Smartphone Apps for Genealogy

Smartphone Apps for Genealogy
February 15, 2012  By James Tanner

One of the hallmarks of technology is its rapid change. The world of apps (or applications, i.e. software) related to genealogy on smartphones is growing at a staggering rate. Just a few months ago, the Android Market had just a few offerings. The number of smartphone apps has increased so quickly that it is now very difficult to review all of them. Genealogists can now pick-and-choose while only a few months ago there were very reduced offerings.

One of the big events of 2012 is the introduction of the 1940 U.S. Census that will be going online on April 2, 2012 on the U.S. National Archives website. With the advent of the census records, FamilySearch has announced a major initiative to index the entire census is record time. At almost the same time as the announcement of the intitiative, FamilySearch announced a free app for mobile devices to do indexing. The Apple iOS FamilySearch Indexing app is available for both iPhone and iPad. The same app is also available for Android devices in the Android Market.  

The apps are described, in part, as follows:
This mobile app is expected to complement the FamilySearch indexing program, which has been operating since 2006. Hundreds of thousands of volunteers from around the world have contributed their time to index genealogical records using the FamilySearch indexing desktop software. Today there are more than 2.5 billion freely searchable names in the familysearch.org database, thanks largely to their efforts. Your mobile contribution to this effort, however large or small, is greatly appreciated. To ensure quality and accuracy, the system compares your work with answers from other volunteers until a “consensus” is reached.

The recent RootsTech 2012 Conference had its own app for both iPhone/iPod/iPad and Android. There is a TechTips article about the new app.

Some of the major genealogy database programs have had apps for some time or are now just adding them. These apps usually allow you to enter information both on your computer and on your smartphone and the synchronize the information between the devices. Here is a list of the apps I have found lately. Unless otherwise noted, the apps are available for both Apple iOS and Android phone users. Some of the apps are free, others have a charge. Although the apps may be free, the main application, such as Ancestry.com may have a charge.

Legacy Family Tree’s Families app for smartphones $
Ancestry.com Family Trees app for smartphones
MyHeritage.com app for smartphones
Reunion app for iPhone (Mac only)
Mobile Family Tree Pro (iPhone/iPod/iPad)
Family Tree app for Android in English and Chinese  (there is a app by the same name but not the same name for iPhone/iPod/iPad)

Some of these apps have very special audiences. The Family Tree app for example, is primarily in Chinese and according to the reviews, the English implementation is not complete.

There are currently 81 genealogy apps in the iTunes store for Apple iPhones. The Android Market has also increased its offerings with 241 apps available. 

Some of the stand-alone apps include:
GedStar Pro (Android)
Family Bee (Android)
GeneDroid (Android)
GedView (iPhone)
Mobile Tree (iPhone)