Best Family Tree Apps for Genealogy

Back in the day, the idea of looking up your family tree meant spending hours upon hours in the stacks of a library, or employing a professional to track down your long-lost lineage.

Nowadays, we can use genealogy research from our smartphone to check out your own family tree and scroll through historical records. But with so many genealogy apps, which one is the best? We’re looking at the top three genealogy apps available if you are interested in searching out your past.

Best Family Tree Apps for Tracing your Lineage

Genealogy apps have aided with these new technological advancements and you can literally start the process anywhere with minimal information if that is all you have.

Ancestry has been a go-to for years since the trend really started online. And when it comes to a family tree maker, it’s probably still the best choice for the average person. It works well for creating family trees and doing genealogical research of your ancestors.

Though, there are other options if you want alternatives.

Number 3:- MyHeritage

my-heritage

MyHeritage is an app that uses the best tools to find your genealogy. The app is completely free, which sets it apart from the other family tree apps that typically cost a monthly fee.

You can build your family tree review automated records that are available online, using the tree hinting tools to find related families or people. You can also scan and upload photos to your profile and use ‘Discoveries’ in order to find new matches.

You can search collections and look at the collection descriptions as well as using advanced search capabilities which allows you more control over your specific searches.

Finally, you can invite family members to collaborate on your tree, you can sync your device’s contacts and add them manually to help your family tree expand and make the most of your family’s knowledge.

Number 2:- Ancestry app

ancestry

Ancestry app has a free version that is really useful if you want to make a start to finding out about your family tree.

You can search literally billions of genealogical records on the app and add new family members to your online family tree. The tools on Ancestry include Hints, Family Tree, DNA, and your Account.

Hints give you suggested records that may be linked to your family information. You can filter the hints by records, photographs, and stories as well as by your last name or related names to your family tree.

There are the best hints and the latest hints available that can help you narrow down those related to your search.

The Family tree is where you put in information on relatives that you know are part of your family tree, the more you fill in the easier it becomes.

You can also find large sections of your family tree from others that share relatives with you, they may have done part of the family line and you can then add that to your own tree to fill it out even further.

Number 1:- Ancestry DNA app

ancestry-dna

Now I have used both Ancestry and I also have used the Ancestry DNA app in my years looking for my family.

These apps are two different apps but both kinds of intertwining to help you find your relatives. The DNA app is based around the swab test that you can send off to a lab to have tests run on it to see what your DNA is made up of.

The DNA app breaks down your genetic makeup, so you can see your genealogy in detail. An example is if you are more likely to sneeze when looking into light than the average human.

It gives you information on medical issues you could be pre-disposed to and if you have any genes that could affect your health.

Although, please be warned that Ancestry put a disclaimer on there – this is not a medical diagnosis kit. So, if you have any worries about the results of your DNA kit, you should go to the doctors to pursue anything you might find worrying rather than relying on this test.

But it also has some really cool Ethnic Origin information, and it’s actually surprisingly accurate for a genealogy app.

For example, I am unsurprisingly 90 percent Irish origin – which I already knew because my entire living family is Irish, my last name is extremely Irish and I for the most part look Irish.

You can also look at your ancestor’s migration patterns as well as the history of regions where your family came from.

Even nerdier and really this may be of no interest for you, but as an Archaeology degree holder, finding out how much Neanderthal DNA was left in me was for sure the best part.

This app is honestly super interesting and it gives you information about living DNA relatives that may have taken the test. You may get updates about 5th cousins in the world who have taken the test, etc.

If you fancy trying it, you can also wait until there is a sale on because it becomes significantly cheaper. But all in all, we would definitely say that the app is worth it.

Conclusion

Today it is as easy as clicking a few buttons, long strides have been made in improving how to find out the history of your family line.

With the internet connecting almost everyone on the planet, finding family members both alive and of the past is simpler than ever before.

There are still things that are hard to find. For example, people that were brought up in care homes, Jewish descendants, Irish descendants and this is due to things happening in history that destroyed the records of these people.

But for the most part, you can piece together the story of your ancestors with the rest of your history.

In conclusion, if you are looking for a family tree app to make and search your family history then I would suggest both the Ancestry app and the Ancestry DNA app collaborate between the two. The two apps work simultaneously to build an entire picture of both history and pre-history.

There is a reason Ancestry has been so successful over the years and it is because of the masses of work that has gone into building a solid database for people that want to find out about their families all over the world.

In this case, I’d say Ancestry DNA just pips the win for me, but that’s solely based on how interesting learning about my descendants was for me.

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Author

Tracy

An avid gamer, historian and all-round literature buff, Tracy is our go-to when it comes to using different devices. MacOS, iOS, Android, Windows, Linux or whatever else, Tracy's got a device that runs it (she's even got an old Blackberry laying around somewhere!).

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