I published a guest post by Jake Lindsay, the creator of the "Memories Book" desktop app, on 14 August 2026 here. For more information, read this article on the LDS365 web page.
The "Memories Book" app can be accessed here (https://www.memoriesbookapp.com/).
The "Memories Book" app creates a family history book from a number of FamilySearch Family Tree person profiles starting from a Key Person. The book can contain 2 to 5 generations starting with the Key Person as Generation 1. For each person profiled in the book, the app creates pages with basic information about the person in the profile, a fan chart showing the person's place in the family tree, a map showing key events, a list of key events, a section with up to 25 images (photographs or document images attached to the "Memories" page on the person profile), and any text family stories attached to the "Memories" page of the person profile.
If the Person Profiles have significant content (names, dates, places, relationships, events, and photograph or document images), then the book will be fairly complete. It's a good idea to put those "Memories" page images in chronological order with captions, descriptions, places and dates (the date field is critical -- it creates the chronological order!). Note that family structure, research or biographical notes, and source citations are not included unless they are put into a Text Note in "Memories" on the Family Tree profile.
Creating the book pages from the Family Tree profiles takes only a few minutes. The user can preview the book and add or correct information in the Family Tree before creating an updated book, then saving or printing the book. Then the user has the option to download a PDF of the book (in color) or buy a Printed copy of the book through an On-demand printing service for a fee.
Let me show you the book creation process and an example of one profile in my first "Memories Book."
1) The process to create a "Memories Book" is:
- Log into FamilySearch with your FamilySearch username and password.
- Select the starting person who is in FamilySearch Family Tree. (I selected myself)
- Select the number of generations for the book (up to 5) (I selected 4, so myself, my parents, my grandparents, and my great-grandparents -- 15 profiles in all)
- Select the book format: PDF, DOCX, or ZIP (to download all files to your computer) (I chose PDF)
- Note the statement about living people.
- Select either "25 Photos" or "All Photos" per person (I chose "25 photos").
- Click the BEGIN button.
2) The "Memories Book" app prepares the book. It accesses the FamilySearch Family Tree profiles for the selected persons and captures the vital record, event, location information, and photograph and document images, plus any text stories in "Memories" in the Family Tree.
Here is a screen capture I made during the preparation and creation process:
The names and an image flash by on the screen for each person in the Memories Book while creating the book. The process takes only two minutes for a four generation book (up to 15 profiles) and about four minutes for a five generation book (up to 31 profiles).
3) When the book creation process is complete, the user can Preview the book. Here is the cover image for my book (two screen captures, no overlap):
At the bottom of the above image is the section to Export my book by downloading the book as a PDF or DOCX file to my computer.
4) To preview the book, the user can use the left-carat (<) or right-carat (>) symbols on the line that says "Page X of XXX above. The user can select full-screen to view if desired. As you can see, my book with 15 profiles has 143 pages, including a title page and a Table of Contents page.
5) Here is my mother's profile (showing only one page of each type of information):
- The Person profile page with vital information, selected photographs and family tree chart with the Person highlighted:
- The Map and Event page (note that map locations are approximate, Events are limited to 12):
- Photograph and document images (maximum of six to a page, up to 25 total):
- Text story or biography documents (unknown number of pages, some of mine are 5-6 pages):
6) This process is extremely simple and User Friendly (even my mother could have done this at age 80) -- you get a book for a part of your family tree. Note that the pbok pages don't have a lot of detail about the person's life unless there are Photographs, Documents, Text Stories or Biographies in the "Memories."
7) A PDF or DOCX book is FREE to create -- this four-generation book is a file of over 33 megabytes. What does a printed book cost? My 4-generation, 143 page book costs $37.79 to print and $10 to ship. My guess is a 5-generation book with 31 profiles would cost about $85 depending on the page count.
The printed books are soft cover at this time, the pages are full color, and the delivery time is two to three weeks.
8) This "Memories Book" app permits a genealogist to prepare a book about their ancestors, and might be especially useful for:
- A person who has researched only themselves, their parents and grandparents. If the grandparents are in the FamilySearch Family Tree and connected to their ancestors, a 4 or 5 generation book might include useful information and spur further research.
- A relative or family member of a deceased or elderly genealogist who contributed information to the FamilySearch Family Tree could create a book and have the fruits of their relatives genealogy work.
9) Note that this book creation process is not perfect -- but it can be useful!
- This works well when the ancestors are in the FamilySearch Family Tree as a result of your own research, or someone else's research.
- It relies on information in the FamilySearch Family Tree, which may be inaccurate or poorly sourced.
- Unless biographies of the Persons in the book are provided in a text Story, there is very little genealogy and family history information in the book. So write biographies :)
- The real prize here is family photographs that the family may not otherwise have available provided by a relative. Captions, descriptions, place names and year are recommended! However, photographs are rare for generations who died before 1880 or so.
- A user could create many 5-generation books to go back many generations, by creating five-generation books for the key person (themself?) and then creating books for each of the 2nd great-grandparents, 6th great-grandparents, etc.
10) My thanks to Jake Lindsay for creating the "Memories Book" app.
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Disclosure: I have received no remuneration to publish this blog post or to use and describe this product.
I like the concept and implementation of this app -- it provides useful content in a condensed format that can be passed on to descendants.
The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2026/08/my-first-memories-book-from.html
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