Shoebox App for Ancestry.com

LOVE THIS APP!!!

Let me start by saying I'm not a big fan of frivolous apps.  Who needs one more toy? Not me!

When I heard about the newer Shoebox app for ancestry.com I was, as always, hesitant to try it.  Well, trying is believing What was I waiting for?  Why didn't I know about this sooner?  and Yes!  Finally a useful app that makes my genealogy life soooo much easier.

If you haven't tried it or aren't sure what I'm raving about here it goes.  

The Shoebox app allows you to take a photograph of an object and crop, title and describe, set a location, and tag or tie it to someone in your family tree.  Big deal you say? Well hold on, once you've done all of the aforementioned things to the object and then save it.  The image is immediately uploaded to that persons profile page in your tree.  From there you can set the image as the primary photo for the person it's attached to.  Forget something or want to edit the description after it's uploaded? You can do that too.

How quick is this app?

I recently spent about 2 hours on a Sunday afternoon uploading documents and photos.  I was amazed when I realized that I had uploaded about 70 images in that time frame.  I am now addicted!  I would upload and then check to see if the photo was there and how I wanted to set the image (primary photo or not.)  It worked beautifully every time. And now I have photos for many more of my ancestors that can also be seen by others who are searching.  If others are seeing the images, they're making connections to me and my tree is continuing to grow.

What's next?

The findagrave app.  It's now available for apple, but I'm awaiting the android version.  With this app cemetery visitors should be able to snap a photo of a grave site and immediately upload it to findagrave.com with the GPS coordinates.  Imagine taking a detour some Sunday afternoon into a cemetery you have been meaning to visit.  The cemetery turns out to be enormously overwhelming and no one is available to help you locate a grave.  Fortunately for you, another visitor has already uploaded the gravestone/grave site locations to findagrave.com and all you have to do is access the website and navigate to the location in order to find success. When I'm in a cemetery I always try to take a few extra pictures in order to post them for others.  This app will make documenting an entire cemetery very doable in a short period of time.  I can't wait to get started!