documents at 300 dpi. Copy tapes and discs before the equipment to read them disappears.
03
Record The Elders First
Interviews are the only material that cannot be recovered later. One hour with a grandparent outranks a thousand scans.
04
Name Faces And Dates
Identify people while it is still possible. Approximate dates are far better than none — "around 1958" is real information.
05
Restore And Group
AI repairs damage and gathers related material into exhibitions, so the archive reads as a life rather than a list.
06
Invite The Family
Each household adds what only they hold, and duplicates of the same event become one exhibit with many viewpoints.
Archive Standards We Follow
Preservation is a set of unglamorous habits. Memorivos applies them for you.
- Originals are never overwritten by an edit or restoration
- Every file keeps its capture date, source and contributor
- Multiple redundant copies rather than one precious drive
- Open, readable formats instead of proprietary lock-in
- Full export of the whole archive at any time
- Named guardians so the collection survives its owner
Common Questions
What is a digital family archive?
A digital family archive is one organised collection of a family's photographs, films, documents, letters and recorded voices, stored together with the context that explains them — names, dates, places and stories — so the material stays understandable long after the people who created it.
How do I start a digital family archive?
Start with the oldest and most fragile material, not the newest. Scan printed photographs at 600 dpi, photograph objects and documents in daylight, record one interview with the eldest relative, then upload everything into a single archive and name faces while someone can still recognise them.
What file formats should a family archive use?
Keep originals in lossless or camera-native formats — TIFF or high-quality JPEG for scans, WAV or high-bitrate MP3 for audio, and the original camera file for video. Never discard the original after editing or restoring it.
Can several relatives add to the same archive?
Yes. A family archive works best when each household contributes what only they hold. Memorivos lets you invite relatives to their own rooms and merge duplicate events so one wedding gains six viewpoints instead of one.
How long will a digital family archive last?
Files last as long as someone maintains them. Memorivos is built for succession — guardians, inheritance rules and full export — so the archive survives changes of device, provider and generation.