About Us

How often have you heard a person speaking and said "someone should record this before it's too late?" Fascinating memories from ordinary people which should not be allowed to be forgotten. StoryVault enables us all to do just that. StoryVault is our chance to preserve the remarkable memories of our friends and families so that future generations can enjoy them and learn from them. It might be Mum and Dad's memories of their wedding day, which should be preserved for their grandchildren. Or they may have witnessed or taken part in extraordinary events - like the Battle of Britain or the fall of the Berlin Wall. They may have been at concert by The Beatles or lived through the Tsunami. Most people have a story that would be of interest to future generations. StoryVault encourages users to interview a friend or family member, usually on video, and to upload the content into the site. Content can then be marked as "private", accessible only for chosen friends or family, or made available for the wider world. Over years StoryVault will develop into an invaluable record of your own family's history, and also as a resource for anyone interested in any historical event. How illuminating to be able to study important periods of history through the eye-witness accounts of people who were actually there! How marvellous to be able to see an interview carried out by your grandfather with his own grandfather! We especially encourage "meeting the grandparents" because there is no better way to interest younger people in history than to realise that their families were part of it. Stories of adventure or great events are obviously mesmerising, but even apparently mundane stories about early life at school or how we ran our kitchens can be fascinating for future generations. StoryVault also gives users the opportunity to store your memories as part of a family-tree. You can also share your family tree with other family members, and allow them to add their own content, so that in the end you can store all your family's important memories in one place. The structure of StoryVault's family tree can also be used as an organiser for other groups of people - clubs, society-members or companies. For ease of uploading and future reference, we ask users to edit their content, and to upload it in sections of no more than 10 minutes. We find that 4 or 5 minutes on any single subject is ideal. Instructions and advice on how to conduct an interview, the permissions you need, and how to upload and organise your material, are available on-screen and in our "how to" videos. It is vitally important that the person being interviewed is aware of the use that will be made of their contributions. We find that most people are delighted that their memories will be preserved for future generations. Over coming years, we intend that StoryVault will become an invaluable resource for families, students, historians, or anyone interested in learning from the experiences gained by people alive today. We hope that you will want to ensure that the memories of your friends and family are preserved for posterity - by recording and uploading them on StoryVault.