The best Mother’s Day gift ever: memories

The best Mother's Day gift is the one Mom really wants: Memories! Ideas for bringing mom's memories to life in a most unique heirloom book she will always cherish.

book ideas & inspiration, gift ideas, why tell your stories?Dawn M. RoodeMarch 7, 2017mothers day ideas, remembering my mother, tribute book ideas for mother Comment

The tyranny of the family heirloom

Maybe it's true that "nobody wants your parents' stuff," but before you donate their things, tell the stories of your family heirlooms, preserving your memories.

remember lost loved ones, book ideas & inspiration, family historyDawn M. RoodeFebruary 17, 2017what we inherit, family heirlooms as burden, curating family heirlooms, family heirloom stories Comments

Let’s make genealogy a thing of the past

You’ll never eradicate the need for tracing your ancestors’ history. But you can ensure that the next generation will NOT need to search, scour, recreate, or imagine your own generation’s experience. Let's make genealogy a thing of the past for the next generation.

family historyDawn M. RoodeFebruary 2, 2017preserving family history, writing family stories, how to organize genealogy Comments

60 Minutes: More than just an interview

The One-Hour Heirloom is a great way for you to sample our services before you are ready to commit to a full-length personal history book. We create your beautiful—miniature—heirloom after one 60-minute interview. Here, ideas for telling your own stories, and ideas for honoring a loved one.

book ideas & inspiration, gift ideas, memoir & writingDawn M. RoodeJanuary 17, 2017short book about life stories, mini tribute book, legacy book on smaller scale Comment

One Word: Remember

#remember That’s it: Remember. One word. One hashtag. One very important prompt. Help us transform #ThrowbackThursday into a mindful act of remembering, and inspire everyone around you to share their stories, too.

Dawn M. RoodeJanuary 4, 2017using throwback thursday photos to share memories, how to share old family photos meaningfully, add stories to your photos to preserve memories Comment

Google’s new app: Great way to preserve your old photos before they fade away

The new Google PhotoScan app allows users to digitally capture their old family photos with ease—and without glare. While the app isn't ideal for scanning high-resolution images for use in print, it has enormous value in quickly and effectively scanning those precious boxes of old family photos you—and your extended family members—have lying around your homes. See why it's a recommended download.

photo legacy, reviewsDawn M. RoodeNovember 17, 2016google photoscan app review, how to scan old family photographs, google photos and scanning app Comment

What you can learn from Gloria Vanderbilt & Anderson Cooper

You might be surprised to learn what Anderson Cooper calls “the most valuable year of my life.” It's the period when he and his mother Gloria Vanderbilt maintained an email correspondence that delved deep—into the feelings they had previously not spoken about, and into their experiences both shared and wholly individual. The back-and-forth format of questions and stories is engaging, and most meaningful in its sense of discovery, of a grown man coming to know his mother in wonderful new ways. Why not be inspired to follow in their conversational footsteps?

family history, memoir & writing, reviewsDawn M. RoodeSeptember 6, 2016Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt book, celebrity parents biography, letters to parent sharing life storiesComment