Introducing Heartwood™: The Family Tree That Remembers
Every genealogy chart can tell you when your grandmother was born. Almost none of them can tell you what her kitchen smelled like on Sunday morning, how she laughed, or what she wanted her great-grandchildren to know about the life she lived.
That's the difference we set out to build. Today we're introducing Heartwood™ — the living family tree inside Life Story Compiler, where every branch can hold a real story, told in a real voice, shared only with the people its owner chooses.
A tree made of voices, not just dates
Open Heartwood and you'll see your family the way you actually carry it: you at your place in the tree, parents above, children below, siblings and partners beside you. Add the people who shaped your story — a few taps builds a parent, a partner, a child, a grandparent.
But here's where Heartwood stops being a chart and becomes something else entirely: tap a family member who has joined you on Life Story Compiler, and — if they've chosen to share with you — you can step directly into the chapters and moments of their life story. Their words. Their voice recordings. Their telling.
Not a summary someone else wrote after the fact. The story as they chose to leave it.
Built on consent, from the first branch
If you've used our Connected Stories feature, you already know our philosophy: your story is yours, and stories stay separate — never merged. Heartwood is built on exactly that foundation.
Being on a family tree together grants nothing by itself. Every piece of a person's story remains private until they decide to share it — a specific chapter with a daughter, a handful of moments with a brother, or everything with a spouse. Sharing is layered, previewed before it's sent, and revocable at any time. If someone on your tree has shared nothing, their place in your family is still honored — a name, a relationship, and the simple truth that their story is theirs.
There are no completion scores, no "5 relatives missing" alerts, no pressure. Empty branches aren't deficiencies. They're invitations.
Inviting family is one tap (or one text)
From any person on your tree, you can invite them to join you — by email, by their Story Passport handle, or by simply texting them the invitation from your own phone, so it arrives from a number they already know and trust.
When a family member accepts, their branch comes alive: you'll see what they've chosen to share with you, and you can choose what to share back. Every invited relative starts free — reading what family has shared with you never costs anything.
The people we carry with us
Some of the most important people on your tree never had an account and never will — a grandmother who passed before smartphones existed, a great-uncle you know only from photographs. Heartwood makes room for them too. Add them to your tree with the years they lived, and their place is kept with a gentle, honored treatment — because a family tree that only remembers the living isn't telling the whole story.
And this is just the beginning for remembered family members: soon, you'll be able to gather memories of the people you've lost — inviting relatives and old friends to contribute their own stories about the person you're remembering, in text or voice, with you approving every memory before it joins theirs. A family, keeping someone together.
Why we built it this way
Family is beautiful and complicated — often at the same time. So Heartwood was designed with quiet dignity throughout: you control your own tree and your own view of it, connections require both people's consent, stepping away from a connection is always possible and always private, and accounts belonging to minors carry the most protective settings automatically, with guardian approval built into every connection involving a young person.
We also made one promise that will never change: what lives on your family tree stays within your family. Memories of your people are never published publicly, never fed to strangers, and never used to simulate anyone. This is your family's bookshelf — not the internet's.
How to start your tree
Heartwood is available now for Legacy members as part of Connected Stories:
Open Heartwood from your Connected Stories hub (or your Story tab). You'll find your tree already started — with you. Add the people who shaped your story: parents, partners, siblings, children, grandparents. Tap anyone to invite them — email, handle, or a text from your own phone. As family joins and shares, watch the tree become what it was always meant to be: not a record of your family, but a home for it.
Your grandmother's voice. Your father's first job. Your own story, waiting for a granddaughter who hasn't been born yet.
Every family has a tree.
Yours remembers.
Heartwood™ is included with the Legacy membership. Family members you invite can join free and read whatever you share with them. Start your tree today at lifestorycompiler.com.