World Archives, a global leader for historical newspaper content, has rebranded as Storied—the next chapter in family history. The rebrand coincides with the company’s launch of a next-generation family history platform by the same name.
Backed by Charles Thayne Capital—and built by former Ancestry.com executives—Storied delivers a modernized approach for casual and serious family history enthusiasts around the globe to connect, discover, and reminisce about the moments that matter, whether recent or in the distant past.
“We are investing heavily in adding historical records to Storied because they are key to making family history discoveries, but they’re painfully incomplete without the vibrant stories that add color and help us see how our ancestors’ lives intersected with those around them,” said Storied CEO Kendall Hulet. “With Storied, that level of rich, inter-connected storytelling is finally possible.”
Historically, family history platforms have been built using architecture that limits relationship connections, with users only able to make discoveries between familial relationships using traditional records in a siloed family tree. Storied is the first family history platform built from the ground up with next-generation architecture that allows for a virtually unlimited number of connection types between people, places, and things.
“The industry must evolve to provide a richer and more complete lens into the past. That vision can only become a reality with a new set of tools,” said Hulet. “With Storied, we want users to still have the ability to build a family tree, but to go beyond it as well. Everyone defines family differently, so we want to account for connections to a best friend, beloved pet, professional colleague, trusted mentor, or chosen family. Storied’s unique approach unlocks a fuller view of our past.”
Rich, user-generated stories are front and center in the Storied experience. Next-generation family history technology makes those accounts highly interconnected with other user-generated content, allowing for one of the richest family history experiences ever created.
“Storied allows users to leverage user-generated stories to break past previously insurmountable barriers in their research,” said Hulet. “For example, I have an ancestor who fought in the Battle of the Bulge and another who sailed across the Atlantic without her parents as a young child. Traditional records help me learn their names and things like the unit they served in or where they were at certain moments in time, but they aren’t able to provide the rich detail of what those experiences were like. Other people in their military unit or fellow passengers may have shared first-hand accounts that would help me understand what my ancestors experienced. Storied is the first family history platform designed specifically to bring those accounts to the fore by creating connections between people based on shared experiences.
“When you combine stories like those with the billions of traditional records accessible to Storied users, you have the ingredients to enable a new era of personal and family history discovery. We’re just getting started, but we’re very excited about how Storied can improve the family history experience.”
During Storied’s public beta, users can build family trees, create and share stories, and receive hint notifications for free. Paid plans, starting at $4.99 a month, enable users to create private groups and gain access to billions of records and newspaper articles from 46 countries.
To start your next chapter of discovery, visit storied.com.
About Storied
Storied is the next chapter in family history. Backed by Charles Thayne Capital, and built by former Ancestry.com executives and technologists, Storied leverages next-generation family history technology and billions of records to deliver a fresh approach to discovering, capturing, preserving, and sharing stories about the past. To learn more, email press@storied.com or visit storied.com.