Get Social

Take your research to the next level by connecting with others who share your interest in family history.

• Facebook is widely used so Facebook pages dedicated to genealogy reach a lot of people. Major genealogy companies have pages with tips, news and promotions. There are also Facebook groups that are dedicated to your specific areas of interest, like finding military records, translating documents or using DNA to expand your family tree.

  Once you join a group, you can post to their timeline, join the conversation, or request help from other members. Groups dedicated to specific locations and ethnicities can help you with translations or with finding vital records. They can also help you with local and regional history to put your findings in context and expand your understanding of your ancestors’ lives.

  Look for pages that post old photos of your ancestral towns. There’s nothing like seeing images from where your grandmother grew up. People around the world routinely share these types of images on their Facebook pages.

  You can also get social with your own story, posting photographs, family stories, and big research breakthroughs, as I do on my Facebook page Sharon F. Taylor.

• Use Twitter to keep up with the latest genealogy news or share new information by following organizations related to genealogical research. To organize your feed, set up lists dedicated to each of your ancestral towns or to genealogy in general. Use hashtags to easily search topics, locations, and events. You can also ask questions or just chat with others who are interested in your area of research.

• Pinterest is organized around images and is great for visual learners. You can search for images of your ancestral towns, old maps, family trees and new ways to organize your research. Create boards to organize the images you want to save. You can even save images that you find elsewhere on the web.

• Join your local genealogical society. Most societies hold regular meetings with presentations about new areas of research, tools and methods. Many societies publish newsletters to keep you up to date on the latest news in the world of genealogy, and journals with in-depth articles about specific topics. Best of all, you can meet fellow travelers. Genealogists are generous people who are happy to share what they have learned and mentor you in your own search.

• Can’t join your local society? There are online groups for a variety of locations, ethnicities and backgrounds. Many offer resources and online discussion groups and seminars to help get your questions answered and dig deeper into your family tree.