Some things are too important to leave to memory.

Heritaris is an early-stage project. There is no finished product yet, and we would rather say so plainly than dress up a plan as something more.

We’re building it around one belief: a person’s stories, experiences and perspective are part of what they leave to the next generation. Not a nice extra alongside the inheritance, but a real part of it, and usually the part that gets lost.

Technology has made one half of this effortless. Preserving an image costs nothing. Most families now hold more photographs than any generation before them, backed up automatically, searchable by face and place.

The other half has barely moved. The story behind the photograph, why that afternoon mattered, who was standing just outside the frame, what happened the following winter, still depends entirely on somebody asking while there is still someone to ask. Recording that takes intention, time and a decent set of questions, which is exactly why so few families get to it.

Heritaris wants to change that: to make preserving a person’s story feel as normal and as achievable as taking a photograph of them.

While we build, we’re publishing what we learn. Our resources are written to be useful on their own, whether or not you ever use anything we make. If the only outcome is that you sit down with a parent this month and press record, that is a good outcome.