Facebook groups and pages as good resources

Question

Facebook groups and pages are also a great resource to belong to, learn about other resources as people discover and post what they have found. Many actually correspond with WikiTree categories, including locations.

Facebook has over 10.600 genealogy & history links!

And people on Facebook working on genealogy should of course get to learn about WikiTree so they can join our community and contribute here too.

I call it a 360 degree win!

Comments

10,600 GENEALOGICAL & HISTORICAL groups/pages on FACEBOOK List (in English), By Katherine R. Willson

https://socialmediagenealogy.com/genealogy-on-facebook-list/

 

 

WikiTree for Genealogists - Users Group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/WikiTreeForGenealogists

WikiTree: http://www.facebook.com/WikiTreers

 

---

And another FB group for WikiTree in Australia: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1816417818583025/

---

I've had great success with Facebook genealogy groups! The ones that focus on specific counties have been the most helpful. I was able to knock down a brick wall that had been standing in my way for at least 3 years by connecting with someone on a county Facebook group. Often times there are members within the county groups that volunteer at the local historical societies and/or historians for the particular area and they are almost always willing to share info.

Answer 1

Unless, of course, you hate Facebook.

Comments

It still has great resources, whether you hate it or love it LOL

Answer 2

I agree Russ!!

In addition I use FACEBOOK when someone posts a link to an obituary about someone I am researching. It also helped me get additional information on my cousins' marriages and birth celebrations of other relatives and themselves.

We are always reminded not to post too much information on "FACEBOOK" but if you look hard enough you can find anniversaries, birth celebrations, even locations for others you may be researching. It sure helped me. I also search posts for notables being remembered and military service members that I may have profiles on.

Comments

Yes Dorothy, its a great resource to connect with living cousins who may have more information to add to our tree, photos, recipes, stories...I've even created family groups I name as family reunions so we have a way to keep in touch and place to post everything where everyone can conveniently see it.

Answer 3

I just spent an hour or so going through some of the genealogy info that is available on Facebook.  Since I'm always open to learning new things and I  tend to be nosy I found a lot that interested me.  It seems that social media is the way to go nowadays and I will delve more into that in the future. Thank you for posting!

Comments

Glad to help out and share, Patricia. Thanks for the feedback! :)

Answer 4

Good post Russ. I use facebook daily in both my traditional research and DNA research. 

Facebook is particularly useful if you are interested in Genetic Genealogy. It is the place to be if you want to stay up to date with new tools and techniques for DNA analysis. Check out some of these groups:

• Genetic Genealogy Tips & Techniques
• ISOGG
• DNA Detectives

There are many more, including helpful user groups for the various types of test at the main companies and for the best 3rd party tools that facilitate analysis.

Answer 5

I do not use Facebook for any research, It was designed as a site to rate photos of females and has not progressed much farther than that. I avoid that site because I am tired of the constant "Friend" suggestions for people I do not know and adds for products and services that hold no interest to me. In Fact I have cut my "friend" list big time and continue to evaluate every thing I do on that site with the ultimate goal of cutting all ties to them in the near future.

Comments

Well for others it's a very useful service...I get to see photos of my 4 nieces and nephews every week with things they are doing 1,800 miles away from me, as well as meet and keep in touch with cousins all across the country. When I post family discoveries, it automatically is sent out to share with everyone in the family to see without me making dozens of phone calls or sending bunches of emails. All our posts are kept together in a single group for each of my family lines, its actually amazingly beneficial. Ads and suggested friends are quite easily ignored, as with many other pages, sites, and apps.

Airplanes were designed as air bombers, but fortunately we've refined them further for greater useful purposes. Open minds find more solutions. Best wishes!

---

Russ, I joined Facebook for the same reasons as you, and except for your last paragraph everything is true, Airplanes were not designed as bombers first that came later. The problem is that Facebook has devolved and not gotten better. Just recently there was a murder shown live on Facebook because there is very little control over content that can be posted and now there are many different ways to family to connect without Facebook that are actually easier. My point is Facebook has a good reason to want people to join and change the way they have but they have not improved anything else.

Every day there are more and more crimes that have been done because of things posted on Facebook and that shows that the "service" is not a good one to share personal information so for that reason I still plan to leave it soon.

---

Sorry it didn't work for you. I found my family who I thought was dead on there. And that helped my emotions and my mental state drastically after burying six family members in less then 3 years

Answer 6

I just posted on The American Pomeroy Genealogy Facebook page. I talked about Wikitree and invited members to join us, especially if they have been DNA tested. I have seen a few new Pomeroy members that might have seen the post. One of the new members is an expert in the English connection and posted a comment on Eltweed's profile (the American ancestor of many Pomeroys).

Comments

Maybe it will help sharing some of those Pomeroy profiles I added to make connections?  I can always hope. Maybe a Pomeroy project or group? Maybe outreach could be an activity? Outreach to other groups like Find A Grave, Facebook, how many others?

Answer 7

I just discovered another useful Facebook group, entitled "Free Obituary Look Ups", post your inquiry according to state and volunteers will find for you (for US nationwide obituaries).

Comments

That is one of the many I belong to :-)

---

I need to join that one! :)

---

Just joined Thanks.

Answer 8

I belong to so many Facebook genealogy groups it's embarrassing!  In addition to my local gen groups (including one I admin), there are the groups that help with research in specific countries, a genealogy translation group as well as a transcription group, an obituary finder group,  many many good DNA groups some of which Lynda mentioned, genealogy software help groups, the list goes on!

Oh and don't forget the WikiTree Members group!

I highly recommend checking out a few groups, especially ones that might help you in areas you find more difficult in your own research.

Saying all that, I am not a fan of Facebook and rarely use it for personal reasons, but it is worth being on for the groups!

Answer 9

I tried my best to get the folks in my Facebook Research/Genealogy groups to join Wikitree. I tried to get my co-workers at the Family History Center Library to join, as well.  Most of them got the same reply.  And not one person I asked had anything nice to say about Wikitree. Wikitree can work for some people-not for a lot of others. I enjoy uploading sources and trying to connect my family, and the isual ways we can see who we are related to