There is a long way to go with Mobile Apps (Applications for Smartphones) but Ancestry as ever is in amongst the running. This video gives a 13 minute approximately overview to where Ancestry is currently at with mobile BUT THAT’S NOT ALL Browse down for more on MyHeritage, Billion Graves and Evernote for a spread of the Mobile Apps that can help you and your history project.

. There are other specialist players in the field but the area has not been comprehensively reviewed across vendors at the moment. This snippet is to keep you updated about IT for family and genealogy research specifically, but we will be exploring tools apps and techniques for mobile apps and history projects during this quarter.

Make your own mind-up take a look at the video there are some demos and here are some links to the apps on the various platforms below. We will be offering How to Guides and some intriguing approaches to going mobile , so you might like to bookmark our IT for Historians and History Projects Resources. But this will keep you updated on what the art of the currently possible is with Ancestry.

Here are some further resources to explore:

• My Heritage has Android Ipad and Iphone Apps (all same functionality) really 1st generation apps nothing that innovative but at least there to use and has synchronisation capability and youc an expect more technology developments from MyHeritage their future vision and technology tends to be a little more forward thinking than Ancestry overall. But it is still early days…
• BillionGraves.com An app for collating geo-tagging and crowdsourcing the research to create a pool of Gravestone information that any member around the world can benefit from online for their and friends and extended families history and genealogy projects.  Needs to reach a tipping point in the UK, we seem to lag a bit behind our atlantic cousins in this respect in terms of adoption.
• This App is potentially good, we can all get involved and the App fully exploits the best of GPS (using the integral SatNav on the phone) and Smartphone technology to create a resource for everyone to access.
• A great idea for a local history group activity or a school or college project.
• It is so quick you can capture the data and then transcribe as time permits, but it is published straight away so at least fellow researchers will know the resource exists even if the task of transcribing needs completion.
• We like this and are test driving it ourselves on some local cemetries.  We post how well it works on a live project shortly. It is a genuine app design that seeks to exploit the best of what mobile has to offer, so watch for some more on the field work we will do with this app.

• Ancestry Apps for Mobile links to version 3.00 not really taking on new functionality more like providing a field tool for when you find something or like a Kindle when you have time to kill you can do a few minutes with your App, (think of it as the digital equivalent of doing some ‘knitting.) Still worth using, but possibly not as the primary motivation for switching to a Smartphone. If you already have one its a no-brainer. The interface is intuitive and in some ways easier than the web version. Great on a tablet (IPad) for sharing amongst the family and less techy on your team.
• Evernote (A Favourite Research Tool) This App is great and its a very flexible friend and tool for researching anytime and anywhere. Its available on all the major smartphone platforms and whilst not limited to family history iOS, Android, Blackberry Windows Phone 7. It works on multiple machines from your account with multiple note books, you can capture just about anything. Clip a URL, Article or Document, Upload a file attachment, add video, take pictures and immediately incorporate in your notes, youc an share with others, create tags and xategories to suit your research.  Synch between one or more PCS, Macs and a Tablet or/and Smartphone, that means whatever device you are using your data is available. You can even record audio notes as well. It is really easy to use, we will doing some video demos shortly online and as backups to our Digitial Research Workshops (more of that later…) It is probably currently my most favourite research tool and works anytime and anywhere if I have 2 mins twenty or a couple of hours, oh and yes it is FREE.
• If you would like to know more about Evernote and be sent an invite to our FREE Evernotes for History Projects Video and PDF (which will be released within the next few weeks  (April 2012) then please just register with your email address here

Thanks for reading listening and hope you will share this free resource for you and your fellow family history researchers.