In memory

No one you love
is ever dead.

Ernest Hemingway, letter to Gerald and Sara Murphy, 1935

What they left behind, put back where it happened.

A Family Story Map takes what they left, a memoir, a recording, a box of photographs, a page of names and towns, and puts it back on the map of the world they actually moved through.

Every place opens with its photograph and the passage that belongs to it. Their name on the family tree draws their whole road across the map, from the house they were born in to the last place they lived. Everyone opens the same link, each in the language they read.

There is no hurry in this, and no date you have to meet. The material keeps. When the family is ready, we begin.

Tell us what you have Open a real family map What it costs

The map shown here is our own family’s. We published it on purpose, so you can see exactly what you would be getting. Yours stays private unless you tell us otherwise.

A place card open over the map: the archive portrait of an eighteen year old woman in uniform, the year 1943, and the passage from the memoir describing her crossing of the Dnieper at night, on a raft, under fire

Above: one place, opened. The photograph from the family’s own archive, the person connected to it, the year, and the passage exactly as it was written, in this case a girl of eighteen crossing the Dnieper at night on a raft, under fire, who could not swim. Underneath, a line on what stands there today. This is what every place in a family map looks like.

See it in use

Video: the Family Story Map open on a laptop, the journey drawn across Europe and North America, with a place card open beside it

What a family gathering can become

The room is already full of the story. Somebody just has to write it down.

It happens in every house. At the meal after the funeral, during the thirty days, at the unveiling of the stone, at the gathering a year later. Somebody brings out a box. The albums end up open on the table, the photographs go round the room, and an aunt looks at one and says: that is not Odessa, that is the house in Vitebsk, and your grandfather is the boy on the left.

For an hour or two the whole family is in one place, remembering out loud, and every single one of them is holding a different piece of it. That does not happen twice. The cousins fly home, the boxes go back into the cupboard, and everything that was said in that room stays in that room.

So use the gathering, on purpose. Put the albums on the table rather than waiting for somebody to find them. Ask the oldest person there who is in each photograph, and write it on the back while they are still standing beside you. Let a phone record in the corner while the stories are being told, badly, with the tea going cold. Nothing has to be organised, and nobody has to be a historian.

Then send us what came out of that afternoon. We put it back on the map of the world your family actually crossed, every place opening with its photograph and the words that belong to it, so the day carries on working long after everybody has driven home. The children who were too small to follow any of it can open the whole thing at fifteen, and again at forty, and know exactly who they came from.

A memorial that keeps growing, rather than one that is finished on the day it is unveiled.

What they open

Their life, in the language each of them reads.

One link opens in every language your family reads, and each reader picks their own. Stories, names, tree and every button switch together. Shown with the family’s permission.

The whole family map with the journey drawn: numbered stops running from Belarus and Lithuania through Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine to Israel, then across the Atlantic to Los Angeles and Boston

The whole journey, in the order it happened. One tap numbers every stop and draws the road between them, and the regions along the bottom filter the map to one chapter at a time.

The family tree: eighty six people across three branches and five generations, each with their name in three languages and a pin linking them to the map

A family tree, interconnected with the map. Eighty six people across five generations in this one, each name in its own languages. Click any person and their journey draws itself, from the house they were born in to the country they ended in. The grandchildren find themselves at the bottom of it, which is usually the moment they start paying attention.

The exported PDF: each place laid out with its archive photograph shown whole, the story in full, and a QR code that opens the location

And it prints as a book. Any selection of places exports to a PDF: the photograph, the story in the family’s own words, and a QR code that opens the location. Print a copy for the relatives who would rather hold paper than open a link.

When families ask us for this

There is no right moment. These are the ones people choose.

The end of the thirty days, or the first year

Something to give the others when the visits stop and the house goes quiet: at the end of the thirty days, at the unveiling of the stone, or on the first anniversary. One link, sent to everyone who came.

Instead of another printed card

A card says the dates and the name. A map holds their towns, their photographs, their own words, and room for whatever the family remembers later, because they will remember more later.

The grandchildren who were too small

Children who were five at the funeral grow up with almost nothing of the person. A map they can open at fifteen, and again at thirty, is a different inheritance from a box in a cupboard that nobody opens.

One thing to do this month, even if you never write to us

Before the flat is cleared, photograph the papers. All of them, badly, on a phone, in a pile if that is all you can manage. The certificates, the passports, the letters in a language you cannot read, and above all the backs of the photographs, because the backs are where the names are written.

Nothing has to be sorted. Nothing has to be understood today. It only has to still exist in a year, when somebody in the family is finally able to look at it.

Most of what families lose is not lost in a war or a fire. It is lost in the week the flat is emptied, by people who are too tired to know what they are throwing away. If we can spare you that, this page has done its job, whether or not you ever become a client.

And one more thing we would rather say plainly, even though it costs us the work. If the person is still with you, this is the time to ask. An hour recorded on a Sunday afternoon is worth more than any archive, and no amount of research afterwards will replace their voice. Spend the afternoon with them. We will still be here.

“Wow! The map brought my family together from across the globe. Relatives from Belarus and Israel are reviewing it together, in different languages, and discussing today.”

How it works

You send what you have. We do the rest.

You send your material

A memoir, a recording, a tree file, a folder of documents, a box of photographs, or just a list of names and towns.

We research and locate

We find each place as it exists today, including towns that were renamed, and check every one against the record.

We build and translate

The map goes live on a private link, in the languages your family reads, with the tree, the path and the photographs in place.

It grows with your family

Once the family sees the map, new photographs and memories surface. One update round in the first year is included.

You have more than you think

Almost every family says the same sentence first: we have nothing, nobody wrote anything down. Then it turns out there is a folder of documents, a handful of photographs with something written on the back, and an afternoon of what two or three relatives still remember between them. That is enough to build from. The research is our part, not yours.

Where the record is unclear, or two relatives remember it differently, we come back to you rather than choose. Nothing is invented, nothing is filled in to round out a story, and nothing is made sadder or braver than it was. If a place cannot be found, the map says so.

You will not be chased. If you write and then go quiet for four months, that is a completely normal thing to do, and your material sits where you left it until you come back.

What it costs

One payment. No subscription, ever.

A map built from a written family history starts at $3,000. It is commissioned work, made once for one family, not a template. You pay once. There is nothing to renew, nothing to keep paying for, and no anniversary email from us reminding you what month it is.

First Chapter

$195

five places, one payment

You do not have to decide about the whole family today, and this is not the week for big decisions. Send us five places from their life. The town they were born in. The place they were sent to in the war. The street they first lived on here. We research each one, find it even if it has been renamed twice, and put all five on a real map with the family’s own words beside them.

One language, ready in a week. If you go on to the full family map afterwards, the whole $195 comes off the price.

Five researched places on a map, and that is what it is. The family tree, the whole journey drawn in the order it happened, the additional languages, the PDF book and the update round belong to the full map. This is the way in, not a smaller version of it.

A Family Story Map

$3,000

The story is written down somewhere already: a memoir, a recording, a family history, a folder nobody has been able to open yet. We do the rest.

What is included

Every place read out of your material, located and verified, including towns that were renamed
One language, and up to 40 places and 100 people on the tree, which covers most family histories
The family’s own words at each place, quoted exactly. In any additional language they are translated faithfully, never rewritten or embellished
Your own photographs, scanned, cleaned and placed where they belong
Where the family has no photograph of a place, we search for a freely licensed historic image of it and credit every one. Not every place has a surviving picture, and where none exists the card says so
A line on each place as it stands today
The family tree, linked to the map: tap a person and their journey draws itself
The whole journey as one path, in the order it happened
A PDF book, laid out place by place, each with its photograph, its story and a QR code that opens the location
Where the record is unclear, or two sources disagree, we come back to you rather than guess
One update round in the first year. Once the family sees the map they start remembering, and everything they send in that first year goes in at no extra cost

Add to any map

Each additional language, produced in full: the stories, the tree, the interface and the PDF book$1,000

A larger family: more than 40 places, or more than 100 people on the treepriced individually

A further update round: everything the family has sent since, added in one pass, in every language your map carries. Bought when you want one, never on a schedule$600

Tell us which languages your family reads and we confirm them in the offer, before you commit to anything.

Yours to keep

You pay once. Hosting is included for ten years and there is no annual fee.
You get a copy you can keep. The finished map is handed over as files you can download and host anywhere. If Ludara ever stops, your family’s map does not.
The material stays yours. Your photographs, your text, your family’s words, never licensed, sold or used anywhere else.

Questions we are asked

Questions people ask us at this stage.

What can you make if the person has already died?

A map of the life they lived, built from what they left: a memoir, a recording, letters, documents, photographs, or only names and towns. Every place they lived opens with its photograph and the passage that belongs to it, and their name on the family tree draws their whole road across the map. It becomes a memorial the family can open from anywhere, rather than a box in a cupboard.

We have no memoir. Only photographs and a few papers. Is that enough?

Yes. Almost every family says the same sentence first, that nobody wrote anything down, and almost every family turns out to have more than they thought. Documents, photographs with something written on the back, and an afternoon of what two or three relatives remember between them is enough to build from.

Is there something we should do now, before we decide anything?

Yes, and it costs nothing. Before the flat is cleared, photograph the papers. All of them, badly, on a phone, especially the backs of the photographs, because the backs are where the names are. Most of what families lose is lost in the week the home is emptied.

Is there a right time? The funeral was only last week.

There is no right time and no date you have to meet. Families come to us at the end of the thirty days, at the unveiling of a stone, on a first anniversary, and years later with no occasion at all. Your material sits where you left it until you write again, however long that takes. You will not be chased.

Who can see it?

Only the people you send it to. Every map ships on an unlisted link that search engines cannot find, and it can be locked further with a password or limited to named people. We never publish a family map or quote from it without written permission.

Can we add to it later?

Yes, and families almost always do. Once the map exists relatives start remembering, and photographs surface that nobody knew existed. One update round in the first year is included, and further rounds can be bought whenever you want one, never on a schedule.

Tell us what you have.

Write a few lines about what is in the house. A memoir, a recording, documents, photographs, or only names and towns. You do not need to know what you want yet. We answer within one business day, and if it is too soon, say so and we will simply keep it on file until you write again, however long that takes.

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No one you loveis ever dead.