Storyworth alternatives: three ways to give a family's story.
The main alternatives to Storyworth are Remento, which turns spoken answers into a book, and Ancestral Fire, which starts from the family already on record so nobody has to write. Storyworth is a good gift. It also asks the person who gets it to do a year of writing, so the real question is who does the work.
The three, side by side.
| Storyworth | Remento | Ancestral Fire | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What they get | A question each week by email or text, then a hardcover book | A prompt to talk, written up for them, then a hardcover book with their voice on a QR code | The people in their family, with the source behind each fact: a life on one line, where they went, what they lived through |
| Who does the work | They write, or record by phone | They talk | They name the people they know, or sign in with FamilySearch, and it looks for the rest |
| Whose stories | Their own life | Their own life | The people before them |
| Something to hold | Yes, a book | Yes, a book | No. Nothing prints or ships |
| Cost | $69 to $199 for a year | $99 for a year | Free while we're in beta |
Which one to choose.
- Choose Storyworth if they like to write, and you want a book in their own words.
- Choose Remento if they'd rather talk, and you want to keep their voice.
- Choose Ancestral Fire if they've always wondered who came before them, or you know they wouldn't answer 52 questions.
Why people look for something else.
The complaint you hear about these gifts is that the storyteller stops answering. One buyer on a parents' forum said their parents took three years. That doesn't make them bad gifts. It means they fit some people and not others.
What Ancestral Fire won't do.
It isn't a book. Nothing prints or ships, and it isn't built to gather one person's memories over a year. It works best for families with people on FamilySearch, and someone with little there will see less at first.
How to give it.
There's nothing to wrap. Send them the link, or better, sit down with them and look up a grandparent together.
Or just ask.
Tell Ancestral Fire one name, and it reads your tree, searches FamilySearch Family Tree once you connect it, and tells you what it found, with the source behind each fact. A real answer:
Who was the first in my family to leave Ireland, and what became of him?
Among those with immigration dates recorded, the earliest to leave was your great-grandfather Patrick Kennedy (born about 1823 in Dunganstown, County Wexford), who immigrated to Boston around 1847. He settled in Boston, married Bridget Murphy, worked as a cooper, and died there in 1858 at about age 35.
From the Kennedy family's published tree, asked as John F. Kennedy.
See a whole conversation on How it works, or what it finds in one family: The Kennedy family tree, from Wexford to Dallas.
Keep reading.
- Free alternatives to Ancestry. The best free alternative to Ancestry is FamilySearch, which has a huge free record collection and one shared family tree.
- Free government records for family history. The US government puts many family history records online free: the National Archives (including the 1950 census), Bureau of Land Management land patents, the National Park Service's Civil War soldiers database, and the Library of Congress's old newspapers.