Creating forever memories for every budget and occasion
Tailored to meet your individual needs, our services are designed to fit your budget and are focused on creating a lasting impact.
Autobiography, Memoir, Legacy Letters, Oral Histories, Genealogical Research, Family Business/Corporate Histories, Family Brand Building, Community Histories, Reunion Planning, Family Recipe & Food Memories Books, and Obituary Writing... Our business is helping our clients create forever memories for every budget and every occasion.
Chronicling, preserving, and sharing legacies
Autobiography and Memoir — Capture your personal narrative in a way that reveals not just what happened, but why it mattered. Together, we'll determine the best approach for your story—whether that's a thematic memoir focused on a defining aspect of your life, a coming-of-age narrative, a legacy memoir that provides context for future generations, or another format that honors your unique journey.
Family Business and Corporate History — Document the building and evolution of your business, preserving not just facts and timelines, but the decision-making philosophy, relationships, challenges, and values that guided your enterprise. These histories are invaluable for descendants who may inherit or continue the business, and for those who simply need to understand how the business shaped family identity.
Passing Down Knowledge — Legacy letters, also known as ethical wills, are personal documents where you pass down your values, life lessons, beliefs, and hopes to future generations—rather than material possessions. Unlike legal wills that distribute assets, ethical wills distribute wisdom.
Genealogical History — Trace your ancestral roots and provide context for where your family comes from. Genealogy isn't just names and dates—it's about understanding the journeys, migrations, hardships, and triumphs that brought your family to where it is today.
Family Recipes and Food Stories — Preserve the cultural and sensory heritage that defines your family's traditions. Food is memory, ritual, and connection. Capturing recipes along with the stories behind them—who made them, when, why they matter—keeps these traditions alive for future generations.
Strengthening Family Relationships — Through guided exercises and facilitated conversations, we help families deepen their connections across generations. These sessions create opportunities for meaningful dialogue, shared understanding, and the kind of bonds that sustain families through challenges and change.
How We Work Together
Our legacy consulting services are available both in-person and virtually, making us accessible to you and your family wherever you are located.
Drawing on our founder's thirty years of experience interviewing people about their family lives for publication, he will help you determine the best courses of action to positively impact your family in the short term and for generations to come. Every family's needs are different, and my role is to listen deeply, ask the right questions, and guide you toward the preservation efforts that will matter most to those you love.
Your family's story deserves to be told with care, depth, and authenticity. Let's make sure it's preserved in a way that truly honors your legacy.
Thinking outside the box to create forever memories
We live in a world that is drowning in stuff. Every holiday, birthday, and milestone moment brings another wave of material possessions—plastic gadgets that break, clothes that rarely get worn, and knick-knacks that get tossed, trashed, or donated. We spend fortunes on things that have little to no meaning, depreciate the moment they're unwrapped, and then wonder why these expensive gifts feel hollow.
But what if we gave differently?
The most treasured possessions people clutch during house fires aren't expensive—they're irreplaceable. Photo albums. Love letters. A grandfather's journal. A recipe card in grandmother's handwriting. These items hold little to no monetary value, yet they're priceless. They connect us to our stories, our people, our purpose.
Life's milestones deserve gifts that match their significance. When a grandson is born, a stuffed animal is nice, but a handwritten letter from a grandfather expressing the emotions he felt on the day of his grandson's birth and hopes for the future is a gift he'll cherish long after his grandfather is gone. Newlyweds don't need another kitchen gadget, especially when a personalized recipe book filled with family recipes, stories, and sage advice will never break and need to be replaced.
Thoughtful, personal gifts accomplish what material items never can: they deepen relationships, preserve memories, and create meaning that compounds over time.
A handwritten letter becomes more valuable as years pass. A recorded interview with an aging parent becomes irreplaceable after they're gone. A book of life lessons compiled for a graduate grows more relevant as they navigate challenges. These gifts appreciate while everything else depreciates.
They're also profoundly creative acts. Crafting a memory book, conducting oral history interviews, or writing legacy letters requires thought, time, and love—the very things that make gifts meaningful. The effort itself communicates worth: "You matter enough for me to invest my most limited resource—time—in honoring you."
Moreover, these gifts spark connection and conversation. A collection of family stories prompts questions about ancestors. Marriage advice from multiple couples ignites discussions about values and expectations. Career wisdom from professionals in your field opens mentorship relationships. Material gifts end conversations; thoughtful gifts begin them.
At life's major transitions—becoming a parent, starting a career, entering retirement—people crave meaning, not merchandise. They're asking profound questions: Who am I becoming? What matters? How do I navigate this new chapter? A sentimental gift that shares wisdom, celebrates their journey, or connects them to their roots provides actual guidance, not just temporary pleasure.
Consider what you treasure most from your own life. Likely, it's not what costs the most—it's what meant the most. A note from someone who believed in you. A photo capturing a perfect moment. A recording of a loved one's voice.
These are the gifts we keep forever, the ones we pass down, the ones that make us cry decades later. These are the gifts worth giving—because these are the gifts that become part of who we are.
Leaving a lasting legacy through Memoir
Rooted in the French word "mémoire" and the Latin "memoria," meaning "memory," the memoir genre has been a longstanding form of storytelling for centuries. It serves as a means for individuals to explore and communicate their emotions, beliefs, and the meaning of life. There are several main types of memoir, each serving different purposes and appealing to different storytelling approaches:
Thematic memoirs focus on a specific aspect of your life—a career, a relationship, overcoming adversity, or a particular passion. These work well if there's one defining thread you want to emphasize.
Coming-of-age memoirs center on formative years and the transition to adulthood. These resonate if your early experiences shaped who you became in ways your descendants should understand.
Travel or adventure memoirs revolve around journeys, whether literal or metaphorical. If significant travel or a particular adventure changed your perspective, this could be your angle.
Confessional memoirs are honest, intimate accounts that reveal mistakes, struggles, or difficult truths. These require vulnerability but can be powerful for descendants who may face similar challenges.
Legacy or family memoirs specifically aim to preserve family history, values, and stories for future generations. These tend to be broader in scope, covering your whole life with context about the family that came before you.
Vignette or snapshot memoirs are collections of short, self-contained stories rather than one continuous narrative. These work well if you want flexibility and don't feel compelled to tell your whole story chronologically.
Family business/corporate memoirs document the building, running, or evolution of a business, often interweaving personal and professional life. These are especially valuable for descendants who may inherit or continue the business, as they preserve not just facts but the decision-making philosophy, challenges overcome, relationships that mattered, and the values that guided the enterprise. They can also explain how the business shaped family dynamics and identity.
To determine which type fits you best, consider:
• What do you most want your descendants to know?
• Is there a central theme or lesson in your life?
• Do you prefer focusing deeply on one period or painting a broader picture?
• Are you comfortable with deep emotional honesty, or do you prefer a more measured approach?
Many successful family memoirs blend approaches—perhaps a legacy framework with thematic chapters or key vignettes.
What feels most authentic to your story?
The transformative benefits of exploring your family history
Tracing your ancestry offers far more than just names and dates on a family tree—it provides profound insights that can enrich your life in unexpected ways.
Personal identity and belonging:
Understanding your family history strengthens your sense of personal identity and belonging. When you discover the stories of ancestors who overcame adversity, immigrated to new lands, or built communities from nothing, you gain a clearer picture of who you are and where you fit in the broader human story. This connection to something larger than yourself creates a profound sense of rootedness that can beespecially meaningful in times of uncertainty.
Beyond emotional benefits, genealogical research can yield valuable health insights. Many medical conditions have hereditary components, and knowing your family's health history helps you and your healthcare providers make informed decisions about screening, prevention, and treatment. Discovering patterns of heart disease, diabetes, or cancer in your lineage empowers you to take proactive steps toward maintaining your well-being.
Exploring your ancestry also provides a fresh perspective on your own life. Learning about the challenges your forebears faced—whether poverty, war, discrimination, or natural disasters—often puts contemporary struggles into context. This historical perspective can foster gratitude and resilience, helping you appreciate the opportunities and freedoms you may take for granted.
Many people experience boosted self-esteem through genealogical discovery. Finding accomplished ancestors, learning about their courage and perseverance, or simply understanding the legacy you've inherited can instill pride and confidence. Even discovering ordinary people who lived with dignity and purpose can be deeply affirming.
Family history research frequently strengthens connections to living relatives as well. Collaborating with cousins, aunts, and uncles on genealogical projects creates shared experiences and opens conversations across generations. These renewed relationships often become treasured sources of support and belonging.
Understanding inherited traits—from physical characteristics to talents and personality tendencies—helps explain aspects of yourself you may have always wondered about. Whether it's your musical ability, mathematical mind, or distinctive family resemblance, seeing these traits across generations deepens self-understanding.
Uncovering your cultural heritage connects you to traditions, languages, and customs that may have faded over generations. This knowledge allows you to reclaim and celebrate your ethnic identity, participate in cultural communities, and understand the diverse influences that shaped your family.
Perhaps most significantly, the family history you uncover becomes a precious legacy to pass down to future generations. Children and grandchildren benefit from knowing their roots, and the stories you preserve today will give them the same gifts of identity, perspective, and belonging that you've gained. By exploring your family history, you're not just looking backward—you're creating a bridge between past and future, ensuring that the voices and experiences of your ancestors continue to resonate for generations to come.
When we share our story, everyone benefits
Sharing your life story and family history with your descendants offers some profound benefits:
For your descendants, it gives them a sense of identity and belonging. Knowing where they came from—the struggles, triumphs, migrations, and choices of their ancestors—helps them understand themselves better. They get to see patterns across generations, appreciate the resilience that got them here, and feel connected to something larger than themselves.
Your stories also preserve wisdom that might otherwise be lost. The lessons you learned through experience, the values that guided you, the mistakes you wish you'd avoided—these become a kind of roadmap for them. They don't have to start from scratch.
For you, the process of sharing can be deeply meaningful. It's a chance to reflect on your life, recognize your own journey, and feel that your experiences matter. Many people find that their grandchildren or great-grandchildren are genuinely curious about things their own children might have taken for granted or been too busy to ask about.
There's also something healing about being witnessed—having someone listen to your story, especially the hard parts, and say "thank you for telling me this."
Practically speaking, family stories preserve details that are easily forgotten: why the family left one place for another, what Great-Aunt Margaret was really like, where traditions came from, and why they were important in your family. Without someone passing these along, they often disappear within a generation or two.
The stories don't need to be dramatic or extraordinary. Often it's the small, human details that descendants treasure most—what made you laugh, what scared you, how you met your spouse, what a typical day was like when you were young.
According to psychologists Robyn Fivush and Marshall Duke at Emory University, descendants benefit in several important ways from knowing a lot about their family roots:
Higher emotional well-being - Children who know stories about their relatives show increased emotional wellness.
Stronger sense of control - The more children knew about their families, the stronger their sense of control over their lives.
Higher self-esteem - They also had higher self-esteem and believed their families functioned more successfully.
Better stress management - The more children knew about their family history, the better able they were to deal with the effects of stress.
Stronger sense of identity - Family stories provide a sense of identity through time and help children understand who they are in the world.
The researchers developed the "Do You Know?" scale with 20 questions about family history and found these benefits were significant even when controlling for general family functioning. The research suggests that knowing family stories creates what they call an "intergenerational self" - where even young children's identity stretches back through generations, giving them connection, strength, and resilience.
What are legacy letters, and why are they important?
A legacy letter (or ethical will) is a personal document sharing your values, life lessons, and hopes for future generations. Everyone can benefit from writing one—whether you're facing a health crisis, approaching retirement, or simply want to preserve your wisdom for children and grandchildren. Unlike legal wills that distribute assets, ethical wills distribute wisdom.
What They Typically Include:
- Core values and beliefs that guided your life
- Important life lessons learned through experience
- Stories of pivotal moments and decisions
- Expressions of love and gratitude to family
- Hopes and blessings for descendants
- Explanations of the choices you made
- Spiritual or philosophical perspectives
- Family traditions you hope will continue
Why They Matter:
Connection Beyond Death: They create an enduring emotional bond, allowing your voice and spirit to guide loved ones long after you're gone.
Context and Understanding: They help family members understand why you made certain choices, preventing misunderstandings and regrets.
Healing and Reconciliation: They offer opportunities to express forgiveness, explain difficult situations, or mend relationships.
Identity and Belonging: They give descendants a moral compass and sense of identity rooted in family wisdom.
Perspective During Crisis: Future generations facing challenges can return to your words for guidance and encouragement.
Unlike material inheritances that are eventually spent or divided, legacy letters become more valuable over time, offering comfort, clarity, and connection across generations. They're among the most meaningful gifts you can leave behind.
Practical Recommendations:
Don't Wait for Perfect Timing: The biggest mistake is waiting so long that you never write it. If you're thinking about it, start now.
Write Multiple Drafts Over Time: Your first letter doesn't need to be your only letter. Add to it, revise it, write new ones as life evolves.
Consider Your Health: If you're aging or facing health challenges, write sooner rather than later while you have mental clarity and physical ability.
Match Content to Timing: A letter for a young child should be different from one for an adult. Consider their maturity and what they need to hear at their current life stage.
Tell Them It Exists: If you've written a letter to be opened later, make sure they know it exists and where to find it. Otherwise, it might never be discovered.
The Most Important Thing:
The best time to give your child a legacy letter is whenever you feel called to do it. Whether that's today, at a milestone, or arranged for after your death, what matters most is that you write it. A legacy letter given at an imperfect time is infinitely better than the perfect letter never written.
Your words—whenever they're received—will be a treasured gift that your child returns to throughout their life, hearing your voice long after you can no longer speak.
We turn your family's oral history into forever memories
STORIES THAT DEFINE US is dedicated to helping individuals and families preserve their legacies for future generations.
We specialize in conducting oral histories that dig deep to get the full, unabridged story, and then those transform memories and experiences into lasting written narratives.
Partnering with you to preserve your family's oral history
More than 99.5% of the 16.4 million American WWII veterans are gone now, and overwhelming majority of the roughly 196,000 Jewish Holocaust survivors alive today were under the age of ten when Nazism was defeated. STORIES THAT DEFINE US has assembled a framework of major events and shifts since 1950 that make for rich oral history conversations, organized by era. We work with families and individuals to prepare them to conduct oral histories, or conduct oral histories of you and your family members on your behalf.
All projects begin with a pre-interview meeting. These generally last from one to two hours and serve to choose basic themes and topics for recorded interviews, gather family history, and prepare the narrator for the interview.
