A name made permanent, by hand.
An editorial-grade memorial produced by Honored Ancestors' team on your behalf — researched, verified, and entered into the public record at a register your family deserves.
Most digital memorials are what a family can assemble in an afternoon. A Commissioned Memorial is what a family receives when they ask the institution to do the work — research, verification, drafting, ceremony — at the standard the institution holds for itself. The Submission Advisor is the front door; an editor takes the relationship from there.
Every Commission produces a memorial entered into The Great Archive alongside the editorial waves we curate ourselves. Every published Commission carries the Verified mark, a small gold seal indicating the editorial methodology has been applied. Verification is itself the brand promise: every fact stated as fact in a Commissioned Memorial is corroborated by at least two independent sources, with primary sources preferred where available, and the full citation set is preserved in an IPFS-pinned attestation document linked from the memorial's footer.
Not ready for a Commission yet? Our Free Family Research offering is in preparation — AI-assisted ancestor research at no charge, conducted under the same editorial discipline that stands behind every Commissioned Memorial. Be notified when ready →
Three tiers, one methodology
You research with structured guidance from an Advisor; HA verifies your assembled facts against public records and drafts the memorial in HA voice.
- Advisor consultation by phone or email
- Research templates and source lists provided
- Editorial verification against public records
- Drafted in HA voice, two revision rounds
- Verified mark on publication
- IPFS-pinned attestation document
- Typical turnaround: 2-3 weeks
HA's editorial team conducts the research — public records, census, military, immigration, vital records, newspaper archives — and produces a fully written, verified memorial you review and approve.
- HA-led research, 5-10 hours
- Public records, census, military, vital records
- Newspaper archive search (Library of Congress)
- Full editorial drafting in HA voice
- Two revision rounds, two-source verification
- Verified mark + IPFS-pinned attestation
- Typical turnaround: 4-6 weeks
A multi-week engagement: archival research across generations, family interviews, primary-source photographs and documents, definitive editorial. The full bespoke service.
- HA-led deep research, 15-25 hours
- All Standard sources + archival cross-reference
- Family interviews (recorded with consent)
- Photograph annotation and provenance
- Three revision rounds, multi-pass editorial
- Verified mark + IPFS-pinned attestation
- Optional private presentation ceremony
- Typical turnaround: 8-12 weeks
If you are uncertain which tier fits your family's needs, choose Advisor to recommend below. An advisor will reach out within three to five business days, listen to what you are hoping to recover, and propose the right scope.
Verification — what the gold seal means
Every Commissioned Memorial that publishes to the archive carries the Verified mark. The mark is not decorative; it is a contract. When the seal is present on a memorial page, the family and the public can trust the following:
- Two-source rule. Every fact stated as fact in the memorial — dates, places, relationships, occupations, military service, institutional affiliations — is corroborated by at least two independent sources. Where a primary source exists (a census, a vital record, a military service record, a contemporary newspaper), at least one of the two is primary.
- Family corroboration. Personal and sensitive details — causes of death, family relationships not in public record, achievements known only within the family — require explicit confirmation by a family member who knew the ancestor or holds the family's records. We do not infer.
- Cited attestation. Each verified fact carries a citation in the memorial's editorial document. The full citation set is preserved as a separate attestation PDF pinned to IPFS and linked from the memorial's footer. The attestation survives the company; the citations live as long as the open IPFS network does.
- Editor's methodology note. Each Commissioned Memorial includes a signed methodology note naming the editor, the research date range, the sources consulted, and any limitations encountered. Memorials whose research surfaced unresolvable gaps are published with those gaps named explicitly; we do not fabricate to fill.
Memorials submitted through the free Submit a Story path or through the paid Memorial Legacy tier do not carry the Verified mark, because verification is editorial labor we have not yet performed on them. Their families vouched for their own facts; the public record adds nothing further. Both kinds of memorial belong in the archive. The Verified mark is what distinguishes the ones where the institution itself stood behind every claim.
Request a commission
An advisor will read your request within one business day and reach out within three to five. Anything you share here is treated as confidential editorial material.