How to Use Social Networking in Ancestry Research (Guide)

Learn important ins and outs of social networking with other historical, ancestry, and genealogy researchers and storytellers.

If you are not networking with other genealogists, you are not an effective genealogist. While I would like to think I am a good genealogist, I would not have found or been exposed to even a fraction of the results I have found had it not been for the willingness of other genealogists, historians, librarians, and local experts to share their knowledge and insights.

Social Networking for History and Genealogy Researchers
Table of Contents

Find Opportunities for Networking
Ancestry and Genealogy Social Networking Sites
Social Networking with Email and Wikis
Social Networking with Message Boards
Digital Sticky Notes
Family Tree Databases
Repositories and Library’s Social Networking
Social Networking with Volunteer Efforts
Social Networking in Professional Groups
Social Networking with Blogging
Additional Resources to Expand Your Knowledge

When you contact those who share similar interests, it’s like a breath of fresh air that will renew your research. I am continually collaborating with others when I have a research question, when I am at a fork in the road, unsure which way to turn, or simply sharing my experiences.

I had been researching one of my ancestral lines in Virginia and all but lost the trail. I didn’t have any leads on where to turn next. I knew that my ancestor had attended a specific church in the community during the late 1700s. I contacted the county historical society via email to see if they had any members or projects surrounding the congregation. I explained that my research dead ends and that I was looking for others with whom I could collaborate and share research experience and knowledge.

Several weeks later, I received an email that explained that there was a group of researchers who had family who attended the church during the period of my ancestors. The writer would be willing to forward my information to the other researchers if I was interested. I took the opportunity to compose an email outlining what I knew, my personal contact information, the questions I would like to learn about the congregation and its members, and my desire to speak with the other researchers personally.

I received responses from two researchers with contact information, and I set a time to speak with them. Neither of the researchers was direct links to my ancestral lines, but our ancestors did share an experience. I gained incredible insights into the congregation members, where they were from, what type of records exist and where they could be found, and how the group influenced the community.

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Find Opportunities for Networking

Networking can take place online, by correspondence, or in person. Networking opportunities can happen through any of the following platforms:

Blogs
Classroom participation
Collaborative editing
Historical and genealogy-specific social networks
General social networking (such as Facebook)
Message boards and mailing lists
Photos and video sharing
Podcasts
RSS feeds
Sharing personal libraries
Society membership
Virtual worlds
Wikis
Workshop or national conference attendance

The more information you gather about your ancestor, the more ideas you will have about who might be able to help you. Write down or list the different “groups” your ancestors fit into, classifying your ancestors by any other classification, ethnic group, fraternal or religious association, gender, military service, occupation, residence locale (local, county, state), social class, and time frame or era.

Find networking resources among family members; local, regional, and state libraries; local, regional, and state museums; university libraries and archives; genealogy societies; historical societies; message boards; mailing lists; social networks; and blogs.

Learn to use available resources to the network

There are many resources and online communities where you can begin and continue to collaborate with other genealogists.

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Ancestry and Genealogy Social Networking Sites

Online communities have been built as a place for individuals with common interests to build new relationships. These online services provide simple tools to generate collaborative opportunities for finding, sharing, and interacting with like-minded people. Social networking websites use networking technologies such as wikis, RSS, and mapping. Online family tree building helps people connect with family members and other researchers. Many of the sites become a platform for the family social experience. Families can produce content, preserve connections, add historical anecdotes, and communicate across several mediums like instant messaging and email and picture and family tree viewing. You can browse by city or country to view uploaded photos of that city and names of genealogists that live in that city.

I actively use social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, and I can reach long distances—even across the pond—for little or no cost at all. Usually, you are contacting people who have already advertised their body of knowledge and expertise.

Facebook is the leading social networking site today and has been adopted openly by the genealogy community. Facebook has allowed me to find near and distant family. I have followed other genealogists who offer online seminars or have websites with information on genealogy and the industry.

Twitter is a messaging platform in which—just like Facebook “friends”—you gather” followers.” These are people who find your messages exciting and decide to follow you. Twitter is different than simple text messaging in that you are limited to 140 characters, and you have a band of followers. I actively “tweet” (sending messages on Twitter) the surnames that I am searching for, especially the ones for whom I have brick walls.

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Social Networking with Email and Wikis

Email

Writing and sending email is a quick, inexpensive, and effective means for promoting communication. Email can be sent with attached documents and photographs. A brief and polite email to a potential, newfound, or known relative is often the beginning of a beautiful exchange. When communicating via email, traditional courtesies should be observed.

Mailing lists

A mailing list is simply an email party line, and every message that a list subscriber sends to the list is distributed to all other list subscribers. Subscribing to a mailing list is one of the best ways of connecting to people who share your interests. Genealogy-related mailing lists can cover surnames, U.S. counties and states, other countries and regions, ethnic groups, and various topics. Many websites host mailing lists, including RootsWeb.com, Ancestry.com, and Genealogy.com.

Wikis

A wiki is a page or collection of web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses the wiki to contribute or modify content. The value of a wiki is that anyone can contribute, and the combined efforts of several individuals usually create a better result than any one individual could by themselves. Wikis are used to create collaborative websites where a community can work together to provide meaningful content. The most widely known wiki is Wikipedia.com. FamilySearch started the Research Wiki at wiki.familysearch.org. Be careful, though: because anyone can contribute, you must make sure to check the accuracy of information retrieved from a wiki site.

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Social Networking with Message Boards

Message boards focus on surnames, localities, and many other genealogy topics. You create a record through which other researchers can find you by posting a message to the appropriate message board. You’ll find message boards on Ancestry.com, RootsWeb.com, and Genealogy.com.

The message boards are a “must-do” connecting point for genealogists to collaborate on research topics of mutual interest in a public forum. The focuses of the boards range from surnames to locations to particular topics. Depending on the board and the number of people posting queries and replies, the exchange flow and volume of information are dynamic.

Most people using the message boards have been doing genealogy for more than ten years. There is an excellent pool of knowledge and experience coming together to help one another. I have used message boards to assist in planning and evaluating genealogy trips to Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Norway, Germany, and Russia and which one I should do when.

I posted my queries in both the country- and county-specific boards for the focus of my research, and within hours—and for the next week—I received very insightful hints and direction from people who lived in the area or who had gone on trips such as I was planning. Some people replied to the message boards, and others sent an email directly to me. Thoughts ranged from where to conduct my research to where to stay and eat to where I would most likely find graves of my family and offer insights on personal genealogy.

In another case, I had posted a message in November 2005 concerning research I was conducting on the Mullins family from Goochland County, Virginia. My first reply was six months later. The individual who responded replied that he had been doing research on his line with the same name and realized that information he had gathered was not of his line and sent it to me, along with several links to review. We continued a correspondence away from the message boards for a couple of weeks, seeking to help each other with our research.

Remember: most message boards are open to the public so that anyone can view or post a query or reply. It becomes your responsibility to ensure that the information you’re getting ready to post is what you want to share with the world. There will be no time limit as to how long the message will be posted, and I have messages that have been out there for five or more years. Once you press “submit,” the information is now free to be used as the public chooses to use it.

Take the time to carefully compose your message, providing the critical information others will need to help you in your research. For example, the following information is usually essential to provide when helping others identify family connections:

Full name, including any middle names or initials
Birth, marriage, and death dates
Places where the above events occurred
Residence and migration
Names of their children and parents

Don’t be afraid to provide detailed information. If I am looking for specific help, I need to provide enough background information so that others can review it and provide quality input. It helps others understand that you have done your homework, and they will give you better answers.

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Check your grammar and spelling

Think about how an error will change the response you might get, such as if you enter a date of 1962 and mean 1926.

Rather than compose your message in the data entry window provided by the message board, compose your message in your word processing software first, run spell check, edit, and then copy and paste your message into the appropriate message window.

You must use the message boards to keep track of your efforts by doing one or more of the following:

Use a correspondence log to track your message board posts and queries. Information to track will include the date when you posted, where it was posted, and a summary of your post. As you receive the replies, track the reply’s date and the results (positive or negative).

Use bookmarks or favorites. Simply create a folder in your bookmarks or favorites for the explicit purpose of tracking message board queries. The program will usually allow you to add comments each time you visit the site.

Use your genealogy software to keep track of your message board queries. Some family tree software programs include correspondence logs or ‘to-do’ lists. Be sure to include the URL, copy of your post or query, the date you last checked, etc.

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Digital Sticky Notes

Some websites allow you to add “digital sticky notes.” Post-em is the electronic equivalent of a sticky note. These notes allow you to attach your email address, a link to another website address, and other information to the record of any individual. Search for your ancestors and leave your calling card attached to their names.

On RootsWeb.com, you can add Post-em notes to the Social Security Death Index (S.S.D.I.), the WorldConnect Project, and other databases. On Ancestry.com, these notes are called “Comments and Corrections” and can be used to add alternate names to an individual’s record or add other comments about the person, both of which are viewable by other researchers.

You can add annotations to individual records; go to www.ellisisland.com. All of these additions to records are viewable by other researchers. Digitally sticky notes could potentially help your research and connect you with other researchers.

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Family Tree Databases

Online family tree databases can help you locate others interested in your research surnames. These resources include the following websites:

You can initiate contact through email. Several online services also allow you to locate living individuals who may have family information to share.

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Repositories and Library’s Social Networking

Many libraries, archives, and societies have excellent and well-known collections of genealogical research materials. Several of these repositories—particularly the smaller ones—maintain lists of researchers and the local area families they are researching.

One of the better-known repositories is the Family History Library (F.H.L.), owned and maintained by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and located in Salt Lake City, Utah. (For more information, visit www.familysearch.org). It is the most widely known repository of genealogical materials. The F.H.L. has been acquiring and preserving genealogical data since its founding in 1894. The library has collected vital information on hundreds of millions of deceased individuals. This data includes print and microform copies of records from all over the world. Copies of records are available at the library in Salt Lake City and family history centers throughout the United States and many foreign countries. All are welcome to visit the F.H.L. and its subsidiaries. A catalog of F.H.L. sources is available online.

Societies

Hundreds of genealogical and historical societies across the country seek to preserve records and provide instruction to family historians. Most genealogists are willing to share findings, exchange ideas, and tell of their research experience. Societies work to preserve records, make records available, promote educational opportunities, and encourage participation in social activities. By tapping into the society’s resources, you gain educational opportunities, instructional articles published in their periodicals, local skill-building sessions, and one- or two-day seminars featuring nationally known professionals. You will find members of the societies who know some or all of the following helpful information:

Which records are available
How you can access those records
What information is online, in books, and folders
The experience level of members and other genealogists
Where information is located if they don’t have it
Who to talk to if they don’t know the answer—perhaps leading you to others who may be researching your surname
History of the immigrants

Many groups form at the county level because of the research significance of local area records; organizations also exist to study a single surname or the descendants of a particular couple. Ethnic or religious origins account for many such groups, such as the Polish Genealogical Society of America and Pursuing Our Italian Names Together (P.O.I.N.T.). Other societies bring together researchers with familiar locales of origin, such as The Palatines to America and Germans from Russia.

Every state has a genealogical or historical society, a state council, or both. In addition to major projects, the following is a list of the types of projects that a state-level group might coordinate with the efforts of local societies within the state:

Their publications (newsletters and journals) supplement those produced by local societies.
Some state organizations, such as the Ohio Genealogical Society, offer chapter members throughout the country.
Other state organizations operate on a less-structured basis.

At the national level, several organizations serve individual genealogists or societies, such as the following:

The Federation of Genealogical Societies (F.G.S.)—www.fgs.org
Umbrella organizations for genealogical and historical societies and research institutes, such as libraries and archives.
The National Genealogical Society (NGS) is comprised of individual researchers—www.ngsgenealogy.org
The oldest society in the United States is the New England Historic Genealogical Society (N.E.H.G.S.)—www.nehgs.org

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Social Networking with Volunteer Efforts

Most societies create and manage projects to benefit the genealogical community, such as indexing and preservation activities and producing periodicals and other publications. Many genealogists work independently of societies. You will find numerous online indexes and databases created by these volunteers. Many of these projects are on the USGenWeb Project at www.usgenWeb.org. This website is full of volunteer-driven sites that publish historical information and resource material, such as a list of sites that offer cemetery indexes and newspaper abstracts.

Volunteers maintain sites and often provide essential local details about an area’s history, geography, and settlement. They also usually overview record availability and access and research tips.

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Social Networking in Professional Groups

You can interact with professional genealogists by writing articles and books, presenting lectures that provide new information, and giving examples of methodologies to help in difficult research situations. Professionals often lead efforts to protect records in jeopardy and make them available for wide use. Many (but not all) professionals conduct research on a contract basis for others and can assist a family historian with a quest that seems impossible. The research that professionals do ranges from an entire lineage to small but significant tasks in their field of expertise.
In the United States, several groups serve the interests of professional genealogists and their clients and those of the genealogical community. The following is a list of some such organizations, along with some basic information about each group:

The Association of Professional Genealogists (A.P.G.):
- P.O. Box 40393, Denver, CO 80204-0393.
- Membership organization that does not administer tests, award credentials, or endorse individual researchers.
- The association does offer arbitration if a dispute arises between any association member and the general public.
- The A.P.G. website (www.apgen.org) lists members’ names, contact details, and areas of expertise.

The Board for Certification of Genealogists (P.O. Box 14291, Washington, DC 20044) is a certifying body that is not affiliated with any group:
- B.C.G. screens applicants through a testing process; successful candidates earn the initials CG (Certified Genealogist).
- A roster of certified genealogists is at the B.C.G. website www.bcgcertification.org

The International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists (ICAPGen) offers independent testing without membership.
- Established in 1964 (by the Family History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), this program is designed to examine and accredit researchers in specialized geographic areas.
- Those who complete the program receive the initials AG (Accredited Genealogist).

The American Society of Genealogists (A.S.G.) was founded in 1940 as an honorary society, limited to fifty-lifetime members designated as Fellows (identified by the initials F.A.S.G.):
- Election to the A.S.G. is based on a candidate’s published genealogical scholarship.
- A list of Fellows and news of the A.S.G. Scholar Award can be found at their website (www.fasg.org)

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Social Networking with Blogging

A blog, short for “Weblog,” can quickly post new information online. When a new article or tip is posted, it is sent automatically to anyone who has subscribed to the blog. By subscribing to one or more genealogy blogs, you can keep up with the latest techniques, tips, and databases.

How can you get the most out of your blog reading time? Focus on the title. Look over the article (just a brief scan). Determine if the post is of interest or value to you. If not, carry on elsewhere.
If it is of interest, analyze who wrote the post. What are their qualifications for this topic?

Determine one or two questions that you hope to find answers to by reading the post before thoroughly reading it. This will transform you from a passive consumer of information into an active reader. Read the actual post. Reflect on the questions you asked yourself before you read the post. Were your questions answered? Take mental or written notes about the post. Summarize the post in your own words.

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Additional Resources to Expand Your Knowledge

Consider expanding your knowledge for storytelling and ancestry research.

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