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Maryland

From the Chesapeake to your front porch, your Maryland stories count

Maryland wraps around the Chesapeake Bay, and so much of life here is tied to its water, its seasons and its tables. Your stories from this state, and the way you see things today, can be kept just as you would tell them.

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Try it free for 7 days. Only you can see your record. Never public or searchable.

Who taught you how to pick a crab, and what did everyone at that table argue about?

Maryland traditions like Smith Island cake take patience, layer by layer, and ToldForward lets you build a life story the same way: one question, one answer, then another tomorrow, typed or spoken. When you decide who will one day receive it, they will have the recipes, skills and habits you wanted to hand on.

Only you can see your answers while you live.

What you can count on

  • Only your own words

    Nothing is written for you. Every word in your record is yours, as you gave it.

  • Text, never your voice or face

    There is no recording and no likeness, so no one can make you seem to say anything.

  • Time before anyone reads

    No one receives your record until at least 6 months have passed after you are gone.

  • Your terms, kept

    You decide who receives it, and you can change your mind whenever you like.

How it works

A few minutes at a time, whenever it suits you.

  1. One question a day

    A friendly question about your life, your views or the people in it. Skip any you like.

  2. Your words grow with you

    Come back to an answer, add to it, or change it. Each one keeps its date.

  3. You choose who receives it

    Name the family and/or friends who will one day receive your whole record.

Maryland

Your Maryland, in your own words

The bay and its blue crabs

The slightly salty water of the Chesapeake Bay makes an ideal home for the blue crab, Maryland's state crustacean, and blue crabs are the state's most valuable commercial fishery. For many Marylanders, crabs mean a summer table covered in paper, mallets and a lot of talking. Who taught you how to pick a crab? Who was at that table, and what did everyone argue about? Those long, messy afternoons are worth describing, because they say so much about the people you shared them with.

Skipjacks and Smith Island cake

Maryland's state boat is the skipjack, among the last working boats under sail in the country, once used in winter to dredge oysters from the bay floor. Its state dessert is Smith Island cake, traditionally eight to ten layers of yellow cake with chocolate frosting between them, from an island reachable only by boat. Traditions like these hold a lot of patience and pride. Which recipes, skills or habits were handed to you, and which ones would you like to hand on?

Seventh state, first state sport

Maryland ratified the Constitution on April 28, 1788, as the seventh of the original 13 states, and in 1962 it became the first state to adopt an official sport: jousting. On Assateague Island, wild horses still graze in the salt marshes. Maryland surprises people that way. What about your corner of the state would surprise someone? What do you want the generations after you to know about how life here really felt, in your own time?

Archive Membership

A guide that only ever uses your words

Someone you named asks what you thought about your first job, and the guide finds what you wrote, word for word. It is built to quote, not to invent.

  • First person, only in quotes

    Your words appear exactly as you wrote them, with their date.

  • Third person, always

    Everything else the guide says is about you, never in your name.

  • Nothing made up

    If you never spoke to a subject, the answer is Unknown.

Maryland

If you live in Maryland

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.

Begin with a single question

ToldForward brings you one friendly question a day about your life and your views, and you answer in your own words, typing or using your device's dictation. Your record stays private while you live, and you name the people who will one day receive it.

Start your free trialSee the memberships

Keeping your story in Baltimore · Every state

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