Artifcts' continues to win the hearts and key strokes of those with a passion for family lore, history, and genealogy, earning recognition for a third consecutive years in Family Tree Magazine's 101 Best Genealogy Websites of 2025.

Family Tree Magazine's 101 Best Genealogy Websites are organized into roughly a dozen categories, including Best "Big" Genealogy Websites, Best Family Tree & Sharing Websites, and Best Genealogy Tech Tools (including Artifcts!). And this year 14 sites newly made the list. The team at Artifcts extends a warm congratulations to all awardees!

Why does Artifcts, with no family history research database or family tree builder, support family history discovery and preservation aims? It's by design, and with tremendous feedback from genealogists, too.

Artifcts offers the ease of social media, but with privacy and control over your data at its foundation. It also prides itself on avoiding the creation of a story burden. The mere fact that someone chooses to Artifct a particular item speaks volumes. And through Artifcts, you will transform objects into memories, relieving loved ones of the guilt and burden that would otherwise come someday when they inherit it all and must decide what to do with it next. 

During a recent series of focus groups facilitated by the AgeTech Collaborative from AARP, and led by the founders of Artifcts, the "no story burden" approach was validated yet again. Participants lamented being given books to fill in the blanks, a new project they didn't ask for. They also expressed frustration with automated questions. They want to handle their stories, their way, in their own time.

"Artifcts is unlocking the secret sauce to capturing stories and memories. We don't ask for the story first. We simply ask, 'What is this? What does it matter to you? And what do you want to do with it next?' and the stories unlock themselves, one after another," shared Artifcts Co-founder Ellen Goodwin.

"Exactly!" said Artifcts Co-founder Heather Nickerson. "We have to help people with all - that - stuff and also meet them where they're at. If you only have time for a bite-sized story, great, you can do that. And even better? With our ever-shrinking attention spans, your odds that friends and family will read or listen to that Artifcted story are vastly improved."

____________

Artifcts is a patented and award-winning web- and mobile-based platform. From saving memories as you declutter to preserving the value of your things, Artifcts offers people of all ages and walks of life a digital way to organize & capture the meaning behind the objects of their lives. What will you Artifct first? Start free --> 

###

© 2025 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Artifcts® is proud to announce that its co-founder Heather Nickerson has been named 2025 NAPO Washington DC Metro Chapter (NAPO-WDC) Business Partner of the Year for the second consecutive year. The nominating committee noted, "Heather successfully corrals our many BPs into a very high functioning, cohesive group that benefits our chapter. Her calm demeanor, intelligence, and focus on helping others really stands out." The committee also noted that, "Artifcts provides articles and free programming that add value to our chapter."

“I am humbled and excited that our local NAPO chapter recognizes the value we bring to the organizing industry,” Heather stated. “We know Artifcts and organizing go hand in hand, and we love working with our NAPO-WDC professional members to help them grow and scale their businesses. We've seen first hand how Artifcts can help clients stay organized, and part with the 'tough stuff' that may be taking up their much-needed space.”

From decluttering to organizing to making sense of life’s ‘stuff,’ Artifcts is designed to pair beautifully with the organizing industry, from solopreneurs to nationwide franchises. Artifcts Advisory Board Member and founder of Clutter Cleaner Matt Paxton added in response to the news, “I tell clients all the time that Artifcts is THE perfect tool to help them keep the memories and let go of the ‘stuff.’”

Start Artifcting today. Create your free membership here ->

###

© 2025 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

We interrupt your normal Wednesday ARTIcles story to offer you greetings from Boston, Massachusetts. The Artifcts co-founders flew to Boston yesterday to take part in a multi-day launch of the MassChallenge Early-Stage Accelerator program, one of the world’s top accelerator programs. What’s that? Read on!

As a self-funded, patented startup poised to become a household name—because, let’s face it, who doesn’t have stuff or stories—the team at Artifcts wants to ensure that we’re delivering to you not just the best product to capture the stories, history, and value of all you collect, accumulate, and inherit in life, but that we do so always with an eye toward the best in tech, the best in how we operate (lean!), and more.

MassChallenge is a global network for innovators working to solve massive challenges. MassChallenge connects startups, experts, corporations, and communities to grow and transform businesses and does not take any equity from companies who participate. According to Mass Challenge, the early-stage accelerator has facilitated a remarkable $9B+ in funding for its cohorts.

Of the 1,300+ companies to apply, Artifcts was selected along with approximately 120 others to work together over the next 3 months with industry mentors and partners to challenge how we operate, means to improve, and of course how to grow. While you won’t see any immediate change at Artifcts as we work through the program, we hope that we’ll come out stronger than ever and with new ideas for how to better connect with you and help you to enjoy all that Artifcts offers.

In the meantime, please, continue to Artifct. Share Artifcts with friends and family. We may not have the marketing budget of a goliath corporation, but we have amazing community members who want to see Artifcts succeed. We’re so grateful. And, if you have ideas of what you’d like to see next at Artifcts, or even suggestions for what we could do to make your experience better, let us know! We love and take feedback from our ARTI community to heart.

Wish us luck as we roll up our sleeves and dive into the MassChallenge world!

###

Curious about what else we've been up to?

Explore some of Artifcts' other "As featured in" and awards through the years.

© 2024 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Artifcts' growing resonance with and persistent innovation supporting genealogists, family historians, and those who simply love a good story, has helped it retain its status as one of the best genealogy technology tools of 2024, according to Family Tree Magazine.

Last year marked Artifcts' premiere in the annual "best of" list from Family Tree Magazine. The Artifcts team was delighted and surprised by the honor, in nearly equal measure.

"In our minds, genealogists were beyond our reach at Artifcts because their research is organized around people and ancestorial lines. At Artifcts, we organize around the object first and foremost," said Artifcts Co-Founder Ellen Goodwin. The reality is, by Artifcts moving the world to take a new view on 'stuff' and the importance of retaining the stories, history, and value behind the objects we collect and inherit, Artifcts resonates with people of all ages and walks of life.

Artifcts delivered a variety of new features over the last year that genealogists and historians have celebrated.

Artifcts timelines was the first. The ability to now snap your Artifcts collection into a timeline view powers you to see gaps, identify trends, and even make note of these with "time period notes" directly on your timeline. And unlike a photo gallery, a very familiar feature of most genealogy platforms, each image in your timeline is clickable, revealing more photos and videos, supporting documentation, and, of course, the story connecting the dots.

Another new feature resonating with genealogists, many of whom are what we refer to as the family keepers, is the Artifcts QR code stickers. "People need the easy button. Scan, complete the Artifct, and place the sticker on your photo sleeve, archival box, or item. Your Artifcting progress is now visible and the stories even more accessible," said Artifcts Co-Founder Heather Nickerson.

Family Tree Magazine's 101 Best Genealogy Websites are organized into roughly a dozen categories, including Best "Big" Genealogy Websites, Best Genealogy News Websites and Blogs, and Best Genealogy Tech Tools (including Artifcts!). And this year 19 sites newly made the list. We wish a warm congratulations to all awardees!

###

© 2024 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Artifcts® is proud to announce that its co-founder Heather Nickerson has been named 2024 NAPO Washington DC Metro Chapter (NAPO-WDC) Business Partner of the Year. The nominating committee noted, "Heather offers her expertise during [NAPO-WDC] discussions and generously shares her Artifcts experiences to support our efforts with our clients."

“I am humbled and excited that our local NAPO chapter recognizes the value we bring to the organizing industry,” Heather stated. “We know Artifcts and organizing go better together, and we love working with our NAPO-WDC professional members to help them help their clients.”

From decluttering to organizing to making sense of life’s ‘stuff,’ Artifcts is designed to pair beautifully with the organizing industry, from solopreneurs to nationwide franchises. Artifcts Advisory Board Member Matt Paxton added in response to the news, “I tell clients all the time that Artifcts is THE perfect tool to help them keep the memories and let go of the ‘stuff.’”

Start Artifcting today. Create your free membership here ->

###

© 2024 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.