Social media can be a great place to learn about new resources and strategies for your own family history research. This week I came across a new way to hear what genealogists have to share with each other. Here's how.

Visit Ancestry.com on their Facebook page which is open free to everyone. Here's the URL for this webpage: http://www.facebook.com/Ancestry.com 

You can browse through the postings from visitors on "The Wall" of the home page. You'll find queries and also questions on genealogy resources. An Ancestry staff answers some of the latter with good ideas. One up there right now is about preserving historic family photos.

Another way is to browse through the many different discussions, found via the Discussions tab. One of the topics there is Free Genealogy Resources with an original posting and lots of follow-up messages from others. See all the ideas here: http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=7483836629&topic=14157

More ideas come about when Ancestry.com poses a question to people who are "fans" or followers of their Facebook page and lots of people reply with ideas and suggestions. To get in on these, join Facebook for free here: http://www.facebook.com/

Then go to their Facebook homepage here http://www.facebook.com/Ancestry.com and then click on the Like button [with icon of hand with thumb up] and you will become a follower [until recently called a fan].

We all can learn about new resources and approaches to finding our families for free or for modest costs. Try this idea and get ideas from other genealogists. And have fun!