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Illinois

Prairie, lake and the Land of Lincoln, told by you

Illinois runs from the shore of Lake Michigan to farm country that rolls on past the horizon. Wherever you live in it, your stories and your views today are worth handing on to the people you choose.

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What was said around your kitchen table growing up, and what do you make of it now?

Large lives begin in plain rooms, as Lincoln's Springfield home shows, and you need not be a writer to give yours the same care. ToldForward simply asks a friendly question each day and lets you answer as you would across a kitchen table. Over time those answers form a record the people you choose could never piece together without you.

Only you can see your answers while you live.

Illinois

Your Illinois, in your own words

Why they call it the Prairie State

Illinois got its nickname, the Prairie State, from the first settlers, who found vast expanses of prairie here. Today farmland covers about three quarters of the state, and most of it grows corn and soybeans. If you grew up near the fields, you know the rhythm by heart: planting in spring, long green summers, dust and grain trucks at harvest. Even in town, that rhythm reaches you through the weather reports and the county fair. What do you recall about the land around your home?

Great stories start in ordinary rooms

Illinois adopted the slogan Land of Lincoln in 1955. In Springfield you can step inside the only home Abraham Lincoln ever owned, including the sitting room where the Lincolns spent their evenings together. It is a good reminder that large lives begin in plain, familiar rooms. Your life has rooms like that as well: a kitchen table, a front porch, the front seat on a long drive. What was said in those places, and what you make of it now, deserves to be set down.

Every kind of hometown

Illinois holds river towns, college towns, farm towns, suburbs and one very big city on the lake. Each place has its own way of talking, its own diners and its own Friday nights. Whether you have lived in one town your whole life or moved a dozen times, the places you called home have shaped how you see the world. Putting that into your own words gives the people you choose something they could never piece together without you: the view from your own front step.

What you will do

Small, steady steps that add up to something only you could make.

  1. Open a question

    About a place, a person, a choice you made, or something you believe.

  2. Say it your way

    Short or long, serious or funny. There are no wrong answers and no grades.

  3. Pass it on, one day

    Your record goes to the people you choose, after a waiting period.

Simple, and safe

  • Private by design

    Only you can see your answers. Nothing is shared while you live.

  • You stay the author

    No AI writes in your record. It holds what you said, and nothing else.

  • A waiting period

    At least 6 months pass after you are gone before anyone receives it.

  • Change anything, anytime

    Add, edit or delete what you have written, and update who receives it.

After you

Your people can still find your words

Instead of searching boxes and old messages, the people you choose can ask a question and see what you actually said about it, with the date you said it.

  • Labelled answers

    Each answer is marked Recorded, Related or Unknown.

  • No imitation

    There is no voice and no avatar, only your text.

  • Their own pace

    They begin when they are ready, and can stop at any time.

Illinois

ToldForward in Illinois

How we look after your information
  • Your record is private while you live: nothing in it is public or searchable.
  • You choose the people who will one day receive it, and you can change them at any time.
  • If you wish, a copy can one day go to a library or archive through the Historical Deposit.

One question a day is enough

ToldForward asks you one friendly question each day, and you answer in your own words, either typing or using your device's dictation. While you live your record is private, and you name the people who will one day receive it.

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