SEATTLE, Nov. 15, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Every day, millions of pieces of family history are lost to a natural disaster or just disintegrate as old film, tape, paper photos and documents fail to withstand the test of time. Meanwhile, other memories created with yesterday's technology might no longer be able to be viewed as computers no longer have Floppy Disk Drives or SCSI ports, and now even displaying popular Flash based content can be a challenge.

This new digital preservation service will help solve both problems – and many other issues you probably wouldn't have thought of.

"Gen-Ark^™ is the first company to truly solve the major issues families face when trying to make sure current and future generations will be able to enjoy their rich family history," said Peter Schmitt, CEO of Gen-Ark (short for Generational Archiving).

Gen-Ark helps preserve all your digital content as well as any content that can be digitized (Photos, videos, audio, documents, letters, newspapers and paintings). Gen-Ark perpetually cares for all the sentimental content that represents your family history so that it can be enjoyed by current and future family members. Gen-Ark provides a secure, private, long-term online storage and archiving environment to preserve, share and enjoy your family content.

"We are passionate about helping families preserve as much of their history and values as possible because we know how important it is that every child have the opportunity to learn about their family and their family's values so that they feel connected and supported by their roots as they try to navigate an increasingly complex world," he said.

"Imagine the joy on your great-great-great grandchildren's faces as they browse pictures and videos or hear audio files and read documents about you and your life, and that of your parents and grandparents," he said.

Gen-Ark helps people answer these questions about perpetual family history preservation:

• How can I preserve family photos, videos and documents?
• How can I make sure everyone in my family has "controlled" access to the sentimental content that makes up our family's history and can pass that access on to the next generations?
• How can I achieve perpetual preservation of family memorabilia and protect against deterioration and disasters (fire, flooding, theft, tornados, hurricanes and earthquakes)?
• How can I ensure my children will still be able to view files stored in our digital family archive as technology changes over time?

"At Gen-Ark we spend all our time developing solutions that ensure your family's history will be safe and live on as a legacy," he said.

"We are the first generation capable of creating and leaving behind a rich digital legacy of family history.  What a shame it would be if all the content your descendants end up having about your family is just publically available (birth, death, marriage and census) records when other families will have so much more," he said.

Unlike genealogy sites that show basic ancestry information and maybe a photo or two, Gen-Ark helps you leave a rich treasure trove of multi-media content that actually demonstrates how people lived and their (values, talents, accomplishments and challenges), so future generations have a chance to get to know who their ancestors really were as well see important event (birth and marriage) content.

"The elder members of families seem to really enjoy adding stories behind that old sentimental content to the family archive, knowing it will be preserved and enjoyed by all their descendants," he said.   

Unlike some cloud-based services, Gen-Ark users retain ownership of their content. Some services require you to sign away rights to your own files. Most people don't realize this because they don't read user licenses. Other services provide no means to pass on access to files after the client dies, which could mean no one in the family will be able to access the content.

Unlike free social networking sites, which have a history of going out of business or only hosting low-quality (resolution) versions of content, Gen-Ark users are assured of accessing original and online accessible versions of data far into the future since they can adapt file formats as technology standards change. You can even use the content you put in Gen-Ark's online archiving platform to re-feed social networking platforms as they upgrade and support higher resolutions.

To help protect data and preserve memories, online content is maintained and protected in professionally managed, highly secure, geographically dispersed data centers which can be moved if needed in the future.

Persons who take pride in creating their family histories can contact Gen-Ark  for:

• Free consultation with a preservation specialist regarding your family history preservation needs.
• Download free "Getting Started Preserving your Family History" E-Book.

Become a Gen-Ark Member now and get instant access to:

• Free e-book download: How to Start Preserving Your Family History.
• Periodic newsletters with tips on preserving family history.
• Discounts and offers for key services to help preserve your family history.
• Free consultation on your family's digital preservation needs.

Gen-Ark customers can:

• Select a permanent vanity URL that will be the same for all generations.
• Find memories easily with fully indexed and searchable documents
• Create and share PDFs of anything and view them with the cool flip book feature
• Rate content so others family members can see the most popular items
• Associate an audio file of your grandmother telling the story behind a sentimental photo, priceless
• The funds you pay for our service (minus a small setup fee) are put in a professionally managed trust from one of the oldest and most trusted trust banks to ensure adequate funds are available to perpetually care for the content that makes up your family history.

For more information or a free consultation go to http://gen-ark.com.

SOURCE Gen-Ark