Girmit · Family stories · Stories
Family Stories · sample family
Keep the stories while they can still be told.
Voice, video and written stories, and the old photographs that go with them, kept in one private place beside your tree.
This month’s session
Sunday 8 November 2026, 3 pm
Session 3 of 12: Clairwood streets and neighbours
The family meets twice a month and records one theme each time. One person asks, the others listen, and the phone quietly keeps it. Theme and questions come from the interview kit.
- What was the name of your street? Who lived on either side of you?
- Which shops did you go to, and who ran them?
- If we walked down your street together today, what would you point out?
Coming: Leela, Thangam, Pushpa, Mohan, and Anand with the phone.
Last time: session 2, The house we grew up in. Three stories added.
The family archive
Latest stories
- Voice5:31
Teaching my granddaughter the dhal
Told by Leela · about Anand
She does not measure. She listens to the pot.
- Voice4:22
What Mummy put in every letter
Told by Pushpa · about Ganga
Two things, always: who had visited, and the weather.
- WrittenRead
The last evening in the old house
Told by Leela · about Ganga, Perumal, Thangam
Boxes, newspaper round the cups, and a table already gone.
- Video3:28
Learning to drive in a borrowed car
Told by Mohan · about Pushpa
One condition: never tell his mother. She watched from the gate with her arms folded.
- Voice4:41
Sweets at midnight
Told by Thangam · about Ganga, Leela
The night before the festival, nobody was asleep, and everybody pretended to be.
- Photo1:18
The photograph on the verandah
Told by Leela · about Ganga, Perumal, Thangam
One print, three people and a missing photographer.
- WrittenRead
The wedding the whole street cooked for
Told by Pushpa · about Ganga, Perumal
Too small to be useful, so she watched the gate and remembers who came in, and in what order.
- Video3:34
Walking to school
Told by Thangam · about Leela
Big ones holding little ones' hands, and a girl from the next street who was never ready.
- Voice3:56
The Saturday vegetable cart
Told by Leela · about Ganga
Saturday mornings, a cart in the street and a mother who never hurried a purchase.
No stories match those filters.
Clear the filters, or record the story that is missing.
Ways to add to it
Start with whatever is easiest.
Record a voice
Phone on the table, one question, a cup of tea. How to record
Upload what you have
Voice notes and videos already on the phone or in WhatsApp. Upload them
Photograph old prints
Tag the faces and say who, where and when. Upload old photos
Ask relatives far away
Post a question; family in London or Perth answer in their own time. Questions
See it in order
Every photo and story on one timeline, by decade. The timeline
Make a keepsake book
Turn the family’s stories into a book. See how
Privacy · for every story
Private by default. Yours to take back.
Stories are some of the most personal things a family keeps. The rules below apply to every recording, photo and written story, and none of them can be switched off for you.
Only your family
A story can be seen only by the people in this family, once they sign in. Nothing is public.
The speaker says yes first
Every recording notes that the speaker agreed. The speaker can ask for a part to be cut, or the whole story taken down, at any time.
Everyone can add
Everyone in the family can add stories and photos. The person who started the family can undo or delete anything.
Delete, for real
When you delete a story or a photo, the file is removed from the server. It isn’t just hidden.