Family memories, in their own words
One day, you’ll wish you had asked.
Their childhood. Their first love. The stories that never made it into the family history. Hystorie asks the questions, one at a time, and keeps their answers word for word — typed or in their own voice — as a private archive your family can read, add to and print as a book.
Free to start · No account, no card · Your family’s words stay yours
What did the house you grew up in smell like?
Turf, mostly, and whatever was on the range. On a Saturday it was bread, because Mammy baked for the week. She’d let me do the cross on the top with a knife and then tell me I’d done it crooked.
I can still smell it if I think about it hard enough. I never told her that.
Try it now
Answer one question. See what it asks next.
A sentence is plenty. The next question is written for what you just said — that is the whole product, and the fastest way to understand it.
Your answers are sent to the AI interviewer only to choose the next question. Nothing is saved unless you choose to keep it. How this works
Questions people wish they had asked
Not the big things — those get repeated at funerals. The small ones: what the kitchen smelled like, what he was like before the war, why nobody speaks to that side of the family.
- How did you and Dad actually meet?
- Why did we stop going to Wexford?
- What was Granny like before she got sick?
- Who is the woman in the photo on the stairs?
- What happened to your brother?
- Were you happy?
- What was the boat over like?
- Did you ever think about staying?
- What did you want to be?
- Why did you never talk about it?
How it works
From one question to something your family keeps
Never a blank page, never an autobiography to write. Just the next question.
i.
It asks, then asks better
One question at a time, on screen or read aloud. Every follow-up comes from what was just said — mention a shop and it will ask about the shop. Nobody has to know what to ask.
Doing it yourself? Every question is published, free.
Example · the third question
What is one of your happiest memories from when you were small?
The shop on the corner. Daddy would give me a penny on a Sunday and I’d stand there for ages deciding. Mrs Kenny never once hurried me.
Then it asks
What did you usually spend the penny on — and did you ever share it?
ii.
Their voice, not a tidied version
Answers can be spoken instead of typed: press record and hand over the phone. The recording is kept beside the words, which are written out so the archive can be read and printed.
The AI only chooses questions. It never writes, summarises or improves an answer — what is kept is what was said.
Example · spoken answer, kept as recorded
Written out beside it
“Bullseyes, always bullseyes. And no, I did not share them. Eileen will tell you different but Eileen is a liar.”
iii.
The people in the stories, connected
A family tree builds itself from the people named in the answers, using the words your family actually used. You correct what is wrong; tap anyone to read the memories they are in. Add photographs of the faces, houses and weddings along the way.
An example family. Yours fills in as the interview learns who is who. Explore it
iv.
A book worth keeping
Every archive is set as a proper book — chapters, a readable measure, photographs as plates — and prints or saves as a PDF whenever you like. Free on every plan, so the family always has a copy that does not depend on us.
Where people start
Every family starts somewhere different
A parent’s life story
Sit with them and read the questions aloud, or send them their own link and let them answer at their pace, typed or spoken.
A grandparent’s memories and voice
Hand over the phone and press record. The recording is kept as it was said, with the words written out beside it.
A history the whole family adds to
Send contribution links to brothers, aunts and cousins. Each answers from their own side, and the tree joins them up.
Your own story, for later
Answer for yourself. The things your children will one day wonder about, in your words rather than someone’s guess.
Photographs that finally have names
Add the shoebox pictures to the memories they belong to, with a caption saying who, where and roughly when.
Someone who has died
Everyone who knew them answers what they remember, gathered into one place instead of scattered across a family — at whatever pace the family can manage.
Privacy and ownership
Your family’s stories stay your family’s.
Plainly, what happens to what is said here — taken from the privacy notice and the terms, not from what would sound reassuring.
Read the privacy noticeWho owns the stories and recordings?
Who can open the archive?
Can other family members add their memories?
Where is everything stored?
How is AI used?
Can I download everything, or read it offline?
What happens when a plan’s term ends?
Is there a subscription that could lapse?
Can I delete it?
What if Hystorie stops running?
Pricing
Free to start. Pay once if you need more.
Reaching a limit stops you adding. It never takes anything away, never hides what you have already kept, and never expires a link somebody was sent years ago.
| Plan | Price | Adding open for | Questions | Photographs | Voice | Video |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | No time limit | 100 | 20 | 30 min | — |
| Five years | €39, once | 5 years, then sealed | Unlimited | 300 | 300 min | 15 min |
| Ten years | €59, once | 10 years, then sealed | Unlimited | 500 | 600 min | 20 min |
| Twenty-five years | €119, once | 25 years, then sealed | Unlimited | 800 | 900 min | 20 min |
| Fifty years | €199, once | 50 years, then sealed | Unlimited | 1200 | 1200 min | 20 min |
| A hundred years, then sealed | €399, once | 100 years, then sealed | Unlimited | 1500 | 1500 min | 20 min |
Every plan, including Free: read, share, print and save as a PDF, the family tree, and the full download — for good. Prices are per archive and charged once; nothing renews.
Fair questions
Is this AI?
The interviewer is. It chooses what to ask and what to follow up on, and it gets better at it the more the archive holds. It does not write the answers, tidy them, summarise them or improve them. What is kept is what was said.
Can I do this for someone who has already died?
Yes, and it is one of the reasons this exists. Everyone who knew them answers what they remember, and it is gathered into one archive rather than scattered across a family. There is also help writing a death notice and an obituary when that is what the week calls for.
Is there a family tree?
Yes, and it is free on every plan. You do not type it in — it is built from the interview itself, using the people already named in the answers and the relationships your family actually used. You only correct what is wrong. Tap anyone in it and you get the memories that mention them, which is the only way to read an archive by person rather than by date.
Do I need an account?
Not to start. Answer a question and see what it asks next. An account only matters when you want the archive to be findable again from another device.
Somebody in your family has a story nobody has asked for yet.
Start with one question — for them, or for yourself. It takes a minute, and everything after that can happen at the kitchen table, at their pace.