Use your Smartphone to Aid your Family History Research

When our bishop,Jason Frazier, has a few minutes to spare, he takes out his smartphone and goes to his Ancestry.com app and does a little family history research. I think that is way cool.

In the old days, when you went to a library or repository to do research, you might have to lug a whole briefcase full of information. In the electronic age, that has mostly changed. Although it is still a good idea to have a pencil and a pad of paper, the up to date researcher will more likely carry a camera, a digital audio recorder, a laptop computer and perhaps a scanner. What happens if you find yourself with some extra time near a research location and don't have all of your equipment with you? Today's smartphone just might save the research opportunity.

The average smartphone is really a sophisticated computer. Most smartphones (and most cell phones for that matter) also have audio recording capabilities and a camera. Some even have high definition video recording capabilities. There are apps for smartphones that let you take all of your genealogical data with you so you can conveniently ckeck your existing file to find out if there is something that can be found in a particular library. Some smartphones have become so powerful, they are taking the place of a laptop for some applications.

Let's go on a hypothetical research trip to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. You didn't plan on having any time in Salt Lake, but a snowstorm has cancelled your flight and you have a couple of extra hours to spend. You quickly go to the Family History Library, but realize that you have none of your normal research equipment or notes. What can you Do? If you have used your smartphone for genealogy in the past, you just might find that you have all the equipment you need to make your unplanned visit a success. First, you search the Family History Library Catalog for information about your ancestors in New York. You find a book in the library that looks interesting and go and pull it from the shelf and start reading. Here is a whole page of information about your ancestory's family. In the old days, you would grab your pencil and start taking notes. With your smartphone you simply pull out your camera and take a picture of the page. Then I suggest that you also take a picture of the books's title page showing the publication information. Now you can either copy those pictures to your computer when you get home, or you can load the pictures directly into a program such as DropBox, and the photos are already on your computer at home. But what about microfilm? You spend some time searching church records in New York and find some interesting information on the microfilm. To record the information, you pull out your smartphone and take a picture of the projected microfilm image.

How about another example. You are on a trip out of state and realize that your trip will take you right by a town where your ancestors lived. You realize you have left all of your research equipment at home. But you also realize that you have your entire genealogy file with all of the references and sources right on your smartphone. You know there is supposed to be a cemetery in this town, and in fact, you had recorded the coordinatges for the location of the cemetery in your genealogy notes. You read through you notes and find the coordinates for the cemetery. You use a GPS app to enter in the coordinates on your smartphone and in a few seconds the program has drawn you a map to the cemetery location. You drive to the cemetery and then use the smartphone's camera, this time to take pictures of the grave markers. You realize that you can upload the burial information directly from your smartphone to an online cemetery database. You can also share the photo with friends and relatives on a number of social networking sites.

On you way out of town, you see a familiar surname on a mailbox. On a whim, you stop to ask if you are related. You find a long lost cousin. You use your smartphone to record the contact information and even record a short video interview with your cousin about your great grandfather.