The mounting death toll from coronavirus led innovator and entrepreneur Yehuda Hecht to ponder the regret many are feeling at not having paid more attention to the stories of parents, grandparents and other loved ones.

Mr Hecht, who has himself lost a relative to the virus, has now created a free app to enable people to trace and record their personal history.

SelfieBook issues prompts and questions to users about their lives, which they can respond to by typing or by dictating via a smartphone. Photos or other visual material can also be entered and the app will automatically transform the content into an autobiography, publishable as an ebook.

“The popularity of TV programmes such as Who Do You Think You Are? and the proliferation of websites aimed at tracing ancestry attest to the significance of tracing our own and our elders’ personal lives,” Mr Hecht told the JC. “But so often, nothing or very little is recorded of lives rich with experience. In the last few months I have become all too aware of the emptiness that a sudden death can cause within families.

“I am sure the process of recording information onto Selfiebook can act as a bonding experience between, for example, grandparents who tell their stories and grandchildren who may help with the technical side. It can also be a way for people to reconnect with friends and family by asking for information to build up the picture.”

Mr Hecht lives with his wife Osnat in Hemel Hempstead. His grandchildren are pupils at Sinai and JFS.