Is that a family tree in your pocket?

Ancestry.com – the world’s leading family history website has launched a new app to bring the tree to your pocket. Ancestry ‘Tree to Go’  iPhone app allows any subscribed user to access some of the key features of the site, in their pocket. The app works to connect to your family tree allowing  you to review and edit information on your ancestors keeping the tree synchronised as you edit.

For people researching their family trees, this app focuses on the ability to review specific family members and edit their details. The handy add photo function allows you to include pictures taken or stored on the iPhone and added to a profile (great for the grandchildren). Perfect when you are out and about researching or talking to relatives.

However, that is about where it ends. The app is great to get the family details and edit people’s details but stops short of the massive researching power offered on the site itself. Understandably, the depth of information and granularity of editing would be hard to easily replicate on the iPhone so we will have to settle for this first offering.

Researching a family tree can be complex which is where the actual ‘tree’ display on the main site comes into its own.The app version would struggle to show the tree due to the size and complexity but would be a massive plus to sharing your tree with others- perhaps in later versions they can crack this.

Ancestry.com have set themselves a hard target – with an ever-growing site and access to vast information sources, it was going to be hard to replicate this all in one app. However, bringing selected elements of the service into the pocket will, I expect, increase the idle editing of family tree members and offer an easier, if not perfect, way to share tree information.

I for one will be using this more, especially when I am out with older relatives who don’t access the Internet.

Ancestry.com Tree to Go iPhone app is available in the appstore.

[Jamie Riddell – descended from lighthouse keepers.]