Social Media and Genealogy Connections

by Debra DuPree Williams @DDuPreeWilliams

Facebook has been around for quite a while now. But many people are just becoming aware of how effective it can be for finding and connecting with long-lost family members. It seems that the advent of DNA testing for ordinary folks has increased the awareness of social media for such.

In my own family, once I did the DNA testing available through Ancestry, I was able to connect with family members I had never known before. And through those connections, I was able to join a couple of closed, or private, DNA pages on Facebook and reach even more extended family members.


Private Pages, New Connections
Once I found one of my private pages, I sent a message to the administrator of the page, requesting to join the group. It was quickly accepted because I had proof that I was, indeed, descended from this fairly famous family. This is the page on which I found many cousins on my mother’s side. I knew they were out there, I just had no clue who they were. And now I do, and I am so thankful.

Once I joined that Facebook page, other pages opened up to me as I learned more and more about my lineage. And from those, I’ve had cousins interact me through Instagram, so we can see each other’s daily lives.

One of my new-found cousins on the private page about my mother’s family is big-time into searching for family history. Now, you know I’ve been doing this for about twenty years, but there are still things I’m learning about genealogical searches. I’m particularly interested in what this cousin finds as we descend from the same line, back to my Grandfather, who is her husband’s great grandfather.

Just this past week, she sent to my sister and me a clipping from the area paper from the 1920s, one year prior to my mother’s birth. My grandfather was mentioned in this article and it revealed information we had never heard about. It was mind-boggling.

It’s In the Genes
If you are a regular to my blog, or you have known me a while, you know that I am a vocalist. I’ve been singing in church and for civic events, weddings, funerals, etc. all of my life. When we were younger, my sister and I sang together. My kids are musicians. My sister’s children are musicians, and her grandchildren are musicians. We’ve always known that Mama was musically talented. She had a beautiful voice. The clipping we got from our cousin confirmed what we had never known–the source of all this talent, at least on Mama’s side of things–her father, our grandfather, Wilburn Bass.

Grandpa Wilburn was a leader of the songs in the Sacred Harp community. We would have never known this had it not been for that cousin. She dug into the archives of the Dothan Eagle and found that article saying our grandfather had led the last song at the sing that particular day. She sent another clipping, this one from 1931, in which the Sacred Harp community held a sing in memory of Grandpa Wilburn. Thank you, Janice!

My sister and I can recall going with Granny Ludie, Wilburn’s widow, to Sacred Harp sings at local churches and at the courthouse in Dothan, Alabama. But no one had ever told us that Grandpa had been one of the leaders. What a treasured piece of information. All because of social media.

Jump In

If you are thinking about jumping into genealogy, all those things available to us electronically are a great place to start. Join a group, search Facebook for private groups. Do a DNA test. You never know what you will learn and who you will meet along the way. And if you are very lucky, you will find something worth singing about.

Have you begun a genealogy search? How did you start? Have you found a group on Facebook? Share your experiences with us in the comments below.

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