What Tools are in your Genealogy Workspace?

/ kbmacgeek

Everyone has their ‘go-to’ devices, methods, software, notebooks, charts, and even writing implements they use with their own genealogical research, so I thought I’d share mine:

-iPad Air 3rd generation

-Apple Pencil

-Apple Smartfolio keyboard for iPad

-A new 2020 MacBook Air (arriving next month)

-iPhone X

-Traditional spiral bound notebooks

-Pens/Pencils

-Pre-printed 5 generation charts

-Sony True Wireless Earbuds WF1000-MX3

But can you really do genealogy work and research with just an iPad?

Absolutely! I use a variety of apps with my genealogy work, including the following:

-Pages, Photos, Mail, and Safari (come standard on all iOS devices)

–Ancestry (free to download, but you’ll need a subscription to access records)

–My Heritage (free to download, but you’ll need a subscription to access records)

–SketchClub (free; for photo retouching)

–WordPress (free; to blog about genealogy)

–Extreme Genes (not an app, but a website with exceptional genealogy podcasts & radio show)

–Evernote Scannable (amazing little app that uses the device’s camera to snap photos of paper documents and instantly turn them into PDFs)

–Facebook (the power of social media is amazing when it comes to genealogical research)

–YouTube (so many helpful genealogical methods videos out there)

–Microsoft OneNote (easy organization for note-taking, follow-ups)

–Find A Grave (quick &easy grave and cemetery lookups)

I also have a copy of Family Tree Maker Mac (2017) that I will be installing on my new MacBook Air when it arrives so I have a local copy of my data as well.

Are there any favorite apps, programs, or methods you use in your research? Leave a comment below and share what you use!

5 thoughts on “What Tools are in your Genealogy Workspace?”

  1. Like you I use a lot of apple products! iPad, iPhone, MacBook, the beauty of course is anything you do on one is instantly replicated on the other. I have used Family Tree maker from the beginning, my first installation was from floppy discs! Yes the software and myself are really that old! I have found a great piece of software for photo scanning and adding meta data called Snip Tag, thats been so useful.

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    • Thanks for replying! I will check out Snip Tag. I’m always looking for new software or apps to try, particularly one that involves helping to preserve photos. Let me know if you have any other recommendations.

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      • I use Evernote in my ‘day job’ and it works well for me in my position, but I honestly wouldn’t use it for genealogy purposes because Evernote limits the number of devices you can sync the data between (2). Between the computer, iPad and iPhone, that’s three and I didn’t want to pony up for their subscription service. That is one of the main reasons I went with Microsoft OneNote. No fees.

        I haven’t used Scrivener. I will have to check that out and give it a try as well.

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