07 March 2024
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From AI digitisation of the 1950 USA Census, to FamilySearch research and story integration, to the creation of keepsake, analogue printed family books, new company Storied has seen developments over the past 12 months.
Storied.com launched at RootsTech 2023, the company goal being to provide an engaging, affordable platform on which people of all ages would be encouraged to tell and share their stories and memories.
The tech making things possible
Storied also now operates in conjunction with FamilySearch, allowing you to export stories and memories from FamilySearch and import the material to Storied, to help with the collation of your family stories.
Notably, however, Storied.com is built on a graph platform, meaning that connections may be made between individuals and groups in numerous ways. The implication of this is that, unlike on a traditional family history platform, connections may be made on Storied between, for instance, friends, neighbours, colleagues and pets. Each of these can each be linked to a person, or group – the structure of the website does not rely on a family connection to make the link.
The power of AI has also been enlisted further by Storied. Over the past year, there are a few select developments of which Storied.com CEO Kendall Hulet is particularly proud: “We digitized the entire 1950 US Census using artificial intelligence…. And we’re really proud of the fact that we’ve done that." AI enabled Storied to undertake this digitisation project at speed, something that is important to Storied as they work to provide Storied customers with the core family history records needed to trace their ancestors' lives.
Back to the book
"And the second thing that we’ve done," continues Kendall, "is an integration that allows you to print a Storied book.”
Kendall explains: “My mother passed away recently. And I created a group on Storied, and anyone in our family could contribute a story or a memory about her. I got 65 contributions from 35 people in one week. They’re very cool; some of them are long, some of them are short. Some have photos, some don’t. They are all beautiful little tributes about my Mom.”
A Storied.com book isn’t just an analogue treasure, however. Kendall: “One thing that is really neat is that there is a QR code on each page. Scan the QR code and you can see more photos, listen to audio, and read the comments” – all found back on the Storied.com web page for that story. “People love it,” adds Kendall – and many people have been creating family recipe books with Storied. The Storied team have been intrigued to note that the printed books particularly appeal to the younger generations, for whom screen-time is the norm, but a print publication, something rather special.
Free to write
At Storied, the goal is to encourage people of all ages to become involved in tracing and remembering their ancestors' lives - on an affordable platform. As such, Storied.com accounts are available to everyone, wherever they live in the world. It is free to create a Storied account and free to add and store stories, memories, photos and audio with Storied. Should you wish to create a group, you will need a paid Storied.com membership (although the rest of your group members do not). A paid membership is also required to search the NewspaperArchive via Storied. (At present, Storied books are solely shipped within the United States.)
To start a Storied.com account, see Storied.com
Images: Brandon Camp, CMO Storied, working on the stand; Kendall Hulet, CEO Storied, presenting; Storied books
To view the Family Tree RootsTech 2024 round-up please see: https://www.family-tree.co.uk/news/rootstech-roundup-2024
