Diving Into My Family’s Story on WeAre.XYZ
Why I’m Hooked
Lately, I’ve been pouring my energy into something truly meaningful—recording my family history on WeAre.XYZ, a dynamic family archive platform that’s changing the way we preserve our stories. Why the sudden push? Honestly, I don’t expect my kids to pick up the torch after I’m gone, and with so many projects on my plate, this one shot straight to the top. The task is massive (I’m a stickler for accurate citations!), and after losing my sister at just 57, I can’t help but feel the clock ticking—I’ll be that age in two short years. That realization lit a fire under me!
And talk about timing: one of my cousins is throwing a family reunion soon (Hi Scott!). What better way to bring everyone together than by sharing our rich history online? I’ve been racing to upload documents and photos for his branch of the family tree, and once his line is complete, I can’t wait to invite him to explore our archive.
WeAre.XYZ is impressive on its own, but the more I dig in, the more creative possibilities I discover. Just the other day, I started experimenting with the Maps menu. I mapped out every household our extended family occupied during the 1900 U.S. Federal Census. Most of them were clustered in Philadelphia, and seeing how close they lived to each other was fascinating!
The platform lets me take things further. I can attach census records to each map pin, then hop over to the Media menu, add source citations from my genealogy database, and tag every family member who appears in the document. That way, the same record shows up under each person’s profile. There’s even a feature to draw a “hot spot” on the census image, highlighting exactly where my family appears. It’s interactive, intuitive, and honestly, a lot of fun.
Sure, there’s still a mountain of work ahead, but this project feels fresh and exciting. I think the modern, collaborative vibe of WeAre.XYZ will really resonate with younger generations—exactly what we need to keep our stories alive.
What I love most? WeAre.XYZ makes it easy for families to build living, evolving archives—together. You control who sees your archive, and if you choose to go public, the platform automatically protects the privacy of living relatives. It’s secure, it’s smart, and it’s designed for connection.
I’m genuinely thrilled to be building our family’s digital legacy here. Have you tried WeAre.XYZ? Drop your experiences or questions in the comments—I’d love to hear how you’re keeping your family history alive!
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Fantastic, Barbara! Yes, I've been a huge fan of WeAre.xyz as well for pretty much the same reasons. You'll find a whole cohort of us lurking around the corners here on Substack. My family is very private, and getting them to engage has been painful. I took advantage of the per-user-account configuration in WeAre to ensure that we could keep posts and the archive private while giving everyone access.
Ya know... Simon Davies of WeAre is frequently a lurker here on Substack. Keep an eye out 👀.
Hi Barbara,
I have been a WeAre.xyz user for well over 2 years now and have been so thrilled with all the ways to share my family history with family and friends in a way that they can engage with actively if they choose. All the options for sharing what could be dry documents turned into archival stories and visual images. What I especially love is that it allows me to pull all my resources "under one roof" from storage of photos and documents, writing family history stories, sharing special occasions or writing about artifacts, mapping, blogging, it is so versatile and offers the ability for my archive to be preserved for the future. Simon and his development team are always willing and interested to hear suggestions about features you would like to see added with new features being added regularly. So glad you found it too! There is a fb page if you would enjoy interacting with other users at https://www.facebook.com/groups/weare.xyz