When a relative passes, the family suddenly has a lot of photos and very little structure for them. A memorial vault is a quiet, private way to gather the keepers in one place — for the immediate family first, then for cousins and friends as it feels right. It’s not a public tribute or a social post. It’s the digital equivalent of the photo box that comes out at every reunion.
This guide is intentionally short. The work is mostly choosing what to include, captioning what you remember, and sharing carefully.
What to include
Restraint matters. A memorial vault with twelve well-captioned photos is more valuable than one with two hundred uncaptioned ones.
- Three to ten photos that the family already loves. Not all the photos — the keepers. Wedding portraits, the good candid from the kitchen table, the one of them holding a grandchild.
- A short biographical note: dates, places, the few sentences that recur in family stories. Keep it simple — a paragraph, not an obituary.
- Captions on each photo. Who else is in it, when and where it was taken, the story behind it if you know one. The Archive Note panel on every photo gives you a Who · When · Where · What · Story field set.
- Optional: a restored version of the print that needed it most. A faded portrait that finally looks like the person again is often the centerpiece.
Who to invite
- Immediate family first — children, siblings, partner. Send the link before the funeral if you can.
- Then extended family — cousins, in-laws, close friends. The vault is a way for them to see and contribute photos you don’t have.
- Avoid making it public. Memorial vaults are deliberately invite-only. There is no public profile, no algorithm, no social feed. Privacy is the point.
A quiet rhythm
There’s no rush. The vault is for the family that needs it.
- Day 1–2: Pick the keepers. Don’t try to include everything. The vault works because it’s curated.
- Day 3–5: Caption what you remember. Names and stories you don’t know yet can stay blank — relatives will fill them in.
- Day 7–14: Send the vault link to immediate family. Watch what they add and identify. The vault grows by hand, not by force.
- Month 1+: Open invitations to extended family in a small wave. Add new photos as they surface. Some vaults stay quiet; some become an ongoing place to remember.
What relatives see
When a relative opens the vault link, they see a private gallery — the photos you chose, the captions you wrote, and a way to add their own photos and notes if you’ve enabled contributor access. They do not need a Nostalgia account to view. They do need one to contribute.
What stays out
- Public profiles. There aren’t any in Nostalgia.
- Search engines. Vaults are invite-only and not indexed.
- AI training. Photos in your vaults are never used to train any model.
- Algorithms. The order of photos in a vault is the order you choose, not what an algorithm decides.
Related
- Memorial Vaults feature page — how the feature works in product detail.
- Family Vaults — the broader vault primitive that memorial vaults build on.
- Archive Notes — the captioning panel that makes the vault meaningful in ten years.
- Organizing inherited photos — the broader playbook a memorial vault often kicks off.