My Guest Post on Katherine Schober, SK Translations

This week I am the guest writer on Katherine Schober, SK Translations blog!! I wrote an article on How to Use Social Media in your German Genealogy Research

The link to the article is:
https://sktranslations.com/use-social-media-german-genealogy-research-guest-post-lianne-kruger

This article shares ways to use different platforms of social media for your genealogical research in Germany. As social media and websites change constantly, I have included the steps you will need to find new items. We will discuss Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube. 

The advantages of using social media for genealogical research in Germany include:

• Being able to talk to people who live in the area
• Being able to access current information
• It’s free!

Please add any stories of how social media helped you in your genealogy research in the comments section.

Picture Source: From Katherine Schober's blog post. 

Pinterest to meet distant relatives

Pinterest is not a good way to meet cousins. The chances are very slim.

One way is that you might find a good place to stay in Pinterest, when you go on a genealogical trip and then meet a relative there.

Another way to meet a relative. Pinterest will notify you if someone else likes your pin or repins one of yours. Someone researching in the same area as you might be a relative!

If you meet a relative because of Pinterest, I would love for you to add a comment below or email me. I would be thrilled to add your experience to this post!

Pinterest to share with others

Share with Others

Pinterest is a good place to share genealogical stories and experiences. What you have learned, how you found something, websites you like, etc.

Write a blog post and then pin that post to your Pinterest account. Pinterest is used to share blog posts or websites. It does not hold information like Facebook. 

Share with Family

I would not, however, use Pinterest to share family photos with other family members. There are better websites for that such as Flickr. 

Pinterest to Research Your Family

Research your family
Pinterest is not a site that you will be able to do a lot of research for your family. There are no births, deaths and marriage information on Pinterest. But if you search for the right items, you might find a post with a link to a website with that information. Pin them for future reference.

Family Names
I searched for one of my family names:
     Dowd

The pins that came up had the words "down", "downing" and "don't" in it. Not helpful at all!
So Pinterest isn't good for last names.

Locations
I then searched for a location of my ancestors.
I typed in
     County Galway Ireland

Now I got great pins.
   Places to visit
   Scenic places
   Castles
   Places to stay
   Culture
   Maps!

These pins are great if I am going to go there for a genealogy trip. Places to stay, places to see.
Churches were also listed.That is great for records.

Even if you aren't going there in the next year, pin these. These are pins you might want to pin for future reference.

I add the word map to the previous search.
     County Galway Ireland map

Now I have many different maps. Some of the maps are all of Ireland, some of just County Galway in Ireland and some of County Galway by itself.

I then changed the word map to churches
     County Galway Ireland churches

Not all the churches are useful although very beautiful.

I then changed the word churches to genealogy
    County Galway Ireland genealogy

Now I got lots of great posts of history and old photos.

Pin the posts you like into different boards ready to refer to later when you are ready.

Pinterest: Why Use in Genealogy

Pinterest is a popular Social Media medium.

These posts are for those interested in learning how to use Pinterest in their genealogical research. This is not for those who are professional genealogists or have a genealogy business. That will be a separate post, although this post is a great place to start.

You might already have a Pinterest account and now want to know how to use it for genealogy.
You might have no idea what Pinterest is but think you might want to use it to help your research.

Why Use Pinterest?

• Free
• Many people on there already
• Visual
• Pins are links to websites
• Lots of pins to helps
• Organize pins by categories

Four areas of Social Media

I go through four different ways each Social Media can be used in genealogy.

• Research your family
• Research Helps & Training
• Share info with others
• Meet distant relatives

Click on one of the above areas to learn how to use Pinterest in each of those areas.

Terms
Pins
Each individual item in Pinterest is called a Pin. A pin is a picture with a description with a link

Board
A board is a collection of pins.

Post
Each item in Pinterest with content is called a post.

Repin
If you find a post you really like and want in your boards, then you click Pin, which repins it onto the board you pin.

Like
You can click on the heart to like the post. This does not Repin.

Go through
Clicking to the actual site.

Chat on Twitter

Every Tuesday, for one hour, is a chance to tweet with other genealogists throughout the world.

A lady in England runs this each week. In England it is 7:00pm.
For me in Mountain time it is from 12:00 - 1:00pm.

It is a wonderful time to ask questions about your brick walls. Share success stories and support others.

Use hashtag #AncestryHour in each tweet.

To see what we have chatted about search #AncestryHour to view.
Come join the chat. See you there.

Social Media session handout

I spoke at the Red Deer family History conference on March 19, 2016.

Click below for a copy of the blank handout for my Social Media session.

Blank Handout

The form will open in a new window for you to print, download or review.

Copyright.
Give reference to this post, make no changes and leave name and blog at the bottom.

Getting Started researching in a new country? Need help?

Are you struggling to know where to begin to do research in a country?
Are you starting a new country and have no idea where to start?
Family Search wiki is a great place to start.

Click on the link below.
http://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Research_Communities_on_Facebook

FamilySearch Regional Research Groups.
Under this title, look for the country in the right column.
Click on the region the country is located in, from the list in the left column.

A new page appears with a map of all the countries in that region.
Select the country you want from the map for the region.

Topics
A list of topics, with links, appear on the left.
The blue links are good.
The red links identifies that there is nothing available yet for that topic.

Facebook: Last name

Facebook can be a great resource for researching by searching your last name. There are groups out there based on last names.

Have you searched any of your ancestral last names? Try it. Please post a message below telling me what you find.

My LastName on Facebook
My grandmother's maiden name is Dowd. It was O'Dowd in Ireland but the family dropped the "O" in the ocean on the way to Canada! :)


I searched Facebook and found a great last name group called, "I'm an O'Dowd and Proud of It"

This group is for O'Dowds throughout the world. From this page, I found out that the O'Dowds still pick a clan chief! We missed the last "gathering" but are saving our pennies to hopefully make it to the 2018 clan gathering.

This month, some of this group marched in the Quebec City St. Patrick's Day parade. Photos and videos were posted on this Facebook page with an invitation to attend next year.

The photo on the right is from a school the group got organized before the parade.

Smith and Jones
At my recent session on this topic, I was asked about Smith and Jones. I suggested location along with the last name. Those names are a lot harder. Good luck! Would love to hear what you find. Please add a post below.

How to delete a Facebook account of a loved one who has died

During my Social Media session, a participant asked me how to delete a Facebook account of an aunt who had passed away.

Memorial Page
I mentioned what some people do instead of deleting the account.
They make the page a memorial to that person where people can add memories whenever they want, especially on their birthdays or anniversary of the death.

You don't need to know the password because anyone can add a post to someone else's Facebook page by directing it to them.
It is easier if you have the password to their account so that you can change the name of the account and post an official description. Pin this description to the top so that it remains at the top as people add posts.

Instructions
Below a link to a Facebook page which answers this question and has links to the forms that need to fill out to delete the account.

https://www.facebook.com/help/community/question/?id=10202627332499825

Social Media

Family Tree Magazine Best Social Media Websites 

Here is a link to the Family tree Magazine website. It is an article by David A Fryxell

"To the savvy genealogist, social media websites aren't just for keeping up with old high school firends and sharing pictures of your cat. check out these top social media websites and explore how they can help you in your genealogy research."

This article includes a link to download a 188 page PDF file with 3,800 Facebook links.


Best Social Media Websites 2014 Article

Full list of best websites at:
101 Best Websites 2014

Twitter: AncestryHour

Are you on Twitter?
Twitter can help you in your research in many ways.

One way is to come join us at #AncestryHour every Tuesday at 12:00 noon MST.

Come join us and use the hashtag #AncestryHour
Genealogists all over the world tweet what they are doing, what they have found with great supportive tweets each week.

Organized and run well by a lady in England. [7:00pm for her]
If you have questions tweet @AncestryHour

Social Media: Facebook

Do you know the town, city, county, state, or province?

Search in Facebook the location. Many locations all over the world have facebook pages.
Join "Like" the group.

Ask small questions in a post.
Learn about the area and the history. Might help with names and places.

Maybe chat with some relatives!

I searched in Facebook for County Monaghan. Facebook gave me a list of posts that my friends had posted that had Monaghan in it. But it also found the County Monaghan Museum.

I have now joined the facebook page. I will add to this post if I find anything about my ancestors on the page. There are lots of beautiful photos of the area.

---

Helpful links

Canadian list of Facebook genealogical pages: Genealogy a la carte  

Social Media list of Facebook pages for Genealogical research in the world. Social Media: Genealogy on Facebook