Have Heirlooms You Want to Pass Down? Make Your Kids Download This App

WHILE PLANNING a move, Kathy Luck’s elderly parents walked her through their Houston home, recounting the origins of each knickknack and piece of furniture acquired over a lifetime of travel and collecting. “I remember thinking I’d love to share these family stories with my siblings, and I’m sure all the grandchildren would be interested,” said Luck, 65, “but if I called everybody on the phone right this minute, nobody would care.” 

She wished her phone had a feature that would let her take a photo of each item and record her parents telling its story. Within the year, she and app development firm Designli launched Thingealogy, which does exactly that. 

It’s a useful tool for the moment. As baby boomers with large homes downsize, it can be difficult for younger family members to determine what’s most important, especially when, as Luck points out, “the thing itself is only valuable because of its story.” 

Here, three inventory apps that make it simple to keep several generations’ worth of mementos neatly organized, and ensure that, even if that tarnished, dented silver bread plate from the Depression era has little monetary value, its history is safe in a digital memory bank.

1. Thingealogy 

You need little tech savvy to master this user-friendly free iPhone app. Snap an item’s photo, hit record and tell its story. Your audio is automatically transcribed, and other fields let you note the piece’s value and who it should be given to. A collaboration feature lets the whole family add to the archive. Thingealogy.com

2. Sortly 

Though it’s designed for small business inventory, this app can also help catalog personal belongings. Tagging and categorizing features make it a good choice for big collections of pricey objects. The free version allows 100 entries, while the $50 a month advanced package has space for 2,000 plus more customizable fields. Sortly.com

3. Elephant Trax 

This app helps you track what’s tucked away in storage. First, order custom QR code labels through Amazon, Home Depot, Walmart or the Elephant Trax website, then add photos and scan labels as you pack. Each box is assigned a QR code, so the app can tell you where all your treasures are hidden and what’s inside. Elephant-Trax.com

A Journey into One Family’s Archives

Our writer tested these apps on her own prized possessions—beloved bequests with little monetary worth and scads of sentimental value.

Irene’s Machine 

My paternal grandmother, Irene, made it her life’s mission to feed the world. Or, at least, the greater Philadelphia area. All those meals were anchored by pasta—paper-thin lasagne sheets, fat fettuccine, angel hair so delicate it could melt right into the water if you left it a minute too long—all of it cranked out of her trusty midcentury pasta machine. It’s got a place of honor in my kitchen now, still in its beat-up red and yellow box. When I pass it on to my daughter, I want to be sure the tales of Irene’s kitchen go with it. 

A Kid’s Key 

I can remember like it was yesterday: dashing through the Philadelphia Zoo with a teal plastic, elephant-shaped key clutched in my palm. It was a thrill to be the first to reach the metal boxes, where a turn of the key triggered a recording: the grainy voice of a zookeeper sharing facts about the animals. Philadelphia brought back Zoo Keys a few years ago, and on a recent visit I bought my toddler her own, but my original will always unlock warm childhood memories. 

Poppy’s Polaroid 

My maternal grandfather has always been an instant-gratification kind of guy. Maybe that’s why he loved the Polaroid camera. There are stacks of the shots it took tucked in boxes in my basement, but the camera itself lives on a shelf in my living room. The pictures are important, sure—but when I look at the camera I can see Poppy pointing it at us, laughing at something he wanted to remember forever. 

A Benrus for a Baby 

The day our daughter, Beryl, was born, I gave my husband a mechanical Benrus watch. It’s a classic, no-frills model from the company that accessorized Charles Lindbergh, Babe Ruth and Steve McQueen, and the timelessness is the point. He comes from a fractured family and doesn’t have many tangible relics, so I gifted him an heirloom-to-be; something he’ll pass down one day along with its origin story, and the memory of the day he became a dad. 

Constitutional Connection 

It’s legendary Morgan family lore: My great grandfather, John J. Morgan, sailed on “Old Ironsides,” the USS Constitution. This distinction has always been a point of pride, and the proof is in his discharge papers, which are so precious that their possession has sparked family feuds. Now—in their app-based iteration, anyway—they’re accessible to the whole family.