Most families already have the raw material of their history: boxes of photos, half-remembered stories, and the voices of relatives that exist only in old recordings or in memory. What they usually lack is a simple place to keep all of that together in a simple, easy format that allows the collection of stories to grow for future generations.
That is the gap Dave Gratton set out to fill with Easy Speak Stories, a private platform he describes as “a family journal for the digital age.” Gratton, 83, recently launched the site after a long successful career in business, convinced that Facebook and similar platforms were never built for this kind of preservation. Photos get buried in feeds. Stories stay scattered. And once a generation is gone, much of what they knew is gone with them.
Easy Speak Stories is built around interaction and conversation rather than blank pages. STORI, the personal AI story creator, generates questions tailored to a relative’s life — for example, where they were born and what the neighborhood was like, what their teenage years felt like, whether they played sports, which childhood memory still stands out. “Can you remember the smells that came from Mom’s kitchen?” Those answers become the foundation of shared stories that anyone in the family can add to over time. “Memories are evoked that have long been forgotten, it is so much fun,” states Gratton.
One of the more distinctive features lets families upload, or create, short clips of someone speaking — perhaps even a beloved relative who has already passed — and have STORI the personal story creator recreate that voice to read the finished stories aloud. Stories can also be translated into other languages, and expanded with richer descriptive detail so they read more like a narrative than a transcript.
STORI can enhance the stories by adding drama and emotion, while keeping the storyteller in control. Gratton says he is still refining and adding tools as the platform grows. ”In this digital age where we find ourselves being separated by technology, Easy Speak Stories has been designed to bring families, groups and organizations together in a common, private, living document narrative, for generations to come. You are literally making history, now.”
He said it is superior to having a service assist someone with writing a book about their family stories. “Companies will send you questions and then use AI to write a book,” he said. “But the book will go on a shelf. We’re no longer a book society; we’re a digital society. You are in control with Easy Speak Stories. You write your stories in your time, in your language. It is so much fun.”
The speech-to-text feature allows seniors who may have difficulty typing, to just speak into the onsite microphone. The story is magically transformed into text, the voice is preserved, and it is all so easy. No tech ability is required.
Gratton sees a future where Easy Speak Stories can help a wide variety of people develop conversational skills, from older residents of memory care facilities all the way to small children who use tablets from a young age. Veterans with PTSD, law enforcement, first responders, all can share experiences privately, and stay in touch, providing positive reinforcement, as described in the Enterprise tier.
Access stays inside the family. Stories are not public; only those with logins can see them. A three-day free trial is available. No credit card, no obligation. After that, if you wish to proceed, an individual login is $15 a month, a family plan covering five users is $40 a month, and a Generational Plan for 20 users is $100 a month. If someone closes an account, they can download their material; if they return later, the account can be restored with everything still in place.
Every subscription includes: AI cost of use, ease of function, professional results, encryption, safety, privacy, longevity, and above all, a fun, exciting experience.
“Endeavoring to write the stories of your life with no professional tools or personal experience is a daunting task. Trying to build a personal website with a collection of stories may sound easy but once it becomes interactive it becomes incredibly complex and costly,” Gratton states.
The idea grew out of his own path. Born in Australia, he moved to Canada in 1966 with his wife, an eight-month-old child, and $79 in his pocket. He later settled in Arizona, built a substantial business, and sold it a couple of years ago. Once free of day-to-day operations, and dabbling with AI to help him develop his own life story, he became deeply interested in what AI could do for families who wish to preserve their heritage for generations to come — and decided the most useful application was helping them keep their own voices and stories alive.
For him, it was a way he could give back to the community after a successful career.