Questions people actually ask
Families and stories
- Can I belong to more than one family?
- As many as you like. Starting your own family leaves every family you were invited to as it is. Families that share a person are linked, and their stories reach each other.
- If I write about someone now, will it reach a family I start later?
- Your own books always include what you wrote, whichever family you print them from. For everyone else in the new family to read it, the story has to reach that family. If you ticked "Any family they join later" when you wrote it, it goes to every family the people in it belong to, new ones included. If you didn't, open the story and tick the new family. You can change which families a story reaches at any time.
- Can someone refuse a story about them?
- Anyone you invite to your family can read a story about them and refuse it, and that refusal holds after they die.
- What if someone remembers it differently?
- They can say so beside your version, and neither of you can delete the other. We record what people assert; we do not arbitrate families.
- Can a letter wait to be read?
- Letters can be sealed until a date, or until the person who wrote them is gone. Until then nobody reads them, including us, and including the person they are about.
Books
- What do I actually get in the mail?
- A bound book, trimmed and cased, with photographs, a family tree, and each person's stories set under their name.
- If I print a book about my aunt, does it include what her other family wrote?
- Yes, if you can read it. A book holds every story about her that you can open, whichever family it was written in. Her other family's stories reach you unless the writer chose to keep one to their own family. The family you print from sets the crest, colours and title page, not which stories go in.
Money and keeping
- What does supporting get us?
- Nothing extra. Every family gets all of it — writing, recording, transcription, interviews, assembling books and downloading the archive. Support helps cover the hardware it all runs on: the servers, the storage and the transcription.
- How much can we upload?
- As much room as we can afford to give away, and that depends on how many families support us. There is no promised number. If you reach the limit, nothing you've already added is affected and you can keep writing.
- Do you show ads, or sell what we write?
- Never. No ads, and your family's information is never sold. Support from families who can give is how it is paid for.
- Will it always be free?
- That is the aim. If support falls short, we may have to limit what every family gets — upload room, or how many new families we can take on. A limit applies to every family alike, supporting or not. Nothing you've already added is affected, and your whole archive still downloads any time, free.
- What happens if I stop supporting?
- Nothing changes about what your family can do. Support runs to the end of the period you paid for, and you keep everything, before and after.
- Can we take everything with us?
- Any time, free, whether or not you ever support us: every photograph at full print size, every story as plain text, every book that has been made, and the family tree.