The story behind the brand:

My grandfather, Kenneth Beard was a man who fell in love with studying genealogy. He was a husband, a father, and a computer engineer. 

In his free time he spent hours studying and accumulating details of our family history. He compiled information and has records of our families lives, their stories, paired with old photographs. 

One of the ways he studied our family line was analyzing a quarterly public newsletter called, Traces. Traces was first published by the South Central Kentucky Genealogical Society in 1973. This newsletter detailed public history, photographs, and genealogies. Births, deaths, marriages.

In 2016, they changed the name of this publication and stopped running print. Therefore it is my intention to carry on the legacy of family, and my grandfather's work, in my own way. Documenting life. Catered towards my passion, and gifts— Telling stories with images.

A note from Riley:

The intention behind Traces is to create imagery that in its authenticity, helps us to understand the past, present and future. 

Photographs are important, they hold People. 

My father passed in 2020. Andy was a sweet man, a tender father. I can remember. But when I forget and need reminding, I have photographs of him. Of us together. 

And when I look at them -

I can tell he adored me, just by the way he looked at me. 

It’s like I have proof of his love for me. 

Photographs leave traces of our love.