Private family archives, built for you

Your family's story, kept somewhere real

Scenestead gathers the people, places, photos, and papers of your family into one calm, private place — cared for, connected, and ready to share with the ones who come after you.

We set it up for you — no blank page, nothing to install.
A woman and three children at the door of a thatched, ivy-covered cottage
Ellery family · Cork, 1901
Trusted with the histories of families across
IrelandScotlandNew Englandthe Maritimes
How it works

Three steps, and we do the heavy part

1

We build your workspace

We set up a private Scenestead for your family, so you're never staring at a blank page wondering where to begin.

2

Your history goes in

Photos, documents, a family file (GEDCOM), DNA results — it all comes together into one connected, searchable record.

3

Share it, safely

Invite relatives with a link. Living people stay private automatically, and you decide who sees what.

The tree

Every branch, on one living tree

Walk generations in either direction. Each person carries their photos, places, and sources with them — so the tree is a way in, not only a diagram.

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The Scenestead family tree view: Ellery family cards across four generations, with living relatives shown as private
Places

See where they actually stood

Pin births, homes, and journeys to a real map. Watch a family move across a county or an ocean, and understand the distances the records only hint at.

See an example
A soft parchment-toned map of a coastline with three place markers
Photos & papers

Photos, kept in their context

Tag who's in a photo, group it into a collection, and tie a document to the person it names. Nothing floats loose — every image knows where it belongs.

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A family photo gallery with latest photos, albums, and the people in them
"A name stops being just a name when you can see the ground they stood on, and the faces around them."
A family who kept theirs here
A real example

Walk through a family's Scenestead

See exactly what your relatives would see — the tree, the map, the photos, and the quiet way private details stay private.

View the example
The Ellery family example page: tree, map, and photographs in a shared read-only view

Scenestead is invite-only — ask for a look around

Tell us about your family and we'll set up your Scenestead. You bring the stories — we'll build the place to keep them.

Request an invite