Genealogy in Your Pocket: 5 Simple iPhone Tricks for Family History

Key points and insights

Family history research often happens far from a desk—at reunions, in basements full of heirlooms, on cemetery walks, or during an unplanned moment of reminiscence. In the webinar “Genealogy in Your Pocket: 5 Simple iPhone Tricks for Family History,” Linda Yip demonstrates how an iPhone can become a practical field companion for capturing memories, documenting evidence, and preserving crucial context while it is still fresh. The focus stays intentionally simple: everyday iOS tools that can strengthen genealogical work without requiring specialized apps, tech expertise, or a complicated workflow—ideal for researchers who want quick wins that translate into better notes, better sources, and better follow-up.

• Use sound to trigger memory and add historical texture. Playing music from a specific era can act as a powerful prompt when interviewing relatives, helping surface names, places, and experiences that may be difficult to recall on demand. The webinar shows how fast an iPhone can retrieve period music and how that “instant soundtrack” can change the tone of a family history conversation.

• Capture oral history anywhere—with ethics baked in. Voice Memos is presented as a pocket-sized interview kit with impressive audio quality, even in busy settings like family dinners. The session emphasizes asking permission before recording and demonstrates how an offhand recollection can produce usable research clues—details that can be cross-checked against directories, addresses, and photographs to move a story from memory toward evidence.

• Turn everyday iPhone features into research accelerators. Dictation reduces friction when writing emails or notes on the go, while Photos can embed GPS data that later helps reconstruct where a picture was taken—useful for archives, ancestral places, and cemetery documentation (including volunteer work such as memorial location support). A built-in scanner inside Notes rounds out the toolkit, offering a fast way to capture documents when a traditional scanner is not available—plus a reminder to manage privacy by removing location data before posting images publicly.

Viewing the full webinar is the best way to benefit from the on-screen demonstrations that show exactly where these features are located, how settings influence results, and how to avoid common pitfalls (especially with photo location data and mobile scans). The complete resource also includes additional context and related learning that expands the “mobile genealogy” approach beyond the five featured tricks.