Begin with one memory — a recipe, a voice note, a photo, a video, a letter — and carry a whole life forward. Free to begin. Free to keep. Sustained by families helping families.
Not just documents — the texture of a person. Enough room to begin a real archive, with fair-use photo and video preservation, and everything yours to export anytime.
It answers who someone is first, then gathers the memories, stories, and voices that help you understand them. Build it privately with family — then open it for someone you love.
Once the archive is safe, families can turn memories into keepsakes — printed, bound, or framed. Real memories, thoughtfully arranged. You review and edit everything before it’s made.
Pick every photo yourself, choose a theme and let it fill in, or ask the Family Archivist to gently organize and curate. It helps organize real memories — it never replaces them, and every choice can be hidden, swapped, or removed.
You’re in control from the first photo. Drag in exactly the images, clips, and voice notes you want — nothing is chosen for you.
Not fine print. The reasons a family can trust us with what matters most.
We keep the core archive free. Families who can contribute help carry the cost. Larger preservation needs are supported by contributions, sponsorships, partners, and the Family Memory Fund. No venture capital, no ads, no selling data — surplus goes back into free access, open archive tools, privacy, preservation, workers, and the Fund.
Builds and runs the archive. No VC, no ads, no selling data, no sale without mission protection. Private content is never used to train AI without explicit permission.
Sponsors families who cannot pay — low-income, hospice, sudden-loss, foster and adoptive, elderly, dementia preservation, and community-history projects.
The core archive format and export/restore tools are open. A future developer could restore your archive. Families are never trapped in proprietary software.
Families, workers, and community partners have a voice in how Dearest Ellie grows, and will vote on important policy questions. Donors support the commons — they cannot buy control over the mission, and giving more never means more power.
Start an archive for a loved one, a living parent or grandparent, someone who has died, a couple, a whole family, a community elder — or for yourself, to share your own memories with the people you love.
Remembrance is never behind a paywall. Contributions cover extra preservation, printing, and keepsakes — and help another family archive theirs at no cost.
Timelines, multiple family contributors, basic Family Archivist help, and fair-use photo & video preservation — enough room to begin a real archive, and never taken away because a family cannot pay.
Start a family archivePreservation Space is priced transparently, close to what storage actually costs. Keepsakes carry a modest margin that sustains the commons, and Keepsake Credits can be donated, sponsored, or purchased. No archive is ever deleted for inability to pay.
No pressure, ever. Give once, give monthly, or sponsor a specific family through the Family Memory Fund. Every contribution and every sponsorship appears in our transparency reports.
Your archive exports in a documented, open format — originals included. Keep it on a drive, hand it to your children, self-host it, or let a future developer restore it. The memories belong to the family; Dearest Ellie is only the steward.
Free to begin. Free to keep. Sustained by families helping families — for everyone, for as long as it matters.