Social Networking For Genealogists

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Comment by JC Flynt on October 26, 2010 at 6:19pm

I have had quite a bit of luck with MySpace and Facebook. On MySpace, I found long lost siblings of mine and then lost siblings of a friend of mine. On Facebook, I was able to hunt down a few cousins that I had found connections with on Ancestry. Due to only having the "free" membership to Ancestry, it would not let me email or directly contact the person. I simply looked them up on Facebook, introduced myself, specified the post or specific information they had on Ancestry that led me to them, etc. Occasionally, I've had a cousin that will accept the invite, but will not take the time to actually discuss genealogy. This is okay, as those people really do not mean any offense and most likely just have not taken the time out of their day. If you already know the connection with those people, then you can at least glean who their present day families are and they may enjoy any family history you post. Several cousins of mine are doing genealogical research off and on (around our families, jobs, and schooling...it's one of those things many of us pick up, put down...have luck one evening and none for weeks).

I keep some albums set aside and labeled for genealogical photos and photos of headstones. One instance, I was pretty certain on a set of headstones, but needed verification from a cousin. I posted, tagged her, and left a comment asking her to verify. Not only were they the right headstones, but it brought back some memories and prompted her to share, giving me more insight into the family and descriptions of my dear ancestors that I was not as blessed to know personally.

One cousin was found via a family church having a Facebook page. I left a public message in the discussions tab. The pastor, though new to the church, was able to direct me to the particular persons in the church that I should speak with and that had FB profiles. They ended up being fairly close cousins.

Hope this helps ;)

Comment by William Douglas on October 23, 2010 at 9:38am

I run a site for the Douglas family. I find that whenever someone successfully networks, they move their discussion off-line, so the information is lost to the remainder.

I also find that there are many who prefer to email me rather than post in a public forum. There must be some sort of barrier that prevents open networking as a genealogy problem solving method.

I know it is not the success story that you are looking for, but I hope it helps!