# Genealogy apps for Android? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 21, 2018, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genealogy-apps-for-android/810957 "2018-03-21T13:00:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2018, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genealogy-apps-for-android/810957/1 "2018-03-21T13:00:58Z")
I use Family Tree Maker for Windows for my genealogy database (over 1,000 people, dating with pretty good confidence back to the 1700s and less confidence to the 1400s) and occasionally wish to look up some bit of trivia (how old someone is, when someone died, etc.) from my Android phone. I’ve tried 2-3 programs that were either unsuitable or constantly crashed. Anyone have any reccs? I want a stand-alone program with an internal database, not an interface for accessing a genealogy website. ---
**Author:** ![WildBlueYonder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ce7236/32.png) [@WildBlueYonder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildBlueYonder)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2018, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genealogy-apps-for-android/810957/2 "2018-03-21T14:36:13Z")
Did you google? I dont do much on my phone. Not that I know anything but how much space is there on phones?? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2018, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genealogy-apps-for-android/810957/3 "2018-03-21T14:51:57Z")
> [@WildBlueYonder](#): > > Did you google? > > I dont do much on my phone. Not that I know anything but how much space is there on phones?? Yep, the ones I tried were ones I found through googling. They weren’t what I was looking for (but I’ve tried only free ones so far.) As for the amount of memory on phones, it ranges from barely adequate to obscene. Mine has 16 GB of built-in memory and takes MicroSD cards up to 256 GB. (I have a 64 GB card that I bought for $20–that is around 350 times the capacity of my first PC HD.) Room for the genealogical data of hundreds of millions of people at least. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2018, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genealogy-apps-for-android/810957/4 "2018-03-22T16:29:48Z")
If you’re already using to FTM, are you tied into the [ancestry.com](http://ancestry.com) database? I use the Ancestry app, and I like for just the reasons you state in the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2018, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genealogy-apps-for-android/810957/5 "2018-03-22T18:34:21Z")
I had a free trial 1 month trial account at Ancestry 7 years ago, but never a paying one. But even if I could access that over an app without paying monthly, that is seriously Rube Goldberging what is simply looking at a field in a smallish ASCII database stored on my phone. ---
**Author:** ![Raza](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raza/32/213_2.png) [@Raza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raza)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2018, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genealogy-apps-for-android/810957/6 "2018-03-22T19:10:50Z")
It’s not free, but RootsMagic has a component that might meet your needs. RootsMagic is pretty much the only one left standing in the realm of professional-level genealogy programs, and it comes with mobile app capability as well as “burn a CD/flash” for sharing with others. Not the perfect solution, but something. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2018, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genealogy-apps-for-android/810957/7 "2018-03-24T16:03:56Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > … in a smallish ASCII database … Does FTM create Gedcom files? Or something else? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2018, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genealogy-apps-for-android/810957/8 "2018-03-24T16:14:30Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Does FTM create Gedcom files? Or something else? It has a proprietary format but can export to GED files, and that is what I was hoping to be able to read. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2018, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genealogy-apps-for-android/810957/9 "2018-03-24T16:47:32Z")
It may seem horrid, but if you have an App that can let you browse arbitrary text files, finding notes or dates associated with a name should be relatively easy.