Genealogy Networking

Researching your family tree can become much more interesting if you can interact with others who share your surname - the only problem is finding them.  Emails and the internet have made networking much easier and as more and more people get online, there's the genuine possibility that you'll meet someone who is in some way related to you or researching the same branch of their lineage. 

Here are a few tips to help you meet others with similar research interests. 

Post messages on message boards everywhere!
Message board are one of the easiest and quickest ways of finding others with similar research interests, and there are hundreds of them all over the internet.  Don't just look for message boards on genealogy sites, check out message boards on general interest sites for a genealogy forum.  If they don't have one, leave a message in the general forum anyway because you never know, you might spark some interest even if that person isn't researching the same name as you.

Success with message boards is a numbers game; the more messages you post all over the net, the more chance you have of finding someone with similar research interests.  Remember to tick the 'email me when someone replies to this message' option otherwise you'll be trying to remember where you posted all your messages!

Search for others with the surname you are researching
There are people out there who have an insatiable interest in a particular surname. The most obvious place to look for these people is the Guild Of One Name Studies, but there are also surname postings all over the internet.  Put your surname into every search engine you can find such as google.com, yahoo.com, metacrawler.com and webferret, a free downloadable software package which searches the larger search engines for you and presents a set of results without duplications.  Add the search words 'family tree,' 'my ancestors,' or 'my family' to the search engine to see if anyone with this name has already started a genealogy page.  Even if they can't help with your particular branch they may have some information about the origins of that surname in that region or part of the world where their family originally came from.  

If this doesn't help you could always send an email to someone you've found on the internet with the same surname as you, even if it isn't obvious they are researching their family tree.  Emails are an unobtrusive way of communicating and can be easily ignored, so bite the bullet and try your luck, but make sure you make the nature of your enquiry clearly in the subject header so they won't think they are being virused or spammed.  Most people are pleased to hear from someone with the same name as them, and they may have a mother, cousin or great aunt searching the family tree.  

Set Up Another Email Account For Genealogy Responses
If you are leaving your email address on message boards or sending people you don't know emails, it's wise to have an individual email account dedicated to this purpose.  You don't want your personal email to be spammed with useless advertisements.

Set A Profile Signature On All Your Personal Email Accounts
By setting up an automatic profile signature on all your email accounts you can advertise the fact your are interested in genealogy, are researching a particular name and invite people to contact you if they have any helpful information.  You'd also be surprised how many people those funny emails and attachment are sent to!   Your email with it's genealogy request could end up in the hands of a friend of a friend of a friend who may be able to help you.  To set up a profile signature go into the 'options' area of your email account. 

Local History & Genealogy Societies
Societies are invaluable to the genealogist because they are full of willing people, interested in a specific area of history or genealogy.  The trick is to tap into these resources and find the person with the same interest as you and once again it's all down to networking.  If you know your ancestor, John Smith was born in Haselmere, Buckinghamshire in 1735, contact the nearest local genealogical society, in this case, High Wycombe.  They will be able to suggest new sources you hadn't thought of, because of their knowledge of available local sources, and they may even know a member who is willing to look up your name in a book they own, or a CD-ROM.  The same is true for local history societies.  They may also know of additional local sources, be familiar with archived local newspapers in the area your ancestor lived.  Perhaps one of their members is researching the factory where your ancestor worked, or the trade your ancestor worked in within a local context.  Contacting the relevant local society is also invaluable if you are researching an ancestor from another country - just search on the internet for the relevant society.

By Rachael Hannan

Bookmark with:

• Delicious
• Digg
• reddit
• StumbleUpon

Don’t know what this is?

Read the 50connect Guide To Social Bookmarking.