Ponga Community

Ponga's Marvel in front of a computer ready to take calls and offer live chat.

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Special "Porch Swing" event for Ponga at RootsTech 2023, now available on demand.

We had a Party 🎉

For us, RootsTech is like camp. We get to see all our friends, swap stories, and get creative.

It's just so inspiring for us to reconnect with our Ponga Community and learn more about how our Ponga members and their guests use the software with their photos and stories to reconnect with their families.

For the 2023 Rootstech event, we couldn't be there in the melting snow at the Salt Palace, but we had our virtual booth with chat and events.

Featuring Kathy Stone

Kathy's Corner

A signature image for Kathy's Corner a special program scheduled monthly to walk through the challenges of capturing family stories from pictures.

In a remarkable new program led by photo organization expert, Kathy Stone of Calgary Photo Solutions. Kathy will share her own journey of preserving and sharing the stories in her own photos, prints, and family heirlooms.

Join Kathy Stone on her journey of preserving and sharing stories through her personal collection of photos, prints, and family heirlooms.

With decades of experience as a professional trainer and photo organizer for the legendary families of the Canadian Rockies, Kathy Kathy can offer special insight to help you quickly overcome obstacles and "get to the good part."

Given the mountain of work that seems to overwhelm so many of us looking at family history projects, Kathy can be your "sherpa over mount inertia."

Ponga hosts a variety of programs and events for our community and the general public.

Join our list to be notified about upcoming events!

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🤔 Let's try that again.

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For Everyone

✓ Inspiring the Younger Generation - A guide of fun ways for younger generations to engage in family history. Hybrid.
✓ Storytelling through Photos - An interactive gathering to share ideas and stories through photos on Ponga. Hybrid.
✓ Discovering Details - A mini-lecture series that examines the details in a photo and how to select them using Ponga. Virtual.
✓ Conferences and Gatherings - Visit Ponga at Large to see where Ponga will be for both live and virtual industry events.

For Ponga Members & their Guests

✓ Kathy's Corner - a remarkable new monthly program led by photo organization expert, Kathy Stone, will be your "Sherpa over Mt. Inertia." Learn more and register here.
✓ New Member Welcome - Each month, members are invited to an online party to welcome you aboard. Pick a session here.
✓ Masterclass - Annual plan members are welcome to schedule a masterclass for their family. Get everyone in on the storytelling. Virtual. Pick a session here. (Requires annual membership.)
✓ Porch Swing - A periodic session for members to share and inspire one another. Hybrid. See recording. Join our update list to hear about upcoming events.
✓ Member Posts - Ponga members are always welcome to share ideas, insights, and techniques as a Member Blog post. See posts others have contributed and reach out directly if you'd like to add your own.
✓ Topical Social Media Shares - In our social media channels we're regularly celebrating the work of our members and other pieces we think might be interesting. Reach out directly to suggest material you think might interest the community.

Casual “Zoomin‘ Sessions” with Ponga members & guests

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Amberly Russell: Sharing stories of experiences in the armed forces, Nov. 2021

As part of Ponga's Zoomin' series in 2021, US Army Veteran, archivist, and photographer Amberly Russell, Preservation Services Manager at Permanent brought her unique set of skills to the challenge of talking to loved ones about their experiences in the armed services.

Zoomin' on Ponga

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Tami Mize: Family History & Stories

This month, we welcomed a very special guest in honor of Family History Month, Tami Mize of ConferenceKeeper.org and Relativelycurious.com. During this hour-long session, Tami shares the importance of retelling family stories and how she's been using Ponga to connect with her own stories and share what she's learned through her genealogical research. She shares family stories that connect her to not only Jonathan apples, but also Ivory soap and the Queen of England.

Zoomin' on Ponga

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Karen Ray: Tips & Techniques for Storytelling on Ponga

We were thrilled to welcome Karen Ray of RememberingTheTime to our Zoomin' on Ponga series with “Tips & Techniques for Storytelling on Ponga.” Karen Ray brings her unique perspective on family storytelling to Ponga as a member herself. As our guest speaker, Karen talked about her process with fun interactive exercises and suggestions for ways you might use Ponga in different ways.

Zoomin' on Ponga

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Swapping Stories and Conversation, August 2021

This was the summer 2021 version of a series of open conversations for Ponga members, their guests, and those new to Ponga. Conversations, questions, and suggestions flow as everyone joins in on an open conversation sharing ideas, stories, product feedback, and building community. For more articles about using Ponga, see Tips & Tricks articles and subscribe to our YouTube channel.‍

Zoomin' on Ponga

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Kathy Stone: A Professional Photo Organizer and Archivist Tells Family Stories

On Friday, July 30, 2021, we were honored to have Kathy Stone of calgaryphotosolutions.ca, the Calgary-based, professional photo organizer and archivist, talk about how she dug into her own family stories using Ponga. During the hour-long session attended by participants from around the world, Kathy shared her family pictures and how she was able to use Ponga to associate documents, postcards and other artifacts relevant to the stories passed down to her in her family. Kathy's graciously invited viewers to her pictures to explore the details.

Zoomin' on Ponga

Photo Organization

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Victoria MacGregor: Turn a photo book into an interactive album by "Ponga-porting"

Victoria shares her special strategy for turning a photo book into an interactive Ponga album. This discussion builds on her posts at Ponga Tips & Tricks. To explore the album, request an invitation at victoriaspress.com

Zoomin' on Ponga

Sharing + Crowdsourcing

Member-Contributed Courses: Victoria MacGregor

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Victoria's Press: Part 4 — Expectations and Examples - Presenting and sharing a family tree

Final episode - Part 4 - Expectations and Examples: In this 4 part series, I am going to show you how to create an online family tree using a handful of programs, House Elves Anonymous, Canva.com, Ponga.com and Permanent.org, that will give you a permanent place to track, attach sources and memories, and share with others in a format that is easy to create and understand—secure and private.

Posts from our Member Community

A Flame of Memory Sparked by a Swimsuit

The sharing of an old photograph, and a memory, isn’t a popularity contest, or a “what-ya think” moment. It’s not about the number of hearts or likes it collects. Leave that to social media and random current event images. Sharing an old photograph, can and should be the starting point for a walk down memory lane. Or perhaps the discrete reveal of stories shared with one relative but not to another.

Victoria MacGregor

Searching for Lost Stories Together

As we share the details we find in pictures, clues lead from one story to the next. Connecting the dots with context and memories we soon reconnect as a family. Having reached out to my tier-one and tier-two relatives, siblings, cousins, nieces, and nephews, I experienced pure unadulterated joy. Their comments, remembrances, and reconnections have been beyond amazing. I invited my family to the storyboard albums I’d created, …Then… I remembered Myrna. The game was afoot!

Victoria MacGregor

I found all my Family Photos during the Pandemic. Now What?

Following these steps will help you get your photos in order. Once you have the physical artifacts organized, you can digitize your collection and will be ready to get your digital collection into Ponga where you automatically organize them by person and start sharing your photos and the stories that go with them.

Kathy Stone

3 Great Benefits of Crowdsourcing Family Stories from Old Photos

How does identifying the individual(s) in one photograph benefit my research? It’s more than curiosity. I want to be able to tell those individuals’ stories! I want to know the family stories contained within those old family photographs.

Lisa Lisson