Begin
Begin with one life.
Watch Zuri's short film, then begin with one life. A person at the house answers every welcome.
The film
Zuri is the house's AI guide. The Record shown is a practice Record.
What Zuri says
Welcome to Honored Ancestors. I am Zuri, the house's AI guide. I am not a person, and I am not a recording of anyone who lived.
The house keeps a family's memory as finished work. One life, researched, written plainly, checked against its sources, and read by a person before anything is kept. Nothing is published or sealed without your yes.
Here is how you give the house your family's story. When you begin, the house sends you a private link to its door. Keep it to yourself; it opens your family's Record, until the date the page shows.
At the door, you answer questions about one life, one at a time. Type your answer, and press Keep this answer. Or press Speak, allow the microphone, and say it aloud. The house turns your voice into words on its own machine. Read them back, correct anything, and press These are my words. "I don't know" is a good answer. It tells the research where to look.
Below the questions, add what your family holds. Choose Photographs, Papers, Recordings or Films, then choose your files. A phone photograph of a paper is enough. Each file is checked before it is kept, and until the house takes it in, you can remove anything.
Everything is saved the moment you keep it. When you have given what you can for now, press Give this to the house. A person at the house will read it and write to you.
Your family's story goes only to the house, through its own door. I am your guide, so I do not take the story myself.
To begin, write to info at honoredancestors dot com. A person reads every letter. Thank you for the life you are keeping.
Begin with one life
A Record is a family's memory of one life, kept as finished work. The family tells what it knows; the house researches the public record, and every fact is shown with its source. The life is written plainly, with the name first, and a person at the house reads it whole. Nothing is published or sealed without the family's yes, and a kept Record carries a public proof anyone can check.
To begin, give your name, your email address, and the one you wish to remember. The house will write to you once to confirm your address; then Zuri, the house's AI guide, knows to expect you, and a person at the house writes with your own private link to the house's door.
Zuri · the voice of the house
She is AI, and says so plainly. Once your address is confirmed, she knows to expect you. She never takes your family's story herself.
Getting ready
- Choose the life you would like to begin with.
- Gather what your family holds: photographs, papers, letters, recordings. A phone photograph of a paper is enough.
- Think of who else remembers them well. "I don't know" is a good answer at the door: it tells the research where to look.