The Storehouse Collection of Memories is a personal history publishing service specializing in custom-designed books of memoirs, life stories and family histories.

We also prepare ethical wills, celebrations of pets, personal booklets of poetry and prose, and commemorative pieces for special occasions.  

We are Linda Lyman (left) and Marty Walton (right), two Quaker women with years of experience in interviewing, writing, editing, family therapy, and community and organizational development. Together, we began our life story business in 1995.

The Storehouse Collection of Memories is a member of the Association of Personal Historians,
an international educational organization dedicated to the professional collection and
preservation of life stories and memories.

Our philosophy

Four generations (from a 1955 photo)

The memories of older generations reach back to the early years of the twentieth century and form an invaluable record, not only of 'how things used to be,' but of how those elders responded to the challenges and opportunities of their times.

There is wisdom and guidance in those memories, as well as enduring love.

We want to help keep family stories alive and accessible so that present and future generations can know their own unique heritage.

Over the years, we have been blessed with many wonderful experiences.
Yet we have a few poignant regrets:

Linda's lost opportunities:

"My mother was born in 1889. She was very proud of her ancestors, tracking the family back to the American Revolution and well before that to England when, in 1630, her family sailed for New England.

 I remember how much Mom also loved to talk about the 'good old days,' marveling at how the world had changed during her lifetime. 

Yet it wasn't until just before she died in 1975 that she shared with me a closely-guarded secret about her own mother, whom I never knew.  

I was 45 years younger than my mother and deeply regret I was 'too busy' creating a career to ask searching questions or find a way to record her stories. It never occurred to me that one day I could no longer hear her voice, even in my memory."

 (My mother's picture is on our Home Page.)

"I can remember family stories of my mother's childhood—the visits to the country, the gleeful celebrations at Christmas, the sooty, coal-burning train going into the city.  

My grandfather and his brothers were doing important work during the first half of the Twentieth Century, but I listened with only half an ear—my mind was on my own life and activities.

And now, since they are gone, so are those stories. I have to be content with fragments because I never kept track of the details, circumstances, or puzzle pieces of their lives."

(The photo on the Telling Your Story page with the three little girls on the steps in 1913 is of my mother (left) with her older and younger sister.)

Our "Storehouse" logo

The spacious attic in the Victorian house pictured in our logo was a true "storehouse of memories" crammed with our family treasures accumulated through the years. The house wasn't always blanketed with winter snows, however.  Here it is in the spring and summer—
a fine house in any season.