Don't have time to sit at the computer and run down your family tree? Ancestry.com's app for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad has been a way to check your roots on the go, and now the company says the app has been downloaded 1 million times.
History, particularly family history, is hot, in no small part due to the genealogy website, which also sponsors the NBC TV show, "Who Do You Think You Are?" with its focus on celebs like Ashley Judd, Gywneth Paltrow and Emmet Smith.
(The show is on NBC, and Msnbc.com is a joint venture of NBC Universal and Microsoft.)
Ancestry.com said Tuesday that about a third of the 1 million downloads have happened in the "last two months alone. In addition, over half of users of the app are new to Ancestry.com indicating a growing interest in family history, Ancestry.com and in mobile in general."
The website has nearly 1.4 million paying subscribers, and says more than 6 billion records have been added to the site in the last 14 years.
"We've been pleased with the early adoption of our iPhone and iPad apps and believe we are just getting started," said Eric Shoup, senior vice president of product for Ancestry.com, in a statement. "It's a natural extension of the Ancestry.com service and another way to help our members discover, preserve and share their family history."
The mobile app, available through iTunes, is free, but it works in conjunction with a paid account, required by Ancestry.com. Anyone can try out the regular website for free for two weeks, but a yearly subscription costs $155.40.
Using the app, you can look at individual records, family trees, edit information and organize photos, among other tasks. And, using the camera on either the iPhone or iPad 2, the company says, you can also take photos of relatives or historical documents and upload them right to your family tree on the website. You need to have iOS 3.1 or later to use the app.
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