Library of Family Histories

PREPARE TO BE UNDERWHELMED.

 

Growing up far away from my family, I have always been very curious about my heritage. I have found that learning about my family history has been quite paradoxical. My most recent family history has been lost in the Cultural Revolution but my rare last name has allowed me to learn a highly usual amount about my “older” family history. From what I’ve gathered this is not very usual in China because of China’s massive population. Consequently, my fictional library would be one of family histories.
The library is both a digital library and a library of artifacts. I want this library to be very accessible so everyone that wanted to learn more would be able to get a username and password to access their entire family history. It would function very similarly to any other digital database. From typing keywords of things one was interested in into a search bar, relevant documents like old news articles about events that affected their family or ancestor’s diary entries would pop up that one could select to read. The library of artifacts would contain copies of important family heirlooms that have been lost in history. The only feasible way I imagine this very much fictional library that contains the history of all of humankind to exist would be underground, and it would stretch all the way to the Earth’s core. Meaning that the older the artifact you are searching for, the further underground you would have to go to access it. This could sort of work if you imagine that every generation literally builds their lives over the past generations’.