Family history on the go

If you own a mobile phone, or a portable tablet device such as an iPad, you have a powerful tool at your disposal to help with your family history research. From the most basic means to record your discoveries, to the very tools to help you find your way about, these trusty devices can help to tear you away from your computer to make your favourite hobby equally portable.

To record basic information on the move, most devices will come with simple note creating programs, which can save you having to lug a laptop computer or notepad around to libraries and archives. In addition, many devices will support more flexible word processing programs such as Microsoft Word, albeit at a cost, although there are free equivalents that can also allow you to save files in the same Word-based format, such as Citrix QuickEdit.

Perhaps one of the most flexible programs available is Evernote (evernote.com), which allows you to take notes and images on the move and to archive such data into various project-based folders, which can later be synced with your main home computer to transfer the data. Recent changes to the free Evernote Basic program now restricts access to two devices only, but that still allows you to install it onto a mobile device and onto your home PC, for example, and to sync between the two.