My name is Jon,
I m an IT consultant. I’ve been working with computers for a solid 13 years. I have invested most of my working career by gaining experience in developing software to solve some sort of issue.
So I created PaperTrail.Life!
Here is how it came about.
A couple of years back I came across a box containing a family newsletter. The paper was frail and had an old sent radiating off of it. Taking a closer look I soon realized I have come across a quarterly newsletter. I had 5 series worth of newsletters from the 80’s. To some the 80’s wasn’t too long ago, I wasn’t born until 1985. So it was so interesting to be able to read about people in my family and what they were doing in a time that was before I was born. These documents quickly became one of my number #1 reads of all time. I thought to myself wow these are artifacts of my family history. Long story a little longer, in the box I came across the actual letters from individual family members from all over the United States that were hand written and then mailed via post office to My grandparents in Long Island. After a little thought I was able to figure out my grandparents than used a type writer to put together a newsletter using the letters mailed to them. (I stress the fact that this part clearly took forever). Once it was ready it was sent to Manhattan where another family member owned a print shop. He then created copies of the newsletter and then mailed them all back to my grandparents in Long island. It was a long process but worth it if you ask me. I thought to myself I don’t have time to do all of this but wouldn’t it be great to bring the newsletter back to life in some sort of modern way.
Here’s the deal. Someone first needs to create a newsletter. They would then invite people to the newsletter. Once an invited guest is a member of the newsletter they can than invite anyone else to the newsletter as well. Once a month all you have to do is login to the site and enter a brief or long update of how your life has been. We will take care of the rest. We have made software that collects all of the story submissions and publishes a completed formatted newsletter.
We will than physically mail you a copy of your newsletter every single month. It is our mission to bring families closer together and at the same time create a paper trail of family history. Personally I feel as if there are so many things going on in the lives of the people who we care about and we barely get the opportunity to hear about it. This site was my attempt at “Keeping up with the family” just a little bit more. At the same time considering the future generations, leaving behind a paper trail of our lifetime. The older I get the more I understand the importance of communication within the family. I’ve also learned that eventually generations are stories of the past, and to document our history as it happens not only lengthens our legacy it helps our future comprehend and appreciate there existence.