Forebears 4.3.5 - App Store

Forebears version 4.3.5

Updated At: 2026-07-06

Changes: Version History Minor changes and information about new MyForebears release 4.3.5 Mar 25 Minor improvements to the App 4.3.3 Feb 16 This is a minor maintenance update 4.3.2 Feb 16 This is an important maintenance release to upgrade the App's internal data storage. 4.3.1 Feb 10 Just one new feature but an important one to those in the genetic genealogy community. Forebears is now able to generate a GEDCOM file containing only the direct paternal lineage for a given person. 4.3 Feb 9 Various small enhancements and bug fixes. 4.2.1 Feb 5 ** Family editing on one easy-to-use screen: everything you need to start a new group, add members and family relationships. But also to audit the entire tree for completeness, including mapping dates in bulk. ** Advanced multi-criteria people search: a long-requested feature and especially valuable for really big family groups with many thousand members. Now you can filter on location, or on date or even by occupation. ** View your family tree full-screen: the individual Life Story now expands to full screen height just like the Classic Tree diagram. ** Choose to load or remove the practice groups: the two built-in groups (Royal Family and US Presidents) are there for you to play with and get familiar with Forebears many features. But not everyone wants them! So now you can delete them (left-swipe on their row in the Library) and later, if you want, you can still reinstall them. ** General bug fixes and improvements: masses of small enhancements everywhere and a general tidying up of screens. 4.2 Feb 2 **New Calendar Feature for Living Relatives** Create personalized calendars of birthdays, anniversaries, and memorial dates for your living family members and their deceased siblings. Calendar entries automatically sync with your iOS Calendar app, complete with reminders so you never miss an important date. Entries are beautifully formatted with ages, years, and full names for easy recognition. **Redesigned Date Entry System** We've completely reimagined how you add dates to life events! The new streamlined interface lets you effortlessly switch between specific dates and date ranges with a single tap. Perfect for historical records where you might know "April 1926" or "between 1926 and 1930" but not the exact day. The intelligent system validates date ranges and maintains historical precision (year, quarter, month, or day) exactly as you recorded it. **MacCatalyst Enhancements** The Mac version now features a cleaner, more focused menu bar and an optimally sized Settings screen that's perfectly proportioned for your Mac display. **Improved Reliability** Enhanced date handling ensures imprecise dates from GEDCOM files maintain their original accuracy. We've also improved navigation when adding family members and refined how the app manages your family tree data behind the scenes. **Other Improvements** Manual calendar rebuild option for data refresh Smarter calendar qualification including deceased siblings Enhanced Life Story narrative formatting Better visual feedback during calendar creation We're committed to making Forebears the most powerful and intuitive genealogy app. Thank you for your continued support! 4.1 Jan 20 ### Enhanced Date Support - **Date Ranges**: You can now record date ranges and periods (e.g., "From 1939 to 1953" or "After 1920") - **Incomplete Dates**: Support for start-only or end-only dates when exact dates aren't known - **GEDCOM Compatibility**: Date ranges import and export correctly with proper GEDCOM formatting ### Improved Address Display - **Multi-line Addresses**: Address fields now support multiple lines, making long addresses easier to read and edit - **Better Import**: Addresses from GEDCOM files are now captured more completely, including both place names and street addresses ### Enhanced Note Management - **Cleaner Note Display**: Person-level notes now appear in a dedicated pop-up view for better readability - **Rich Text Support**: Formatted notes (bold, italic, underline) are preserved when exporting and importing family trees - **Easy Access**: Notes are easily accessible via a dedicated button that appears when notes exist ### Adding People to Groups - **Standalone Additions**: You can now add people to existing groups without requiring them to be direct relations - **Flexible Family Trees**: Perfect for groups with separate family branches or unconnected individuals ### Seed Group Management - **Full Control**: Demonstration groups (Royal Family and US Presidents) can now be edited and deleted like your own groups - **Easy Reinstall**: Reinstall demonstration groups anytime from Settings if you've deleted them ### Enhanced Descendant Tree View - **Partner Display**: Partners are now shown within each person's cell, making family relationships clearer - **Visual Indicators**: Partners with children are marked with numbered badges, while partners without children use hollow icons - **Parent Display**: Parents of the focal person are shown at the top of the tree with clear "Father:" and "Mother:" labels - **Improved Navigation**: Tap any person or partner in the tree to navigate to them - the tree stays expanded when navigating - **Better Organization**: Multiple partners are clearly displayed with visual connections showing which partner produced which children ## Improvements & Fixes - Fixed issue where addresses were being cut off or missing after importing GEDCOM files - Improved display of dates and addresses with clearer labels and formatting - Enhanced group deletion handling to prevent empty screens - Fixed Mac Catalyst display issues with dark overlays - Various stability and performance improvements 4.0 Jan 13 > A 'US Presidents' seed group is now included to demonstrate app functionality and give US historians something to enjoy. > Sub-Groups (e.g. the US Presidents within their new Group, Kings and Queens within the Royal Family Group) can be rapidly selected. > Layout improvements to Mac Version 3.3.6 12/29/2025 Minor technical improvements to GEDCOM Import and to Edit functionality. 3.3.5 12/27/2025 Improved onboarding. Improved layout for Group Facets screens. Fixed bugs in Tree diagram dates and Wonder Wheel birth-order layout 3.3.4 12/19/2025 > Notes are now included when publishing the Person Index to pdf. They also display with full formatting on the person detail screen when tapping the centre of the Wonder Wheel. > Buttons around the Wonder Wheel and Ancestral Circle are now shaded for improved clarity. Nasty bug fixed that caused repeated invitations to Subscribe to the Blog. Apologies! 3.3.3 12/18/2025 Enhancement: Users can now add a textual note to Members of a family group. So Notes can now be imported, exported, added and displayed. Fix for the bug where Forebears got stuck in path-finding mode. 3.3.2 12/17/2025 New features: > Automatic update checking: The app checks for new versions and notifies you when updates are available > Blog subscription: Option to subscribe to the Forebears blog for tips and updates UI improvements: > Navigation bar buttons (Settings and Library) now match your selected theme color and adapt to light/dark mode > All buttons around the family circle and wheel are consistently sized and themed > Navigation bar buttons remain visible when switching between views Update check: > Improved network error handling with clear alerts > Automatic retry on next app launch if a check fails Bug fixes: > Fixed button sizing inconsistencies across different screen sizes > Improved navigation bar behavior when toggling between views 3.3.1 12/14/2025 Publish to Print. A long awaited feature that for the first time lets you keep on offline archive of your family history database, clearly presented and alphabetically sorted. 3.3 11/13/2025 Image capture improvements: (1) The top image pane from tab-3 has enhanced pinch-zoom, 'tap-to-return', and paging (2) Quick multi-photo selection (3) Fixed bug preventing image capture. Mini biography: Tapping the centre of the Wonder Wheel displays all the information currently held about a person Enhanced GEDCOM Import: Forebears can import GEDCOM files from many other genealogy apps but sometimes the imports fail due to unexpected or non-standard files. This enhancement will help the app user and the developer to fix import errors. 3.2.1 11/10/2025 Important new features: > A classic Family Tree display, designed uniquely for the smaller screen. Can be expanded to fill the whole screen or compressed to view alongside the Wonder Wheel. Displays an entire gene pool (everyone descended from the selected person) or display only those descended in the male line, with the same family name. > Enhanced Wonder Wheel editing features now enable rapid changes to parent/child relationships with simple tap gestures. > International character-sets can now be entered and displayed on all app screens and on the Wonder Wheel and Ancestral Circle. A few minor bugs fixed. 3.2 11/07/2025 Enhancements to GEDCOM Import. Some minor bug fixes. 3-1-9 11/04/2025 Minor bug fixes 3-1-8 10/31/2025 Two major changes. Firstly, divorces can now be created, updated and deleted directly in Forebears and are shown below the associated marriage as another event type. Secondly, imported grid references with NSEW prefixes now display automatically without the need for further mapping. Bug fixes relating to the import of dates. 3-1-6 03/06/2024 The new Suffolk1 Release contains some important new features and bug fixes. > GEDCOM Imports with complex Notes. These now import correctly. > GEDCOM Imports that include Divorce Events. These now import correctly and display in proper chronological order on the Home Screen > Same-Sex Relationships. Forebears now handles these with the same clear precision as any other marital partnership. 3-1-5 03/01/2024 A small bug fix affecting the display of Life Story and operation of Privacy Switch. 3-1-4 02/21/2024 Some minor bug fixes and enhancements to the way the Ancestral Circle is displayed. 3-1-3 02/19/2024 Minor bug fix to address an issue with reading unusual event dates on imported GEDCOM files. 3-1-2 01/23/2024

Forebears version 4.3.3

Updated At: 2026-02-16

Changes: Minor improvements to the App

Forebears version 1-1-6

Updated At: 2024-03-06

Changes: Mar 6, 2024 Version 1-1-6 Two major changes. Firstly, divorces can now be created, updated and deleted directly in Forebears and are shown below the associated marriage as another event type. Secondly, imported grid references with NSEW prefixes now display automatically without the need for further mapping. Bug fixes relating to the import of dates.

Forebears version 1-1-5

Updated At: 2024-03-01

Changes: Mar 1, 2024 Version 1-1-5 The new Suffolk1 Release contains some important new features and bug fixes. > GEDCOM Imports with complex Notes. These now import correctly. > GEDCOM Imports that include Divorce Events. These now import correctly and display in proper chronological order on the Home Screen > Same-Sex Relationships. Forebears now handles these with the same clear precision as any other marital partnership.

Forebears version 1-1-2

Updated At: 2024-01-23

Changes: Jan 23, 2024 Version 1-1-2 Minor bug fix to address an issue with reading unusual event dates on imported GEDCOM files.

Forebears version 1-1-1

Updated At: 2024-01-17

Changes: Jan 17, 2024 Version 1-1-1 Mainly small bug fixes in this release. A rather unusual issue where group members are created without content when adding relations. Annoying and now fixed.

Forebears version 1-1

Updated At: 2024-01-10

Changes: Jan 10, 2024 Version 1-1 Some very significant changes to the way that addresses are maintained in Forebears. Sounds a small feature but for serious family historians where sources show archaic addresses that can't be found on a modern map this is important. Now, you can record the historic address precisely as it's written and also create a grid-reference and show the location on a map within Forebears. Enjoy!

Forebears version -

Updated At: 2023-12-30

Forebears version 1.01

Updated At: 2023-12-30

Changes: Dec 30, 2023 Version 1.01 Minor bug fixes only in this update.

Forebears version 3-0-2

Updated At: 2023-12-06

Changes: Dec 6, 2023 Version 3-0-2 Largely this is a bug-fix release. However, it also prepares the ground for our soon-to-be-released Mac version. Users will then be able to enjoy Forebears on iPhone, iPad and Mac - each implemented in a way that optimises the qualities of the platform.