Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Technology Tuesday - Ancestry.com Updated Mobile App - Searching

Ancestry.com recently updated its mobile app for iPad, iPod and iPhone - you can read the press release in Ancestry.com Mobile App Has New Features I don't know when they will update the mobile app for Android and Windows 8.  The mobile app is FREE from the App Store on the iOS products, and from Google Play for Android products.

In Technology Tuesday -- Updated Ancestry.com Mobile App (posted 2 September 2014), I reviewed most of the new features of the mobile app, with the exception of Hints, Searching and the DNA portion.  The Ancestry.com Mobile App interacts with a user's Ancestry Member Tree on the Ancestry.com website.  In Technology Tuesday - Ancestry.com Updated Mobile App - Hints ( posted 9 September 2014), I reviewed the Hints feature that provide the user with suggested records, photos and stories to add to their own Ancestry Member Tree.


Here is the process to use the Search feature on the updated Ancestry.com mobile app:

1)  In the Tree View, tap on a person's name to open their profile.  Here is the profile for Cornelius A. Carringer, who is in my Ancestry Member Tree:




The only place I found a way to search Ancestry.com databases was at the bottom of the "Gallery" section.

2)  I tapped on the "Gallery" button (at the bottom of the screen above) and the top of the "Photos and Stories" section appeared:


I scrolled down to the bottom of the section, and there is the "Search Records" link:


3)  When I tapped on the "Search records" link, the browser on my iPhone opened, Ancestry.com was opened, and the information in the person profile was used to search Ancestry.com databases for this person.  Here is the top of the search screen for the person:


Note the "Return to Cornelius A. Carringer" link at the top of the screen.  That is not the way back to the mobile app.

Scrolling down a bit, here is the search results for All Categories:


As a point of information, Ancestry uses a non-exact search with the fields for names, birth date and place, death date and place, parents names and spouses names entered.  This usually drives the best matches to the top of the "Results" list in my experience.

Scrolling down a little further, the "Records" tab shows me the records already in my tree, and then provides the prioritized listing of  Results for the person:




I want to choose the first one on the list (the Pennsylvania Death Certificate) and add it to the Ancestry Member Tree.

4)  I tapped on the database name and saw the record summary for the death certificate of Cornelius A. Carringer:



And scrolling down, there is a thumbnail image for the record image:


5)  If I want to see the image, I can tap on the thumbnail image or on the "View this image" link, to see:


From the information on the image, I can tell that this record pertains to the person in my Ancestry Member Tree.

6)  I want to attach it to the person in my tree, so I tap on the orange "Save" button at the top of the screen above.

I then have the choice to "Save to the person," "Save to person in your tree," "Save image," or "Save to your Shoebox:"


I chose "Save to Cornelius A. Carringer" and can then select the data items from the list presented to add to the person profile in my tree:


When I was done, I tapped on the orange "Save to your tree" button.  The record was attached to Cornelius A. Carringer in my Ancestry Member Tree.

7)  The challenge then was to go back to the Ancestry.com Mobile App.  I exited from Ancestry.com on my browser, and tapped the Ancestry.com app, and I was back in the profile "Gallery" for Cornelius A. Carringer.  Here are the items now in the "Photos and Stories" section:


As you can see, the Pennsylvania Death Certificate is included.  That took about two minutes to complete.  

8)  The Search feature works great, but it does require you to open the browser to search Ancestry.com, and then close the browser to return to the Mobile App.  

Frankly, it is much easier to use the "green leaf" Hint feature in the app to attach those records, and then search Ancestry.com to find records in databases that might have been missed by the Hints (due to name spellings, erroneous entries, etc.).  

9)  With this mobile app, I can access my Ancestry Member Tree anywhere that I have an Internet connection through my iPhone, iPad or iPod.  I can see Hints, add them to a person profile, or ignore them.  I can search Ancestry.com for more information about the person.  This is truly my family tree in my pocket.

However, I can't see everything in the Ancestry Member Tree, which is unfortunate.  Perhaps source citations and fact notes will be added in future updates.

This is a very powerful tool.  If you invite your family members to be guests or editors to your Ancestry Member Tree, then they can download the FREE Ancestry.com mobile app and have your family tree (with their ancestors) in their pocket also!

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/09/technology-tuesday-ancestrycom-updated_16.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver

1 comment:

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