His uncle's funeral got David Koon (Assemblyman, New York) thinking.

The family had put together some pictures as a remembrance and as the state assemblyman drove home, he wondered where those pictures would end up.

Then he drove past a self-storage locker complex, and inspiration struck. "We need something like that for pictures and memories," he recalls thinking.

With that thought, Memory Guardian Corp. was born. The company aims to be an "online storage locker" that lets customers permanently store pictures, important documents, even video.

Koon is partnering with the digital photography studio franchise Clix to launch Memory guardian. Clix will initially test-market the service in Rochester. The service should launch in January, Koon said. And after through testing, it will go into Clix stores nationwide, said Clix founder Austin Haines and CEO David Asarnow.

Here's how it works: Customers bring in CDs or memory discs with their pictures or paper documents to a Clix store. The Clix staff then helps scan the materials, and customers add key words that make the documents and images searchable via a relational database.

Customers will be able to control and offer online access to the locker to family and friends through a password protected system.

And if need be, Koon hopes the secure online images can be used as legal proof if paper copies are lost or destroyed.

"In New Orleans (after Hurricane Katrina), some people saw their entire medical history wiped out," Koon said. "We think there are a lot of possibilities attached to this."

Other companies provide online storage, but Haines said he was attracted to the search capabilities of Koon's product.

"The ability to say 'Search for Nina, birthday party' is really a differentiator in my book," said Haines.

“We are excited to be able to share in and be instrumental in the launch of Memory Guardian,” says Asarnow

The company will use storage sites locally and in Colorado to back up information. Koon used GloeBLinks, a Rochester company, to design the software.

Clix plans to have 20,000 customers on the Memory guardian system by the end of 2006.