My grandmother Christianne Rouzeau Caggiano died last June at the ripe age of 98 and a half. The woman was a legend in my book. She survived Nazi occupation as a teenager in Vichy, France, weathered multiple hurricanes, and buried countless relatives in her lifetime.
When I inherited the bulk of her mementos, it felt like I was witnessing a slice of history. But when I moved a few months later, it wasn’t practical to hang on to every item. That brought me to a crossroads: How could I honor and preserve the past while avoiding bringing it with me?
I’ve pondered this question, both as the executor of my grandmother’s estate and someone who values the richness of a life well lived. Technology advancements have made genealogical research more accessible and efficient. How does the industry continue to innovate in 2024? For Ancestry and Storied, the answer lies in dynamic, community-focused content.
Ancestry unites families and communities
Introduced in 2023 at the family history conference RootsTech, Ancestry’s Storymaker Studio brings family discoveries to life with high-quality images and sound. According to Ancestry’s corporate genealogist Crista Cowan, this technology represents the company’s commitment to meeting the moment.
“It’s more than just creating stories,” she says. “When we first launched Storymaker Studio, we modeled it after Instagram stories. Now, it’s become even broader than that. You can attach audio files to stories and upload and scan old photos. There’s a whole suite of tools now in our Memories platform inside Ancestry that allows you to capture, create and craft stories around the memories in your family history.”
In this way, Cowan says Ancestry is democratizing the documentation of family history. And all of this is possible because of Ancestry’s posture in the marketplace. What started as a humble publisher of family history magazines and genealogy reference books has evolved into a global leader in family history with more than a billion user-generated content records on the site.