In 2010, I ventured into research to produce our family tree. The colossal work led me to use several Internet tools to trace our ancestors. To collect memories of the family, I drew on the memories of various members of the extended Latulippe family.

One crucial thing emerged during this research.

Memories are vivid in the current generation — its members are all still alive, and it’s easy to fill in the gaps.

In our parents’ generation, we only remember the major events and amusing anecdotes shared over the years — but rarely the details of their personal journeys. Occasionally something triggers a memory, and we listen with fascination.

Going back to our grandparents’ generation and beyond, these memories are reduced to key events: births, marriages, deaths.

The Québécois speaker Jean-Marc Chaput once said: “A life of 70 years in Montreal comes down to the hyphen between the year of birth and the year of death on a tombstone.” Where are all the memories that shaped that life, that would give it meaning, that could help us learn and understand? Hence the importance of leaving a trace.

The vision of memoFolio

Have you noticed the interest and curiosity of our children when we tell stories from our past? Watch how memories shared through photos take on emotional weight. How much more would you want to know about your parents, your grandparents, your ancestors? Or simply, to hear stories about ourselves as children — when we were the central figures in the lives of two people who each carried their own history and experience.

memoFolio is an approach that helps parents tell THEIR stories — leaving a trace of their experiences, introducing themselves to future generations, and guiding them along the way.

It’s also a web application designed to make it easier to gather memories in one secure, centralized place. Event by event, a chronology of your life takes shape, letting you visualize your journey. Then, from the most significant moments, you compose YOUR story to generate a biography ready to read and share.

memoFolio offers the same content on this blog as it does inside the application. Its mission is to give people the freedom to choose the platform that suits them best, with the same support and content either way — all in service of telling their story and leaving a trace.