Genealogy Meets Web 2.0 with OurStory.com

If you've always wanted to keep a record of your family's history but didn't know where to begin, you might consider looking at OurStory.com. I've just been playing around on the site, and the unique thing about it is the way it makes family history a collaborative effort. (In the interest of full disclosure, let me say up front that OurStory.com is a sponsor of this site, but they are not sponsoring this post.) After the free sign-up, you can create a time line for anything, and then invite others to join you in creating the story. For instance: You can invite others to write about what they remember about your wedding, including adding pictures. You can set up a tribute page for your grandparents' 50th anniversary and invite all the grandchildren to contribute their favorite memory. You can tell your family's history and invite all your relatives to participate. One idea I had was to invite everyone I know to tell the story of the one book that's had the biggest impact on their life. Each story gets its own time line, and collaborators can subscribe to new entries via RSS, so you can always keep up with newly added memories. You can also add your time line to any blog you author. I've been trying for over 15 years to put together my family's history, but with OurStory.com I can now invite my parents, brothers, sisters, and cousins to help me in this daunting project. In addition to adding memories, they can also add pictures and videos, creating a multimedia story of my family's memories. OurStory.com brings the power of social networking to genealogy and memory-making. As one of their tag lines goes, OurStory.com - Life is a journey. Tell the story.