Carissa Rasmussen has published a list of her favorite family history mobile apps in the article “My Favorite Family History Apps” published in Meridian magazine. Here are her top three:

FamilySearch Tree, by FamilySearch International, Android and iOS, FREE

This app is an extension of the FamilySearch website. You can browse your tree and discover information you’ve never seen before, add stories and documents, record audio, and do research from within the app. It automatically syncs with your FamilySearch.org account so you can switch between devices seamlessly. It even works without internet.

I love that I can pull up my tree at anytime. For example, at Thanksgiving dinner, we started quizzing each other on facts from our tree, like, which lines traveled to the United States with the Pilgrims, and which family line immigrated to Utah the very latest. We learned about our family in a fun and interactive way and all from the convenience of our phones.

FamilySearch Memories, by FamilySearch International, Android and iOS, FREE

Add photos already in your gallery or snap new ones straight from the app and add them to your tree. The audio recording feature is especially awesome because you never know when a family member will start sharing a story and you can record it right into the app and have it captured! Another great way I use this app is to help my grandma digitize her stacks of photos of and upload them right into the app. She can help me identify those in the photos and tag them to members in our tree right away.

Ancestry: Ancestry.com, by Ancestry.com, Android and iOS, FREE

This app is similar to Family Tree but it’s the extension of the Ancestry website. Where FamilySearch is a global tree, I use Ancestry to build my trees and then share the information with FamilySearch so I can keep a separate record that doesn’t change. Ancestry has billions of records and photos you can search right on your phone. My favorite feature is the Hints that appear and I can go through those right in the app and add records, photos and stories to my family tree. It syncs with my Ancestry.com account automatically so I can pick up where I left off on any device.

See the other 10 apps on her list in the article “My Favorite Family History Apps,” including the following:

• Shoebox: Ancestry.com
• BillionGraves: BillionGraves.com
• FindaGrave: Findagrave.com
• TurboScan: Document Scanner
• Day Journal: Personal Diary
• Google Photos
• Photoshop Express
• Rhonna Designs
• Chatbooks
• Kid Chatteroo