We live over a billion seconds - don't they fly by in a flash?
What's really important to you?
The things you cannot put a price on! Your photos, negatives, keepsakes, and family heirlooms are the treasures and "family jewels" that truly define you … they are the physical "relics" of the memories that are the foundation of your identity, your spiritual life, and all you are grateful for…. Sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, always telling, when your treasures speak to you, you know that they're worth keeping!

Welcome to the Family Jewels Archival Preservation Company's On-line store.

Whether you are a person with "stuff" (aren't we all?),a collector, or family historian, we're sure you'll love our growing collection of unique
and easy-to-use preservation products and kits .

Time, the environment, and poorly manufactured products have a sneaky way of eating away at your "family jewels". Not knowing how to choose what to keep or how to keep it compounds the problem. Here's the solution!

Give your "jewels" the very best of care with our user-friendly preservation box kits, photo albums, and paper products that were previously only available to archives, museums and conservators.

You've never seen anything like this! Easy kits to get you organised and motivated! We look forward to passing our enthusiasm, energy, and fifteen years of professional archival experience to you! .... Enjoy!

The Family Jewels Preservation Co. is located in South Surrey, B.C., an oceanside, semi-rural community close to the US border. Owned and operated by two mums (coincidentally sharing the same name!), Family Jewels is proud to offer personalized by-appointment service at our showroom as well as fun and informative presentations in the greater-Vancouver area. A unique idea for bridal and baby showers. We are pleased to offer on-line ordering through this website and will also take your order over the phone at or via post. Just e-mail us at info for our mail-order catalogue.

Victoria holds a Master of Archival Studies from the University of British Columbia and has worked at the National Archives of Canada, the City of Vancouver Archives, and several smaller private archival repositories over the last 15 years. Vittoria's background is in Broadcast Communications with 12 years of marketing experience. What brought these two women with different backgrounds together to pursue the unique and timely venture that is Family Jewels?

Watching our children grow so quickly and seeing other family members with stories to tell and treasures to share aging even faster, we wanted to find ways to preserve memories in a way that is efficient as well as archivally-appropriate. We were frustrated that other than scrapbooking products, there were few reasonable resources in the marketplace to allow us to preserve other kinds of family heritage quickly yet properly. The final straw was the proliferation of well-intentioned but "archivally incorrect" magazine articles and television programmes featuring cute but potentially harmful preservation projects.

As a practicing professional archivist, Victoria had insight into ways to transform "industrial strength" archival principles and products into user-friendly and practical solutions for "ordinary people." The first project was the School Memory Box, created in 1995 to control the deluge of "precious" paperwork that bombards unsuspecting parents. From here, Victoria and Vittoria combined talents to create preservation kits and photo-preservation systems for our own families, then developed them for use by others. The response was overwhelming!

Everyone has their own treasures - from wedding dresses to slide collections to diaries - and Family Jewels has developed preservation solutions for every kind of keepsake as well as incomparable commitment to customer service.

Are we obsessed with saving anything and everything and painstakingly preserving it all forever? Absolutely not! We are self-professed minimalists! Our philosophy is "go for the gold;" save only the best of the piles of photos and papers under the stairs! And anyone who knows our lives knows that we don't have endless amounts of time to devote to preserving family treasures!

Between us we have 7 young children, 4 dogs, and no disposable time … which means that any preservation solutions we offer are quick and easy to do while being absolutely archivally-appropropriate!

Our products and ideas have been featured in The Vancouver Province, The Vancouver Sun, The National Post, B.C.Parent, and other smaller papers. We invite you to share what we truly feel from the heart - that aside from the practical benefits, preserving your "family jewels" brings a feeling of pride, appreciation, and consistency that is simply essential!