Using Social Media for Genealogy Resources

How to use Social Media to

Boost your Family Research

Tips and Tricks By @SwarthyDaisy

Facebook

Facebook: Users can create a user profile, add other users as "friends", exchange messages, post status updates and photos, share videos and receive notifications when others update their profiles. Additionally, users may join common-interest user groups. -Source Wikipedia

Facebook Pages

You can find Genealogy related Facebook Pages by doing either a Google search of the keyword and the word ‘Facebook’ or you can search for a Page by typing the desired Keyword into the Facebook search box at the top of your Facebook Profile.

On Facebook Pages, you can read Posts and comment on Posts.

Example of a Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/GenealogyRoadshowPBS

Facebook Groups

There are several Facebook groups that are great resources for communicating with other Genealogy researchers. To find Genealogy related groups, type keywords in the search box at the top of your Facebook profile page. A common search keyword for genealogy is ‘Genealogy’.

Facebook Groups Cont’d

A few Genealogy Related Facebook groups include:

DNA

Ancestry-Gedmatch-FTDNA-23andme-Genealogy and DNA

DNA Tested African Descendants

23andme Newbies

GedMatch.com User Group

Gedmatch Genealogy Ancestry Group

Gedmatch.com Discussion Group

Facebook Groups Cont’d

Genealogy

African American Genealogy

Bahamas Genealogy

Florida Genealogy Network

Genealogy! Just ask!

Genealogical & Historical Queries

Facebook Groups Cont’d

Our Black Ancestry

RootsWeb Genealogists

South Carolina- Low Country African American Genealogy

South Carolina Genealogy Network

Search Squad

Facebook Groups Cont’d

Do's and Don’ts

Do: Post helpful resources, comment, and interact with other members. Please read the group rules. Group moderators do monitor comments and posts and they will remove you from a group if they feel the need to.

Don’t: Argue with other members in groups. If you disagree with other users, think before you post.

Activity

Research some other good Genealogy Facebook groups.

Twitter

Twitter is an online social networking service that enables users to send and read short 140-character messages called "tweets". -Source Wikipedia

Twitter: Hashtags

To look for information related to Genealogy, you can type #Genealogy into the search box at the top of your Twitter profile page.

Hashtags categorize Tweets by keyword: People use the hashtag symbol # before a relevant keyword or phrase (no spaces) in their Tweet to categorize those Tweets and help them show more easily in Twitter Search. Clicking on a hashtagged word in any message shows you all other Tweets marked with that keyword. Source Wikipedia

Twitter Lists: Creating and Following lists

Go to someone’s Twitter profile and look for and click on their ‘Lists’ tab. You can follow any lists that they are on by clicking on the list’s name, then clicking Subscribe. To create your own list, go to your profile, click on the Lists tab, then ‘Create new List’. To add people to your list, go to the person’s profile, click on the gear symbol, then ‘Add or Remove from Lists…’

Twitter Following

Search for Genealogists or family history researchers by typing in the keyword ‘Genealogy’ in the search box at the top of your Twitter page. From their profile page, click the ‘Follow’ button.

Twitter: Tweeting/Connecting

To ‘Tweet’ someone on Twitter, go to the person’s ‘Profile’, click on the gear on their profile page and select ‘Tweet to…’. Once the dialog box pops up, you can type a message (140 characters long) to the person. You will see an @ symbol and their profile name in front of the words that you type. This helps the message get to a specific person.

Twitter: Tweeting/Connecting Cont’d

Please remember that everyone that follows you or searches your timeline can see what you write to the other person, unless you choose to send them a ‘Direct Message’. To send a ‘Direct Message’, go to the person’s ‘Profile’, click on the gear on their profile page and click on ‘Send a Direct Message’. Note: You can only send Direct Messages to accounts that you follow and they follow you back.

Twitter: Tweeting/Connecting Cont’d

You can also reply to tweets by clicking on the back arrow under a Tweet. Once the Dialog box pops up, you can then type your 140-character reply.

Twitter: Tweeting/Connecting Cont’d

You can also share Tweets that other people Tweeted or shared by clicking on the Re-Tweet button under the Tweeted message. The message will then show up on your thread.

You can save your favorite Tweets by clicking on the Star symbol under the Tweeted message.

Activity

Research other Genealogists/Researchers on Twitter.

Google Plus

Google Plus is a social network and social layer for Google services that is owned and operated by Google Inc. Users create profiles, add others to Circles, see a real-time stream, have access to Hangouts, upload photos, share posts, join chat groups and more. -Source Wikipedia

Google Plus Groups

You can search for Google Plus Genealogy related groups by doing a search at the top of your Profile Page using the keywords ‘Genealogy group’. Once you find the group of your choice, click on the ‘Ask To Join’ button.

Google Plus Groups Cont’d

You can also access G+ groups by clicking on the ‘Home’ button on the left side of your profile page, then going down to ‘Communities’ and clicking. Once the page opens, the top right side of the page has a ‘Search for Communities’ button. Type in keywords there.

Google Plus Hangouts

There are several Live and Prerecorded Hangouts available on G+. To find them, you can type in the keywords ‘Genealogy Hangouts’ in the search box at the top of your Profile page.

Google Plus Hangouts Cont’d

Various individuals and organizations host Google Plus Hangouts at various times. They usually announce their upcoming Hangouts on Twitter, Facebook, G+, or on their Websites.

Here is an example of a Group dedicated to Genealogy Hangouts: https://plus.google.com/u/0/101063011811121893305/posts

Activity

Research other good Genealogy G+ groups.

Youtube

Youtube is a video-sharing website. Users can watch videos, and registered users can upload videos to their channels. -Source Wikipedia

Youtube: Searching for Resources

You can find Genealogy related topics by using keywords to search for videos related to Genealogy on Youtube. At the top of the Youtube website, you can enter the keywords ‘Genealogy’ to get a listing of related videos. You can ‘Subscribe’ to various Youtube channels by clicking on the ‘Subscribe’ button on the Profile page of the account that you want to subscribe to.

Here is an example of Ancestry.com’s Youtube page: https://www.youtube.com/user/AncestryCom

Youtube: Playlists

You can add videos that you would like to save and come back to by creating playlists. Under a video that you have watched, you will see a ‘+ Add To’ button (under the red ‘Subscribe’ button). Click on the ‘Add to’ button, and when the pop up window shows you can either add the video to a preexisting playlist or select ‘Create New Playlist’.

Activity

Research some other good Genealogy Youtube Channels.

Instagram

Instagram is an online mobile photo-sharing, video-sharing and social networking service that enables its users to take pictures and videos, and share them on a variety of social networking platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Flickr. -Source Wikipedia

Instagram Searches

You can access Genealogy related content on Instagram by accessing the search box and typing in Genealogy related keywords.

You can look at and ‘like’ photographs that are posted. You can also comment on posts.

Instagram Following

You can follow an Instagram account by tapping on the Follow button on a person’s profile page. This will add their posted content to the stream of images that you see when you tap the home icon.

Instagram Hashtags

You can also search for Genealogy related content on Instagram by searching Hashtags (#). Once you touch on the Search icon, touch the ‘Search’ box at the top of the page, then touch ‘TAGS’ then type in Genealogy related Keywords.

Once you access a Genealogy related Profile, you can look for Hashtags under their posts and touch on those to take you to other categories.

Instagram Accounts

Here is an example of Ancestry.com’s Instagram Profile: https://instagram.com/ancestry/ 

Here is the National Archive’s Instagram Profile: https://instagram.com/usnatarchives/

Activity

Research some other good Genealogy related Instagram accounts to Follow.

Pinterest

Pinterest: a free website that requires registration to use. Users can upload, save, sort, and manage images—known as pins—and other media content (e.g., videos and images) through collections known as pinboards. -Source Wikipedia

Pinterest Searches

There are many great resources on Pinterest. You can access Genealogy related content by doing a search using keywords at the top of the Pinterest page.

Pinterest Boards

You can also create your own Pinboards to save the Pins that you find useful.

Following Genealogy related boards are also helpful. Whenever the Pinner pins new content, it will show up in your content stream.

Pinterest Boards Cont’d

To create a Pinboard, from your Profile page, click on the square that says ‘Create a Board’. Fill in the name, description, etc. of the board and then click on ‘Create Board’.

To pin information to your board, click on an image that shows up in your stream (based on the board content of the people that you are ‘Following’ or pins that you’ve researched) and click on the red ‘Pin it’ button. Click on a board title that you want to pin the content to. To get back to your pins, click on the board title that you are looking for, and then all of the Pins that you have saved will be located under that title.

Pinterest Boards Cont’d

Here is an example of a Genealogy related board: https://www.pinterest.com/SwarthyDaisy/genealogy/

Activity

Research some other good Genealogy related Pinterest boards/Pinners to Follow.

Blogs/Websites

Blog: a discussion or informational site published on the World Wide Web and consisting of discrete entries ("posts") typically displayed in reverse chronological order (the most recent post appears first). -Source Wikipedia

Website: a set of related web pages typically served from a single web domain. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet address known as a uniform resource locator (URL). All publicly accessible websites collectively constitute the World Wide Web. -Source Wikipedia

Blogs/Websites Cont’d

There are several Genealogy related Blogs on the web. A simple Google search will reveal hundreds of blogs.

Here is an example of a Genealogy related blog: http://rootsrevealed.blogspot.com

Blogs/Websites Cont’d

There are thousands of Genealogy websites available on the world wide web.

Here is a good website for Genealogy research: http://www.cyndislist.com

Activity

Research some other good Genealogy related Blogs/Websites.

Thank You!

My Blog: www.swarthydaisy.blogspot.com