What happens to my entries if I stop using Sojourner?

You can export everything you've written at any time. We're building Sojourner so the data still belongs to you the day you decide to leave.

How is this different from a photo app?

Photo apps are great at remembering what something looked like. They're not great at remembering what it felt like, or what someone said, or what you were arguing about in the car five minutes before. Sojourner is the words that go around the photos.

Will my kids be able to read this when they're older?

Yes — that's most of the point. You can hand them their own journal as a PDF or Markdown export, or invite them in directly when they're old enough.

Do I have to write every day?

No. There's no streak, no shame, no notification you can't turn off. Most people write a few times a week and pick up the pace around trips, holidays, and the bits that matter.

Family history

Keep the stories that make your family yours

Write down the things you'd hate to forget — the way she said 'pasketti', the road trip you took the long way home, your grandma's chicken-and-rice — in a private journal you can pass down.

Start your family journal See how it works

Private

by default

No public feed, ever

1 / kid

per-child journals

Their story, not a sub-thread

On this day

across years

Better the longer you write

Yours

to export

Markdown + JSON, anytime

Built around how families actually remember

Most journals are built for one person and one feed. Family memories don't work that way.

A journal per person

Keep your own private space, a separate one for each kid, a shared one with your partner — all under one roof.

On this day, across years

Open Sojourner on a Tuesday and see what you were doing on this Tuesday for the last few years.

Private, not performative

Nothing is ever public. Sharing is a deliberate act with one person you invite, not a default.

The bits that disappear first

The half-invented words. The bedtime songs. The way she explained how birthdays work. Worth writing down.

Mara's journal

Age 4 · Tuesday

“I'm not little, I'm just short of being big.”

#quote#mara#bedtime

The little things disappear first

Photos remember the big days — birthdays, the trip to the beach, the first day of school. But the bits that actually make childhood feel like childhood — the half-invented words, the songs at bedtime, the way your dad always burns the pancakes the same way — those slip out of memory if no one writes them down. Sojourner is built for the writing-down part.

Designed for the way families actually remember

Most journaling apps are built around a single person, a single feed, a single timeline. Family memories don't work that way. In Sojourner you can keep a private journal for yourself and a separate one for each kid, tag entries with the people they're about, and look back at 'on this day' across years to see what you were doing one, two, five Aprils ago.

What's inside

Private by default

Your entries are yours. No public feed, no algorithmic resurfacing, no 'memories' notification you can't turn off. You decide what gets shared with the rest of your family and when.

On this day, across years

Open Sojourner on a Tuesday and see what you were doing on this Tuesday for the last few years. The same week your daughter learned to ride a bike. The week you brought the puppy home.

Photos that have somewhere to live

Drop a few photos into an entry and the moment is saved with the words around it — not as a phone full of context-free thumbnails.

Trips and travel

Group entries into trips so everything from one week or one summer is together — the food, the wrong turns, the hike where the seven-year-old refused to walk the last mile.

Tag the people, find the moment

Tag entries with who they're about. Years later, pull up every entry that mentions your daughter, or every Christmas, in a few clicks.

Print-ready exports

Export a year — or a child's whole journal — as a clean PDF or Markdown bundle. The book your grandkids will still be able to open.

How families use it

1
Start with one journal
Make it your own — the catch-all for the week. Three sentences a day is plenty. Don't aim for the diary; aim for the breadcrumbs.
2
Add a journal for each kid
Their funny lines, their firsts, the school photos. Their story, kept separately so you can hand them their own book one day.
3
Tag a trip when one happens
Mark a stretch of entries as a trip and Sojourner gathers them — entries, photos, places — into one little travelogue.
4
Look back, on this day
A year in, the journal starts paying you back: today's date, every year you've kept it.

Perfect for…

New parent

The first year nobody can quite remember

Three lines a night while you're up anyway. A year later you'll have the whole thing back.

Grandparents

Stories before they're gone

Sit down on Sundays and write the ones you grew up hearing. Share the journal with the rest of the family.

Annual review

A year's worth of small wins

Open December and you'll have the whole year in your own words — not just the highlight reel.

Big move

The chapter you'll want to remember

First week in the new house, the wrong turns, the neighbour who brought banana bread. Tag it as a trip.

Frequently asked

You can share specific entries (or whole journals) with people you invite, but each person has their own private space by default. We've found families do best when each adult has their own journal and they share the moments they want to share, instead of writing in a single shared feed.

Start the family archive you'll be glad you have in ten years

Free to try. Bring your own memories.

Create your journal