Facebook – you either love it or hate it, but at some point you may find that it actually becomes your friend!
Facebook is a social networking site that makes it easy for you to connect and share with your family and friends online. Originally designed for college students, Facebook was created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg while he was enrolled at Harvard University. By 2006, anyone over the age of thirteen with a valid email address could join Facebook. Today, Facebook is the world’s largest social network, with more than one billion users worldwide.
Have you ever wondered why people like using Facebook? After all, there are already a lot of other ways to communicate online, such as email, instant messaging, and so on. What makes Facebook unique is the ability to connect and share with a lot of people at the same time.
I never thought that I would encourage people with an interest in family history research to take a long hard look at Facebook and where it can take you. Having said that, I have found that Facebook is so much more than seeing posts from friends who want to tell all their friends about a great movie they just saw or their favourite television show. What you may find with Facebook is that it is another on-line research tool other than Ancestry, FindMyPast or Family Search.
What are some of the benefits of Facebook?
- If you are conducting United States research, there are over ten thousand genealogically and historically oriented Facebook pages in the United States listed on two hundred and eighty-eight pages with an index. That, according to Katherine R. Willson, is a list that grows constantly! Her website, com, has a link to a PDF file, “Genealogy on Facebook” that you are able to download and keep. Do take the time to take a look at the other pages on her site as she provides a lot of information that may be helpful to you.
- Many, if not all of us, do a significant amount of research in Canada. For that list we turn to Gail Dever and her site, Genealogy à la Carte. Again, take the time to surf around her site, clicking on some of the links under “Archives” for posts that may interest you. Scroll down a bit to find the link to “Facebook for Canadian Genealogy”, a list of almost eight hundred Facebook groups and pages that can help genealogists research their ancestors who lived in Canada. In addition to listing resources for all Canadian provinces and territories, genealogical and historical societies, national and provincial archives, museums, military, photos, New France, British Home Children, First Nations, United Empire Loyalist groups, vintage photos, military history, and special interests (English and French) are included. This list was last updated June 2016. She doesn’t list the Facebook links by number, but there are twenty-six pages of them!
In either of these files, just pick a subject, perhaps a surname or a hometown. Use CTL+F to open a search box where you type in “Smith” without the quotation marks, for example. In the US list, “Smith” gets 48 hits. In other words, there are forty-eight Facebook pages that have something to do with Smith. Or just use Katherine’s index. Gail’s Canadian list has large groups of page sorted by Province. So you can scroll through or use the CTL+ F strategy.
Note: The shortcut CTL+F works in just about any document or web page.
If you are researching other countries, genealogy topics or other sites of genealogy interest, enter “genealogy” in the top Facebook toolbar and then click on the search engine. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands of Facebook genealogy pages that may be of interest to you.
Narrow down the search by adding a specific term, i.e. “Genealogy British Columbia” , narrow down your search by groups, pages, etc.; change the reference to Genealogy BC or otherwise narrow the search to find sites that may be of specific interest to you. Consider following the pages of local libraries, societies or other institutions which may help you with your family history.
Once you become comfortable using Facebook you may want to join or start your own genealogy group for your specific area of interest. It is a great way to find others who are researching in the same area as you.
Information pages on Facebook allow organizations, non-profit organizations, businesses and brands to communicate broadly with people who “like” them. By liking their pages, you will receive their postings on your Facebook news feed. For example, to receive postings from the Facebook page for Qualicum Beach Family History Society, click “like” on any post.
Have I convinced you that Facebook can be your friend? Give it a try, there is nothing to lose and perhaps a lot to gain!