Facebook for Genealogists

One of my favourite social networking applications, Facebook , offers a number of opportunities for genealogists to connect with family members and others with an interest in family history.

Facebook Account By signing up for a Facebook account one can communicate with friends and family and easily share photos and videos of family members and events. I use my Facebook account to follow the activities of family members in different continents, countries, states and cities. Facebook enables one to keep up with family history as it is being created.

Facebook Groups Facebook members can join and create up to 200 groups. Groups can be based around shared interests, activities etc. For genealogists there are groups for bloggers, those with particular name interests, individual families, users of genealogy software applications and geographical interests. To date I have joined The Master Genealogist, Society of Australian Genealogists, Genea-Bloggers, and British Genealogy as these groups fit my particular interests. Unfortunately these groups with the exception of Genea-Bloggers are not particularly active. Hopefully, as more genealogists embrace Facebook, other groups will become more active.

Facebook Applications I have not added any of these third party applications to my Facebook account but there is a number of add-on applications of interest to family historians.

Family Tree By Familybuilder with 606,593 monthly active users, that enables one to build a family tree and include relatives both on and off Facebook appears to be the most popular of these applications.

Create a Facebook Page Individuals, groups and organisations can create a Facebook page to promote a product, event or service. The Genealogy Gems Podcast Page is an example of a page that may interest genealogists.