Peace of Mind Organizing

App of the week: Reunion

20 July 2012

As I revealed earlier this week, I’m really getting into my genealogy research. Exploring my family history is loads of fun and, so far, I’ve been able to do most of it sitting at my computer.

I use the Reunion for MacIntosh software to enter data on my family tree. I’m only entering verified data and, as my family tree grows, I feel proud of my accomplishments and confident that what’s there is accurate.

I recently purchased the Reunion for iPhone app. (There’s a separate Reunion for iPad app.) I was prompted to buy it when I was at an exhibit about the Civil War at the Missouri History Museum. I knew that I had ancestors who lived in Missouri during that war, but I couldn’t remember where they lived. It made me wish I had that data at my fingertips (since it certainly doesn’t fit in my brain).

The app also comes in handy when, at the dinner table, I’m discussing interesting things I’ve learned about an ancestor and my husband asks me how this person is related to me. My iPhone is usually with me, so I can just look up the answer if I can’t remember.

The app will also be useful when I travel to visit my parents next month. I plan to pepper them (and my aunt) with questions about family lore and having the tree handy will be really helpful.

The app is nicely designed and complements the software well. Just touch a person’s name to get more information about them. Family trees can get quite large and overwhelming looking. One thing I love about this iPhone app is that it just presents one couple, their parents and their children on the screen. So I don’t have to pinch to enlarge the screen; everything’s perfectly legible.

It’s easy to synch the app to the file on the computer. But I sometimes forget to do the synch, since I’ve become so accustomed to my apps synching automatically through iCloud. I need to set a reminder to manually synch the Reunion desktop and app. (It’s wireless, it just requires a few keystrokes.)

If you use Reunion software and have an iPhone or an iPad, I’d say that it’s worth considering making the $15 investment in the app.

Tagged with: app of the week, family history research, genealogy, reunion

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