We've all got a ton of photos, emails, files and Family history hanging around on our computers, but at the end of the day what happens to all this rich family history ?
The North Vancouver-based company provides an opportunity to make a family history digital estate that can be passed down from generation to generation within a family. By registering online, customers will have access to a private account that they can use to upload information, photos, a biography and even research their family history.
"We wanted to create a place where people could do more than just exchange pleasantries with acquaintances like on Facebook," says founder Paul Taylor.
"One of the things we realized was we have a much greater opportunity to leave a rich fmaily history legacy behind just because we live in this digital world and we capture all this stuff digitally."
Taylor had been toying with the idea of creating a website for a while, but he finally got the push he needed 18 moths ago, following the birth of his daughter.
"It's one of those things where you just don't want to miss any moment and you want to capture all that stuff," he says.
"Not long after she was born my mother, unfortunately we found out she had terminal bowel cancer so this was all really crystallized for me. . . . My mum may not be around to share who she is and what she knows about our family history with our daughter, so I wanted to give people a place where we could put all this rich information and then pass it on."
After customers sign up, they're given a step-by-step guide to help them decide what kinds of information they might want to add to their account. After the uploading is done, there are a number of other things people can do including build a family tree and have access to more than one billion family history records to research their genealogy. They can also take on fun projects like making a digital scrapbook -- with printout options available -- or creating slideshows with music.
Best of all, all your family history completely secure.
"The great thing about our site . . . because we built it with this rich material in mind, we have a whole security architecture that underpins this that you just don't get on other sites," says Taylor.
"If you have a scrapbook you want to digitally share you can essentially send a link and only the people you want to give access to are able to see that link."
Members who sign up for a lifetime family history account at arcalife.com can name an executor and that's how the estate gets passed down through the family. So far, 100,000 people have registered and the business is growing fast, says Taylor. Feedback has been pretty positive, he adds.
"Things like 'This is amazing. For the first time I can actually do all of this family stuff in one place.'"
"Once you've spent a little bit of time to upload your history material, you can then do all these different showcases with them so actually the biggest thing is the engagement thing," says Taylor.
Those interested can start off with a free trial account and then upgrade for an annual $50 premium or a $150 lifetime account.
