social media is an excellent environment for
networking with distant relatives today on the ancestral findings podcast I'll
show you how to approach them on social media if they have no idea who you are
one of the most wonderful parts of modern genealogy is the ability to connect with distant
relatives you've never met but with whom you share common ancestors you can meet these people in a
variety of ways connecting on genealogy message boards is common you might post a query or answer
one about a certain family or individual people who also have family connections to the family or
individual will post responses and you eventually may exchange email addresses with some of them you
can also meet distant relatives through matches on DNA sites and on online family tree sites like
ancestry com where you post a family tree and others with connections to that tree message you
finally you can do your own research and discover modern relatives from various branches of your
family and seek them out on social media in all of the other ways of meeting distant relatives
online they will normally be the ones approaching you and will do so in a genealogical environment
you can decide whether you want to communicate privately and if you do you may find you each
have a treasure trove of genealogy to share with one another including photographs family bibles
and more you may even get involved to a family reunion of that branch of your family and meet
even more extended family who can give you even more valuable information for your family tree
when you trace a family branch to the present and then seek out modern members of it on social
media these same rewarding genealogical exchanges can happen but you have to approach them a little
differently than you would on a genealogy website where random introductions from distant relations
are expected what makes social media different when it comes to networking with distant relatives
if you are looking for modern members of your extended family with whom to network social
media is a good place to do it this is because so many people are on social media tracing the family
lines you are currently particularly interested in to the present is not difficult and if you
spent any time doing genealogy and using online genealogy websites and databases you've probably
done it once you have the names of people in that family line who are alive in the present time all
you have to do is start searching their names on the various social media websites you use or think
they may use chances are high you'll find them on at least one site and maybe more most social media
websites have a messaging feature and you can use it to send introductory messages to the family
members with whom you want to network what makes social media different for networking with these
relatives is that they are not expecting to hear from you and likely have no idea of your family
connection to them you are some random stranger who is contacting them for reasons that may seem
suspicious after all we have all heard stories of people being scammed on the Internet any message
from a stranger is suspicious on these websites they are not genealogical environments therefore
you have to approach contacting them with care if you want to get a response and not be reported
for spam how to approach a distant family member for networking on social media when you messaged
a relative you've discovered through your own research for the first time you should always
put the surname of the family or the name of the individual ancestor in the subject line of your
message also use the subject line to indicate you are a descendant of this line to your knowledge of
the family name or ancestor named will take some of the suspicion away before the relative reads
the message in the message start by saying you are your family's genealogist and you are researching
the family you are both connected to explain the research methods you've used to find this
person and detail how you are related giving a brief family tree outline from your common
ancestor is a smart idea then you can tell them what type of research you've done on the family
so far and let them know what you are hoping they can give you this could be personal stories they
know about certain ancestors either firsthand or handed down to them missing information in
your family tree they may be able to fill in for you and photographs of ancestors they may have
that you've never seen be sure to offer to share what you have in return they may not be interested
in genealogy but if they are offering to share information will make them more likely to respond
to you provide you with information and even keep in touch with you as they talk to other family
members from their branch to gather information for you if you approach distant relatives
correctly on social media you will find it to be a very rewarding experience and one that greatly
enhances your genealogy research the social media is also an excellent one for keeping in touch and
sharing photographs videos printed family trees and more just make sure you contact them the
correct way so they will be more likely to make the connection with you you'll be glad you did you
do family tree websites work the vast majority of them do if you know how to use them the
right way on the next episode of the ancestral findings podcast I'll show you what you need to
know to get them to work for you be sure to check out ancestral findings calm there you
can also download older podcast messages to hear again and your convenience that's
ancestral findings calm see you the next time here on the ancestral findings podcast