Social Media as a Genealogical Research Tool

I'm back again, the occasional blogger has returned. It's been another busy week. Last night my wife and I attended the first Dapper Dine-Out. This is a 1940s themed event where we dress up in period garb and visit local restaurants. You should have seen all of us out at the beach. Several people came up and asked to take photos with us. On Tuesday evening, I spoke to the Amelia Island Genealogical Society about using social media as a genealogical research tool. Amelia Island/Fernandina Beach is as far north in Florida as you can get (about a 4 hour drive) and happens to be where my wife's LeBoeuf family settled prior to 1880. So, while I was there, I spent some time doing research at the county library and at St. Peter's Episcopal Church. I was able to find 6 pages in the church's records for the family including baptism and burial for a baby (Horace Clifford Coker), confirmation and first communion for a son (James Vickery LeBoeuf), and confirmation for the mother (Mary Ann Vickery LeBoeuf). I also found that the specific newspaper that my wife's 3rd great-grandfather's obituary should be in was probably the only edition that is missing from the 1883 records, just my luck. But at least we still have the monthly list of deceased with some details.

So, as a follow-up to my talk this week, I decided to provide a blog about using social media as a genealogical research tool. This is one of those topics that is constantly evolving as more and more people get on social media. The main part of my presentation covered Facebook but I also discussed Pinterest, Twitter and Google Plus (G+) as resources.

There are many benefits of using social media for your genealogy research. One of the major reasons to use it is the sheer number of people who are subscribed to the various social media platforms. There are millions to billions of people on each platform, making it possible to meet relatives, discuss various topics, and learn from their expertise. Another benefit is the rapid response to questions. On some groups you can get responses within only a couple minutes. Many of the members use social media to challenge their abilities and are willing to take on difficult research topics. The discussions that develop around certain topics can provide even more information to help one find new ways to research their ancestors. And the big reason to use social media is that it is free! I love free resources.

I won't go into complete detail for each social media platform but I will provide a couple ideas on how to use each and you can investigate them on your own to see how they work for you.

Pinterest is a social media platform that revolves around collections of photos organized on themed bulletin boards. These boards can be on any topic but for genealogy they include surnames, places, crafts, research techniques as well as many other topics. Pinterest currently has over 175 million subscribers contributing over 1 billion boards. Below, I have included a screen shot of one of my Pinterest boards. The subject of this board is my Garman family research. As you can see, I have included photographs, newspaper clipping, links to blogs and other resources.

Example of a surname board on Pinterest. This is of my Garman family from Ohio.

Google Plus (G+) is Google's social media platform. G+ has nearly 400 million subscribers but only about 10% of them are active on a monthly basis. G+ has hundreds of genealogy related communities for people to explore. Additionally, one of the best things about G+ are the Hangouts. Hangouts are video conferencing calls. There are regularly scheduled Hangouts from several of the big name genealogists which you can call in to and see what they have to say. Below is a screen shot from Dear Myrtle's G+ Community.

Screen shot of Dear Myrtle's G+ Community.

Twitter is another active social media platform. With over 330 million active users, it is a growing community. Twitter has increased its character limit to 280 characters so your posts can now be longer and more informative. Twitter allows you to follow influential people and find microblogs for various genealogy topics. Below is an example of the results you might see when searching for genealogy on Twitter.

Example results of a search for Genealogy on Twitter.

And now for the mother of all social media platforms.....Facebook. Facebook has over 2.2 billion active subscribers....that is more than 25% of the entire world's population active on this one social media platform! Imagine the number of new cousins you could discover there. But with so many people using this platform, how do you find things? One blogger has been keeping track of all the genealogy related Facebook pages to help you find resources. Katherine R. Willson has a blog where she keeps this list of Facebook groups. So, how many genealogy related pages are there on Facebook? According to Katherine, there are now over 12,000 groups and pages dedicated to genealogy topics. These topics include regional pages, research topics, surname groups, and groups which offer personal assistance. A few of my favorite groups are as follows:

• Genealogy Translations - Members of this group provide translations of records.
• Photo Restorations - Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness has several helpful pages. Members of their photo restoration page provide free photo restoration of your damaged photos.
• Genealogy Events Club - This group announces upcoming genealogy conferences, events and calls for papers.
• GeneDocs Templates - This group provides templates to help you organize your genealogical research.
• and of course there is my genealogy related page - Miles Genealogy - Here you can see my upcoming appearances, keep up on my latest blog posts, and see what my current speaking topics are.

With all of these resources available, you should be able to find something to help you in your research. Just don't forget to step away from the social media occasionally and enjoy your current family as much as you research your ancestors.