When I started The Family Curator blog in 2008, my intention was simply to record my own journey of discovery as I unraveled the story of my grandmother’s life. Arline’s photos, letters, and documents were all waiting to reveal individual threads that could be rewoven into a beautiful and rich fabric. I knew that each precious thread might be the golden one, the life of the tale, and it was essential to move slowly and deliberately as I worked.
Making connections online through blogs, newsgroups, and social media sites is the new telephone party line. Someone reads something on the Internet that links to something else that links again to something else. It’s one big, and very active, community party line, and you don’t need anyone’s permission to cut in!
Genealogists know that our ancestors didn’t live their lives in isolation. Most often, our ancestors were part of families, neighborhoods, and towns. They interacted regularly and more intimately with many people in a way that we might find intrusive in our modern, anonymous lifestyles today. Neighbors probably knew as much (or more) about each other than extended family members did. A good researcher will try to tap into these extended networks when building the life story and family tree of his ancestors. This chapter will help you organize the time and energy you spend online so you can effectively and efficiently connect with fellow researchers whether they are across town, across the country, or around the world.
Genealogy blogs are one of the fastest-growing information portals for family historians. Hundreds of researchers post new stories and photos daily about their ancestors; they are looking for new connections, and they aren’t hard to find.
The world of genealogy bloggers, or GeneaBloggers, is cataloged and indexed by Web-crawlers that can find a “hit” to your online search. Start by locating blogs that cover families or topics of interest to you. Search for family surname, locality, organizations, and ethnicity. Get started with the master genealogy blog list maintained by Thomas MacEntee at Geneabloggers <www.geneabloggers.com>.
As you build a list of blogs to follow, you will need a way to manage your new reading material. It’s too time consuming to visit each blog address every day to check for new posts. One of the best, and easiest, methods is to use a blog reader. Instead of going to individual blogs to read new posts, a blog reader brings new posts to you so you can check just one Web page and see all of the updates in one place.
The free Google Reader application is a good place to start. You will need a free Google Account.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you opened your e-mail inbox and found new cousin connections waiting for you? The Google Alert feature can be configured to work while you sleep, searching the Internet for anything you need.
Use the Manage Alert button to add more alerts or make changes to existing alerts.
Other uses for Google Alerts include:
Caution: Don’t try this unless you are ready to meet new people, learn new stories, and maybe even increase the size of your family archive. Making connections online can have unexpected results! The World Wide Web is filled with surprises. Post a nice juicy tidbit of information in a corner of the Web and wait to see what gets caught.
Just how do you make connections online? Is it hard? Is it scary? Will people find out about my private life? Security and privacy are probably the biggest concerns for people looking to make connections online. It’s a circular dilemma: We want to find family and friends, but we don’t want to reveal too much about ourselves unintentionally, and not until we are ready to do so.
Use these guidelines and helpful resources to help you manage your online presence:
I was tied in knots about privacy issues when I first became active online. Creating The Family Curator identity gave me some sense of anonymity, but as I grew more comfortable adjusting privacy settings and posting content, I added my real name. Some folks think of a pseudonym as something “only writers” do, but anyone can adopt a new identity to use online. The biggest catch is that by using a pseudonym, those cousins you’re looking for may never find you.
If you are uncomfortable revealing your true identity online, consider using an online persona, an alias to present yourself to the world. Choose a nickname or business name; reveal as much or as little as you wish.
Message boards and forums have been around since the earliest days of the Internet. Typically managed by an organization or website, these online services allow interaction between members, sometimes within a closed environment. Other sites are open to the public and can be read by anyone.
For instance, if you register on a website forum with a username GeniLady24 giving your Gmail account, it’s pretty tough for anyone to actually discover your real name and address unless you share it. Unfortunately, you and your potential connections need to both be using the same website, and this makes it harder to find folks.
Helpful forums for genealogists include:
Follow these tips to increase your chances of success on these sites
The genealogy queries once placed in magazines are now posted online in forums and message boards. Which post would you be more likely to read and respond to? I’m looking for my grandmother. Her name was Bessie Smith. Or Seeking information about BESSIE (MILLER) SMITH b.1895 Muscotah, Atchison Co., KS, m. 1820 Herman Smith of Kansas City, Jackson Co., MO b. 1890. No other information. I would like to connect with others researching the BESSIE MILLER or HERMAN SMITH families. Please contact me at [e-mail address].
When writing a query to post on forums, message boards, or LIST-SERVs, include the surname in your subject line and all pertinent information:
Set up a free online e-mail account, such as Gmail <mail.google.com>, Yahoo! <mail.yahoo.com>, or Hotmail <hotmail.com> and use this account as the contact information for all online queries. This separate account has two purposes:
Online message boards, forums, and LIST-SERVs are the “old-timers” of the social media world. New “upstarts” like Facebook and Google+ steal a lot of attention these days, but don’t let the commotion make you feel left out of the party. Participate at the level where you are most comfortable, then stretch yourself to try new ways to connect with people as you gain experience and expertise.
Review the Checklist for Online Privacy and consider joining popular social media websites to connect with family and friends.
FACEBOOK <www.facebook.com>
What started as a college photo yearbook has grown into a social networking phenomenon where grandparents post as often as teens. Facebook can be hard to define: microblogging, photo sharing, and instant news are all hallmarks of this fast-paced program.
If you aren’t sure whether or not Facebook is for you, ask a FB (Facebook) Friend to let you look over his or her shoulder to see what all the fuss is about. Search for your local genealogy society to see if it has a Facebook page. Look for old high school friends or family members.
GOOGLE+ <www.google.com>
The Internet giant Google created a unique version of social networking with Google+. At first, many people thought it would be “just another” Facebook, but Google+ has turned out to be a different kind of social media. I’ve heard it said: If Facebook is a party with everyone chattering at once about all kinds of things, Google+ is a meeting of like-minded members where people stick to the topic at hand.
Google+ is organized so that you can join Groups made up of people who share similar interests, whether that be genealogy, military history, knitting, or your local Rotary Club. Groups cut down on the chatter and noise, resulting in a more focused conversation between members.
FLICKR <www.flickr.com>
Online photo sharing has become just as popular with genealogists as microblogging sites like Facebook and Google+, and it’s easy to see why. Families and clubs post event photos, professionals and artists showcase their latest projects, and The Library of Congress brings its collection to the public on Flickr.
Like other social media sites, when you join Flickr, you will be able to customize your privacy settings and build an online persona. Start out with a small collection of photos and let it grow. Easy integration with smartphone cameras and digital photo programs make it easy to upload photos and manage your Flickr account.
TWITTER <www.twitter.com>
If some social media sites are known for microblogging, Twitter must be nanoblogging. This fast-moving service allows users to post updates, news, and links no longer than 140 characters. That’s not a lot of space, but it’s proven to be more than enough to send late-breaking world news and remarkable updates.
Twitter’s small-scale interface works especially well for updates at conferences, or to let your friends know where they can find you at an event.
LIBRARYTHING <www.librarything.com>
Books are the new “big thing” in social networking, with LibraryThing opening the doors to some of the most interesting personal libraries in the world. Do you want to know what books line the shelves of your favorite genealogist’s office? Look for their name on LibraryThing and take a peek.
Family history often requires research with esoteric and hard-to-find books; use LibraryThing to find the title and ask the owner for a lookup. Read peer reviews before you make new purchases. Get recommendations for a good basic genealogy library or find new volumes to fill in your own shelves. You may be surprised at the people you find at LibraryThing.
To manage information you find through message boards and social media sites, you will need an effective system to track posts, queries, and results. I suggest adding to a system you already use, rather than implementing something new.
If you are an Evernote <www.evernote.com> fan, add tags for each of your social media sites. Use the Web clipping feature to clip and save your original query and any responses. Be sure to add tags for surnames or topics so you can find your posts later.
DEVONthink <www.devontechnologies.com> works much like Evernote, without the need for Internet access. Integrate your social media clips with your general research for efficient and all-inclusive searching.
If you prefer tracking information with tables or spreadsheets, build your own social media log to manage queries and responses. Remember to add dates, url addresses, and contact information. See chapter ten for ideas on organizing with Information Managers.