The BYU Family History Library held a free course on social networking for genealogists. I’ve had trouble getting motivated to do family history and this seemed like a great way to merge something I already love (social media) with something I’m trying to love (genealogy). The course advertised using blogs, Facebook and Twitter so I assumed it would be really engaging material.
So much for assumptions.
I was the only one in the room of mostly silver hair who had used Twitter. The instructor spent 20 minutes trying to convince people that Facebook is safe.
I can sympathize. It’s tough trying to bring new media to a historically older demographic like the one found in genealogy. When you’re used to microfiche, I can see how it would be hard to embrace social networks.
While I didn’t get much out of the course, I did start thinking about how I would use social media for genealogy:
Blogs
- Blogging about particular family lines or even specific individuals you’ve been stuck on could open up some doors. The names would get indexed and be searchable in Google, leading others who are doing similar work to find you and offer guidance.
- Use the blog finder on Genealogue.com to find other genealogists working with similar names, regions, etc. Put your heads together.
- Read blogs as a way to fill in your knowledge gaps about particular family history topics, websites, programs, and techniques. Blogs likely have the most up-to-date information. Save time by subscribing to all of the blogs you like using an RSS reader (I use Google Reader right now).
- Create Google Alerts to inform you when anybody posts something online related to a particular family line you’re interested in. You’ll want to be specific enough to only get alerts for things that would actually be relevant. For example, instead of getting an alert for my surname “Cowley,” I’d set up a more specific alert looking for the words “Cowley family history” or “Cowley Isle of Man” (where my ancestors are originally from). You can have a Google Alert notify you with an RSS feed (which I do) or via e-mail.
- Facebook can be a great way to connect with living family and extended family. I find I’m much more tapped into family news because of Facebook. I don’t hear it all second-hand from my parents. While not specifically related to genealogy, this is still very valuable.
- Join groups related to your family name or start your own. There’s a FB group specifically for people with the last name of “Cowley.” I’m probably not related to all of them, but I could easily post on the group wall that I’m looking for people related to my specific line. There are also regional groups like “Manx Surnames” where I could find people doing genealogy in those areas. In genealogy research, it’s not about what you know, but who you know. Finding the right person with the right background, location, etc. is more valuable than 100 books or websites.
- Tap into genealogy-specific Facebook groups where you can learn about the newest trends, new record releases, databases, etc. Apparently the discussion boards on the Genea-Bloggers group page is pretty good. (Genea-bloggers is a derivative of a popular genealogy blog support site at Geneabloggers.com)
- Some genealogical record sources have Twitter accounts where they publish newly available records. Following them would be an easy way to stay current.
- Twitter offers a safe way to connect with people you don’t know who might still be able to help, even if they’re not into genealogy. Twitter makes it easy to find someone with your surname who lives in a family history location of interest. You can message that person to see if they or someone they know has information about your family.
Other Genealogy Social Media Websites
Genealogywise.com is a genealogy social network, similar to Facebook, but with family history and genealogy objectives in mind.
RootsWeb is an Ancestry.com project with mailing lists, message boards, search engines, databases, and other resources.
RootsTelevision offers videos and streaming TV that may be helpful to budding genealogists.
Social networking offers genealogists incredible access to places, people, and resources that would otherwise be impossible to visit in person or more laborious to connect with by e-mail. I’ve given a few of my ideas. What about yours? How are you using social media for family history?
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Lots of what’s going on in social networking being leveraged for genealogy and family history. Like this group on Facebook for example: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=36608494281#!/group.php?gid=36608494281
He’s your 4th great-grandfather if I’m not mistaken. :-)
Check out what Footnote is doing…user-generated, collaborative pages for ancestors: http://www.footnote.com/pages/
Even cooler? Check out how they digitized and indexed the Vietnam Memorial Wall: http://go.footnote.com/thewall/. Search for a name and check out all the user-generated content for that historical figure.
Pretty rad. They’re a Utah company, and a Techcrunch 50 finalist.
Genealogy: Where you confuse the dead and irritate the living.