How it works

Modern Day Pioneer is a Windows app for gathering a family’s photos, recordings, videos and stories into a family history that opens in any web browser.

1. Bring in what you have

Add photos, recordings, videos and written stories from your computer, a phone or a Google Photos Takeout. The app copies them in; your original files are never changed or deleted.

2. Make memories

New items wait on the Waiting list until you make them into a memory. A memory gives them a date, a place and the people in them. You can type several names at once, separated by commas.

3. Tell the story

Add a description in your own words, or record someone telling it. Recordings can be turned into text on your own computer; nothing is sent away to be transcribed.

4. Share the family history

Preview the pages the app makes, then export them to a folder or USB drive. The export is a set of web pages plus your original files, so anyone can open it in a web browser with no internet connection, no special software and no account.

Try it in 15 minutes

1. On the first screen, choose try the sample family. Open a story, a memory and a person.
2. Start your own Journey: choose a name, then bring in a handful of photos with Add photos and recordings.
3. On Waiting, click Make a memory… on a photo. Add a date, a place and the people in it.
4. Optional: on a memory, choose Record someone telling it.
5. Open Preview to see the pages the app makes.

Keep your copies

No technology lasts forever. Simple, widely used file formats improve the chances that your family history stays readable, and keeping copies in more than one place lowers the risk of losing it. Please keep your original photos too.