More than three years ago, I realized that there was no website that could take my genealogy research and bring it into a form that would be inviting and visually engaging. I discovered there was a need for a simple, comprehensive program that takes the raw research—data, pictures, documents, family trees—and makes it into a beautiful, easy-to-share story.

So with the help of some friends and lots of late nights and early mornings, working around my graphic design clients, I devoted every spare minute I had to Our Family Storybook. I designed each page and worked out every glitch, encountered problems I would have never guessed and got totally dejected more than once. But through it all, I had a vision that I could add a dimension to your family story that wasn’t there before and make it easy and fun.

We are launching Our Family Storybook in two stages. Right now the calendar, blog, forum, reunion and tutorial features are fully functional. In the months to come we will initialize the website and book features. There are still challenges to making this website as good as I know it can be and I welcome your feedback to make it better.

If you sign up now, you can use it for free. You won’t be charged until the site is fully up and totally functional. Until then you can familiarize yourself with the features and—hopefully—share it with friends and family. I can’t tell you what a thrill it is to help people tell their family stories. It was my dream and now it’s our reality.

Tom Lyon Founder, Our Family Storybook