Ancestry App for Windows 8

Have you ever wanted a quick and easy way to view and share your family tree right from your desktop?  Announcing Ancestry for Windows 8 which was released into the new Windows Store on November 30th and was subsequently updated on December 12th.

The Ancestry app provides an attractive and innovative way to experience and show off your tree.  Editing in the app is not supported yet, so to edit or build your tree, there are launch points that take you to Ancestry.com on the web.  Any changes you make to your online tree on Ancestry.com will show up back in the desktop Ancestry application.

The Ancestry App for Window 8 consists of four main areas:

1.     The Hub is the home base for the Ancestry app and provides access to several aspects of your tree and information about Ancestry.com.

• People—Some of the most recently updated people in your tree are displayed in a collage in the “People” section of the hub.  You can tap or click one of the people displayed to see more information about that person or tap or click the “People” heading to access a list of all the people in your tree.
• Top Hints—A list of hints associated with the people displayed in the collage.  Just tap or click a hint to see more information about it and view the associated historical record, if any.
• Photos—A collage of recently accessed photos is displayed after the list of hints.  Tap or click any photo to see it in more detail or tap or click the “Photos” heading to see a collage of all photos in your tree.
• Ancestry Info—After your tree information, the Hub also presents lists of posts from Facebook and Twitter, information about your message board favorites, links to Ancestry videos, new collections, and other Ancestry properties.

You can use the swipe up or swipe down gestures (or right-click) from the Hub to access other trees or to open the current tree on Ancestry.com

2.     The People List gives you access to all of the people in your tree.

 3.     The Person Page—Tapping or clicking on a person in the Hub or the Person List will display that person’s details on the Person page.

The person page displays a picture and the vital facts of the person’s life along with his or her immediate relationships (fathers, mothers, spouses, children), followed by a list of Ancestry hints, a map and other photos associated with the person.

4.     The Photo List shows all of the photos in your tree as a collage.  Just tap or click on any of them to see a larger view

In its current form, the Ancestry app for Windows 8 does not support in-app editing.

Rather it is intended to provide an interesting and attractive way to experience, view, and show your family tree.  But this is just the beginning for Ancestry on Windows 8.  There will be more improvements to come.  In the meantime, you can easily access and edit your tree by using the swipe up or swipe down gestures (or right-click) and then choosing the option to “Open on Ancestry”.

Remember that building your tree on Ancestry is completely free.  Many people have the misunderstanding that you must have a paid subscription in order to use this app or to build your family tree on Ancestry.  A subscription is only required if you want to search and view results from Ancestry’s vast database of historical records and family trees.  But there is no charge for building your tree with your own information.

We hope this new app will be a valuable ongoing asset to your Ancestry experience.