Genealogy Social Networking Day 4 - Twitter

Twitter is a great place to connect with other genealogists. It probably won't directly give you information on your family history, but it can help you keep up with what's going on the genealogy world, connect with others during genealogy events, let you share bits of your research, and let you socialize with other like-minded individuals.

Using hashtags (#) you can tag your posts so others can connect to the same topics. You can join in #genchat every other Friday evening to discuss different pre-chosen genealogy topics (hosted by Jen Baldwin). You can search for #genealogy on twitter to find related tweets. You can even follow people who give daily genealogy tips.

Many genealogy sites and bloggers use twitter to connect in real-time. You can use twitter to share quotes from a conference or lecture you are attending, get updates from software makers and websites on new features, learn about the latest genealogy news, and even just chat while watching "Who Do You Think You Are?".

If you are interested in a particular topic or location, you can set up a twilert, which will alert you to relevant tweets.

You can create lists of users on Twitter. This can help you separate various groups of people you may follow. You can create your own list of genealogists, or follow existing lists.when you click on the list, you will get a feed of tweets just from this list of people. It's great to divide up your feed like this sometimes, when you just want to focus on genealogy for example.

Do you use Twitter to connect with other genealogists?

Genealogy Social Networking Day 3 - Facebook

Many people think of Facebook first when you say "social media". It is one of the most popular sites for social interaction online. It is also a great place to connect with other genealogists online.

On the site Social Media Genealogy you can find a wonderful PDF file with thousands of links to facebook groups dedicated to genealogy. Much of this list is location specific groups, but there are lots of others as well.
You can connect with popular genealogy websites through Facebook (e.g. Ancestry, MyHeritage, and FamilySearch). You can be in groups and like the pages of popular genealogy bloggers (e.g. GeneaBloggers, dearMYRTLE, and Cyndi's List). There are groups for various topics in genealogy. You can join groups dedicated to finding living distant cousins. And if you just want to chat with other genealogists about any- and every-thing, there are groups for that.
You can also start your own group. I am in a private group of family genealogists started by my 1st cousin once removed. We share information and photos on just our shared family line. It's been great to see the research my own family is doing and to share what I have done as well. It also helps reduce the amount of overlap in research because it's easy to share our work with one another.

How do you use Facebook to connect?

Genealogy Social Networking Day 2 - Ancestry

Ancestry.com is a great resource for doing family history. It allows you to make family trees, add sources and photos, and search their records. It's also a good tool for social networking.

Ancestry has message boards that users can post to when seeking help with research. You can post by location, topic, and even surname. The message boards are fully searchable with lots of options. You can search within each specific category as well.

Ancestry also owns Rootsweb, which is another great community and set of message boards.  Aside from message boards there are lots of other great resources that can be found through rootsweb. We will be looking more into those later in the month.

When you go to a message board, first do a basic search. If you are trying to find something, there is a chance someone else also has looked and has information already on the site. Search for surnames using various spellings, look for the places you are researching, or go to a topic like military or immigration. If you can't find any information already on the boards, then create a post and ask for help.
Be patient, not everyone is on the boards regularly. Sometimes you have to wait months or years to get information or help (depending on how specific your question/inquiry is). Other times it takes just a few hours or days.
If you leave you inquiry a little broad, you might be more likely to find people doing similar research, or people working in the same location who can help you out with information or resources. At the same time, give lots of information to help others find you and help in your research. If you put lots of names, dates, and locations in your post, others are more likely to find it in a search themselves. And, you can always start broadly, and add more information as the thread of posts grows and people ask for details or clarification.
And when you use message boards, be sure to thank other genealogists who have been helpful and who replied to your posts. A little politeness goes a long way.

Ancestry also allows you to message other members. When you are doing research, you may come across photos or documents uploaded by other members. You can add them to your tree, and often see other trees to which the same photo or document has been added. Some trees are private, but others are not. You can contact the tree owners and ask permission to see the tree, ask how they are related to the ancestor you share, or any other communication. Click on the profile picture to look at who else has used the photo, and you can contact them.

How do you use Ancestry to connect with other researchers?

52 Ancestors Week 39 - Richard Dye

Richard Dye was born in May 11, 1823 and christened on May 15, 1823. He was the 3rd of 7 children born to Jonathan Dye and Elizabeth Alderton.

Richard married Sarah Kemp on September 2, 1846, in Attleborough, Norfolk. They had 10 children together. 3 of those children died while they were living in England. Then in 1870 he immigrated to America, with the family following the next year. The family settled in Provo, Utah.

Richard died March 16, 1905 of old age (81 years).


*****
Parents
Jonathan Dye 1788–?
Elizabeth Alderton 1801–1841

Siblings
John Dye 1819–1894
Mary Dye 1821–?
Hannah Dye 1825–?
Rebecca Dye 1828–?
Jane Dye 1831–?

Spouse
Sarah Kemp 1823–1903

Children
Sarah Ann Dye 1846–1869
Robert Dye 1848–1866
William Dye 1850–1932
Hyrum Dye 1851–1860
Heber Charles Dye 1853–1880
Edmund Willard Dye 1855–1925
Samuel Dye 1858–1915
John Hyrum Dye 1859–1944
Rebecca Dye 1861–1863
Lovina Clarissa Dye 1865–1922

Family History Month is Back!

October is a great month in family history. The kids are in school, the weather is colder, and that makes for longer days spent inside doing genealogy.

I admit that most of my genealogy research is done online. Being on the younger side for a genealogist the internet is comfortable for me. I got into my family history just as internet genealogy was really taking off. While I still send away for some records, I have never been in a courthouse (I have plans to though).

This being family history month, I thought I'd spend some time writing about social networking for genealogists. I will focus mostly on internet networking, because it's what I am most comfortable doing. So here is the series:

Social Networking, Genealogy, and You

First up is FamilySearch.

FamilySearch is known for it's one giant family tree. Much like Wikipedia anyone can log in and make changes. A wiki relies on lots of eyes making corrections and changes to produce as accurate a result as possible. It works in many cases, and the more people using it the better it becomes. It's a crowd-sourced family tree.

Also common to wiki's is the need to attach sources. If you notice on Wikipedia there are usually sources attached at the bottom of the articles. Experts and other interested parties support their claims with outside sources.
The FamilySearch tree is much the same. You can attach sources, and if you make changes you can add a note with the reasons why you made the change. Just like Wikipedia, it isn't good to use the FamilySearch tree as a source cited for your info. But, it is a good jumping off place to help you get started in your search. Be sure to use the sources listed for the information you seek, and cite those as the sources (not the whole tree, just the individual records).


One nice thing about the FamilySearch tree is that you can see who made the changes or added the information and can send them a message. I added my email address in there as well so someone could email me without using the FamilySearch system, but not everyone does that. This message option is good for connecting to other genealogists researching the same lines as you.

FamilySearch also has a Wiki of it's own. The FamilySearch Wiki is a collection of over 82,000 articles on genealogy topics. Like other wiki's we discussed, anyone can add to it or make changes. They have links to tons of resources based on topic or location. This is a great place to start if you are researching in a new location you haven't worked with before. And, if you are an expert in a particular place or topic, or have a great new resource to share, you can add it to the appropriate page.

How do you use FamilySearch to network with other genealogists?