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.

The Story of an Orphaned Photo and the Mystery Woman - Lester Graham's Family

Occasionally I go to antique shows looking for interesting artifacts to add to my collection. Most of the time I don't find anything that I need, but I often find orphaned photographs. I feel sorry for these photos and wonder how they ended up in a collection of old photographs being sold at the shows. I will buy the ones that have identifying information on them and then try to reunite them with their families.

This photograph is one of those that I have found. So, what can I find out about this photograph and those involved in it?

Lester Graham's Family - front: George & Lester's wife - back: Henry, Rebecca, Ruth Graham

This photograph was taken at The Rippel Art Shop in Sunbury, Pennsylvania. The studio was owned by Conrad Rippel. Conrad was born in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, on 27 November 1854, and learned the skills necessary to become a photographer early in life. In 1878, he moved to Milton, Pennsylvania, where he and his brother John were partners in a photography studio. On 14 May 1880, the Great Milton Fire occurred, burning their business. Soon thereafter, Conrad relocated to Sunbury where he opened a studio and continued his trade of photography and eventually expanded to sell art supplies. The business was named the Rippel Art Shop. Conrad died on 13 March 1936, at the age of 82, having been ill for several years.

The back of the photo gives me a good number of hints to use when identifying the individuals. The photo says Lester Graham's family - Earl's brother (My "PapPap") - front seated: Lester's wife & George - left to right back: Ruth Graham, Rebecca and Henry. Notice that it appears that they have the back row of the photo turned backwards and it probably should have been Henry, Rebecca and Ruth Graham. It would have been helpful to have Lester's wife's name, but with all the other data I should not have a problem finding them.

Based on the photograph I know, or can assume, the following:

• Lester Graham had four children: George, Henry, Rebecca and Ruth;
• Lester's brother was named Earl;
• Lester's family probably lived in Pennsylvania, maybe close to Sunbury.

The first thing I did was visit FamilySearch.org to begin my search. My first search was for Lester Graham which returns several dozen pages of possible matches. Since the results are so broad I decided to narrow them down by adding Pennsylvania to the birth location. The birth location is a guess but I am assuming that they lived in Pennsylvania based on the location of the studio. Once I did that I received about a dozen matches for Lester Graham who lived in Pennsylvania. The first match is for Lester Graham born 1863 in Northumberland, Pennsylvania. Northumberland happens to be directly across the Susquehanna River from Sunbury. Clicking on this record I see that his family consists of his wife Maggie Taylor and four children; George, Henry, Ruth and Rebecca. Additionally, Lester has a younger brother named Earl. It's probably a good bet that this is the family this photograph belongs to.

From the records I can see that Maggie and Lester were married on 15 October 1892. Their children were born between 1893 and 1899. The 1910 census lists Lester as a widower, indicating that Maggie died sometime before 1910. Lester's sister, Rebekah, is living with the family. I assume she was there to help Lester raise the children, ages 10-16. Lester's occupation in 1910 was as a machinist. All of this looks good when compared to the photograph. The children look like they could be between 10 and 16 and the picture could have been taken just before Maggie died. But why would they not have listed Maggie's name on the photo? Maybe she died many years before the photograph was labelled and the person labeling it didn't know her name?

The 1920 census lists Lester as a widower and all four children, ages 20-26, as living at home. That same census lists Lester as a machinist for the railroad, with George and Henry working as clerks with the railroad. So, it looks like Lester didn't remarry after Maggie's death. 

That was easy....But we all know that the easy answer isn't always the right answer. I decided to dig a little deeper in the records to see if I could find Maggie's death date. So, I looked in the 1900 census to make sure she was listed with the family. To my surprise Lester is living at home with his parents and his siblings Rebecca, James and Mary. Also listed there are the four children and a nurse. Lester is listed as widowed!! Hold on a minute, that means that if this is correct, Maggie died sometime after the youngest daughter, Rebecca, was born and the 1900 census. Rebecca is listed as being born December 1899 and the census listed those individuals living on 1 June 1900. So she must have died sometime between December 1899 and the end of May 1900, leaving Lester with four small children to raise. Looking at FindAGrave.com I find memorials for Lester and Maggie. Maggie's memorial indicates that she died 10 January 1900, only about a month after her daughter was born. Lester died much later, in 1942. The interesting thing about the 1900 census listing is that the nurse's name was Beatrice E. Talor, age 19. Could this be Maggie's younger sister helping to raise the children? 

So, now that it appears that Maggie Taylor Graham died soon after her daughter Rebecca was born, and that Lester is a widower in all subsequent censuses, who is the person listed as Lester's wife in the photograph? It could be the nurse, Beatrice. But she would only be in her late 20's based on the age of the children. The picture looks like she is much older than that. Maybe it is Lester's sister, Rebecca. Rebecca would probably be in her 40's when the picture was taken. Also, it appears that Rebecca never married. She died in 1913, only three years after the 1910 census where she is listed as living with the family. 

In conclusion, I believe that the person listed as Lester's wife is actually his sister, Rebecca. Rebecca would have been in her 40's at the time of the photograph and was taking care of the children around 1910. The person adding the information on the back of the photo lists Lester's brother Earl as her PapPap, probably referring to her grandfather. By the time she wrote this, the family had probably forgotten Lester's wife's name as well as the fact that Rebecca had lived with the family to care for the children.