LifeTimes enables people to share, collaborate and record the lives of their family and public figures

LifeTimes is a Melbourne based Australian startup which was founded in 2015 with an idea:

Traditionally family history has been undertaken by individuals who build a personal family tree, often in isolation. Information that others have researched has been accessible only to a select few willing to pay a high monthly subscription. Increasingly there are concerns on the accuracy of the information from traditional online genealogy organisations.

LifeTimes has an innovative model that brings the power of social media to make discovering family connections accessible to everyone.

Social media has the power to create richer family connections and to capture and share life experiences and disrupt traditional online and software based genealogy models.

People are interested in two primary questions: where have I come from? and What legacy will I leave?

LifeTimes enables people to identify their connection with the past and with people today. LifeTimes adds the power of social media to people’s connections to start conversations between close and extended family members and between people researching a common experience shared by their ancestors. With everyone contributing to a galaxy of people, a new connection can increase the size of your extended family exponentially.

Unlike traditional online genealogy offerings, LifeTimes also offers our members the chance to share with their family the things that have been important in each of their lives.

Today we all have thousands of photos that no-one ever sees. Imagine if you could share the photos of important events in your life with your family and friends. Members of LifeTimes can add events, add places and add photos, and share this information with other family members and friends.

Core to LifeTimes are four elements:

Who presents a view of your family connections, enabling members to discover how they are connected with their past and who they are connected to in the present.

When captures the key times in peoples’ lives enabling families to record and enhance their memories of their ancestors and leave a legacy to share with their descendants.

Where shows the locations that have mattered in a person’s life and an ability to see how locations have been important in their family over generations.

What provides insights about each member’s family.

FREE TO USE

Fixed monthly payments can deter many people from taking the time to discover and share information about themselves and their family. Because we want to encourage people to share stories about their lives and the lives of family members, LifeTimes has no monthly or annual subscription fees.

So now family history is opened up to anyone, using the power of social media to drive new connections, information and insight.

HOW IT WORKS

Members are able to upload information they have already gathered into LifeTimes by importing a GEDCOM file (the standard file structure for family trees).

Members can then add events and locations about themselves or other family members together with photos, documents and other artefacts related to those events. This might be places they’ve lived, studied, worked or travelled.

Members can capture family stories by adding notes to events. They can share documents such as diaries, immigration records by adding documents to events and they can share memories and images by adding photos to event.
All of these can be shared with family members and friends based on the privacy settings selected.

Different privacy settings enables members to control who can see information they have posted about themselves or other family members.

As soon as a connection is found to another family group, your family and the people to whom you are connected can grow exponentially.

As information is added, relevant members are able to validate its accuracy, addressing one of the growing concerns with traditional online family history websites.

We are dedicated to helping our members discover their heritage and share their life experiences.

ABOUT THE FOUNDERS

Peter Williams is one of Australia’s leading proponents of the power of social media and a prolific blogger. Pete helps organisations harness the potential of the rapidly changing technology and societal environment. Through his role as the Chief Edge Officer for Deloitte Australia he has explored the big shifts that are changing our society and institutions. In addition to co-founding LifeTimes, Pete is an Adjunct Professor on innovation and digital disruption at RMIT School of Management.

Pete has traced his family back to England in the early 1900’s and his wife’s family back to Ireland in the 1820s.

Paul Wiebusch has been exploring how social connections can create a better way for people to collaborate in identifying the connections between people today and their ancestors. His interest in social connections arose when his family tree software reached its data capacity. Paul has worked in banking and professional services and is an avid amateur historian.

Paul has traced his family back to Devon, England in 1776 and to Germany in 1580.

For further information:

Media Relations
media.relations@LifeTimes.co