Genealogy and Facebook

[j2sacks]

I've never used Facebook, ever. But now that I'm finishing entering information into Reunion that I own, I have begun, begrudgingly, to consider the utility of using Facebook to connect with far-flung family. I could use email but believe that it will be easier to go "where the people are". Does anyone have any pros/cons or lessons learned using Facebook for genealogy? I expect that I'd collect and solicit on Facebook, store in Reunion, but publish on a TNG-driven website. Thoughts?

[susanassmus]

I have been a member of Facebook for a few years now and I have found it very helpful. For one thing, it is a great way to stay in touch with my cousins. I learn how they are doing and I also learn who is celebrating the birth of a new grandchild or I see an obituary that has just been posted for a relative. My cousins and I have a private Facebook page, and this has been a great way to organize family reunions or to share family stories. I also belong to a number of genealogical societies that have Facebook pages. Sometimes members will do free lookups or translations of documents. I have found photos of ancestors and I have met distant cousins in other countries. I have seen photos of the churches that my ancestors attended in other countries or the communities in which they lived. I have found links to helpful websites. Some genealogical societies will have videos on how to do a particular type of research. I do recommend that if you join Facebook, you take a good look at the privacy settings and make good use of them. Be careful who you share private information with.

[BrianHTabor]

I have had tremendous successes communicating with relatives via Facebook. But in addition to this, there are all of the surname sites, historical societies, old newspapers, heraldry, local history, etc. etc. - more than you could imagine. To see a comprehensive listing of Facebook sites, the standard is librarian and archivist Katherine Willson's website including her download "Genealogy on Facebook" pdf which is occasionally updated. Enjoy!

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

[Mary Arthur]

wrote I do recommend that if you join Facebook, you take a good look at the privacy settings and make good use of them. Be careful who you share private information with.

I can't emphasize this enough. FaceBook is great, if you are careful, BUT lots of people are not, they share the private information of others freely. Birthday's, full names, mother's maiden name (you don't use that to identify yourself ever. If a site asks for it, I almost always leave, occasionally lie)
Make sure you tell everyone, every time, that you don't share information about living people cavalierly, and remind them not to. If I were you, I'd start slowly, with family you already know.

[Blaise A. Darveaux]

I don't want to discourage you from trying FaceBook, but a few years ago I joined in order to find other family members that shared my surname. I searched and found about 50 or so. So I started contacting them one-by-one with a standard introductory paragraph. After about 4 or 5 I got a message from FaceBook saying that I was exhibiting predatory behavior and if I persisted I would be frozen. I didn't really know what was going because I was so new to it, so I did one more. BOOM. They froze my account for about a week. Now I pretty much use it to just announce to the family when I have updated the family tree on my website. A few people, over the years, have found me and made relationship enquiries, but that's about it.

[Bob White]

In addition to the above, there are lots of private groups with a specialty. Example: I belong to a group named Armenian Genealogy. We share findings, help each other with research, discuss fine points about the culture, the language, etc.. and generally give and get much benefit.