Guides
Most family memory projects stall not because of a lack of material, but because it feels overwhelming to sort through everything. This guide covers a practical approach: add what you have, let the timeline do the organising.
You do not need to have it all sorted before you start.
The instinct is to organise before you start - sort the photos, label the boxes, create folders. In practice, that phase never ends and the project never begins.
A better approach: start adding. A timeline builds itself from scattered input. Things find their place as the picture fills in. You can sort later, once you can see what you have.
Photograph them on a flat surface or scan them. Date and location on the back, if present, can be added as a caption. Even without a date, a photo has context in the timeline once other memories surround it.
Ask family members to record short stories or memories. A five-minute voice note while driving, a phone call you ask if you can record - all of it is useful.
Birth certificates, school reports, old letters - photograph or scan them. Add a note about what the document is and why it matters.
When someone tells you a story, note it down while it is fresh. Even one or two sentences captures more than nothing.
If you already have hundreds of photos and recordings sitting unorganised, resist the urge to deal with all of them at once.
A good timeline does not need to be complete. A partial story with rich detail on specific periods is more valuable than a thin summary of every year.
Different family members often hold different pieces of the story. A sibling may remember something a parent has forgotten. A cousin may have photos that fill a gap.
Ask one specific question rather than a general request. “Do you have any photos from the year in Leeds?” is more likely to get a response than “send me any old family photos you have.”
No. MeldLife is designed for scattered input. You can add things in any order and the timeline places them chronologically. You do not need to sort first.
Scan them or photograph them on a flat surface with good light. You do not need high resolution. A phone photo of a physical print is fine for most purposes. Add a note about what is in the photo as a caption when you upload.
Rough periods work fine. "Around the sixties" or "before the children were born" gives MeldLife enough to place the memory approximately. The timeline can be refined later as more context emerges.
Keep both. Different perspectives on the same event are part of how families actually work. You can note the different accounts and decide later whether to include one, both, or neither in a final chapter.
A photo, a voice note, a short memory. MeldLife places it on the timeline and the story starts to form.
Start organising with MeldLifeFree to start. No card needed.
