Armchair Genealogy - Family Tree & History

Jingle 0:04
The Genealogy Guy podcast, demystifying technology and exploring family tree research, please remember to subscribe and share the podcast with family and friends.

Genealogy Guy 0:17
Welcome along to another episode of armchair genealogy with me? Mell, the Genealogy Guy. Now sometimes you have to think differently about what you usually do, and if there's an alternative way whatever you're trying to do. Have you ever thought of Facebook as a family history tool, or wondered if a YouTube post could lead you to a long lost cousin? Social media isn't just for selfies and memes. It's a gold mine for genealogists. What if the next big discovery is hiding in a Facebook group or buried in a hashtag? In this episode, we're exploring how clicks and comments can unlock clues to your past. Ready to rethink your research? Well, that leads us nicely to our guest for this episode, and welcome to Jon Marie. To Armchair Genealogy. You're an advocate of using social platforms for genealogical research, so let's explore your background and what we all should be thinking about. So what inspired you to start helping genealogy community, and particularly using social media.

Jon Marie 1:24
Well I was president of Mount Vernon Genealogical Society, and so I saw, I saw a gap where we weren't connecting to a community that was a virtual community. And so I know the importance of connections, and that's why we join historical and genealogical societies, because we want that connection. We need someone that's not going to roll their eyes all the time. We want to talk about family history or, you know, and so we we have that community in these societies. And I got to realize, I mean, think from my children, you know, following them, watching them engage in social media. And, you know, we kind of are like, I don't know about talking to people on, you know, social media, but then they got me to realize the value of it, and I realized the value of how societies can take their communities and expand it into a virtual world, and we can make so many more connections. I mean, when we look at our family tree, it connects us to all over the place. You know, I've got connections, you know, all over Europe. And so social media gives us that opportunity to really connect and also expand our genealogy knowledge and resources.

Genealogy Guy 2:43
How did you first get involved in genealogy yourself?

Jon Marie 2:47
Wanted to find my biological father, as some of us start, and I actually it was before I really got digging into DNA, and I actually connected with my who I didn't know it at the time, but it ended up being my biological half brother, and I found him on Facebook, and I just happened to be scrolling the area where I thought my biological father was. When scrolling through all the names, there was one gentleman that looked just like my oldest son, like spitting image. And I was like, You know what? Let's just, you know, see, and it was actually my brother. And so I found my biological father, and but I had learned, even in the process of looking for him, that, you know, being an not having your biological family or a piece of it, you're missing a piece of yourself growing up. You have questions, stuff like that. And I realized, while trying to find him, that I was connecting to all these different generations prior to him, and I was already piecing together who I was and where I came from without even having him yet in the picture, and then now we have this common bond of we're discovering our family history together.

Genealogy Guy 4:07
What challenges do you see as a genealogist that genealogists are facing when they when they start thinking about social media?

Jon Marie 4:14
I think for social media, it's really trying to get people to embrace it, but then understand, how do you set yourself up to be found or to reach out so like when they're making you know their profile, stuff like that, having keywords like genealogy, family history, surnames, those are important To have within your you know your bio, or anything you're posting having keywords. And so I've learned that by helping the genealogy community understand that they the way they set up themselves on social media, is going to help lead them to other, connecting with others, and then also posting their journey. Me lot of times I don't have as much time as I wish, but sharing bits and pieces of your ancestors, stories and your journey not only helps people know about your journey, but might inspire them to join their journey. Because we have a lot of people out there that aren't on this journey yet. You know, unfortunately, a lot of us wait till we're a lot older to really begin that journey. But now we see the younger generation are getting curious, and I've even found like on Tiktok, you know, there's several young genealogists on there, and even high schoolers that are starting to embark on their journey.

Genealogy Guy 4:25
So if you were starting out and advising somebody that's sort of, they sort of an idea what social media is, but they don't really mess with it. How would you say is best for them to start out, to actually start thinking about integrating it as part of their search on genealogy?

Jon Marie 5:54
The thing is engaging. So doing a search such as, you know, genealogy or family history, just going in that search bar and typing that, even surnames, you know, type that in, and then scroll through whatever comes up. You're going to get stuff that comes up, and then actually making a comment or following them, or even sending them, you know, a private message that's off the social media, you know, but actually connecting. That's the biggest challenge that a lot of people are facing. They're like, Well, I see the genealogy there, but they're waiting for the genealogy community to come to them. And that's not how social media works. You've got to actually reach out to them and even making just comments, you know, you can go to ancestry.com or Family Search who are all on social media, and you can scroll through and you can see people making comments. And it's like, go through and see what they're talking about, and you will find that there's people that you're going to start connecting with and just quickly, you know, share your tidbit of information, or, Hey, I've got the same surname of Stinson. You know, where yours from, those little sparks of conversation and engagement is really going to be what's going to grow your community? Because that's what you want. You want a community that can help you.

Genealogy Guy 7:18
Without any using any particular names of any people. But have you got a particular success story of someone that you've helped through or or someone you're aware of that has used some of your ideas and gone away and and hit the jackpot?

Jon Marie 7:32
Social media has an amazing community. You can post all kinds of things. Every so often, they'll do a roll call, like, hey, share your surnames, and you can scroll through and you can see, because they're doing that roll call, people are sharing their surnames, and they've actually had cousins Connect. It's hard to do that in meetings or conferences or anything like that. You really it's a closed community. I mean, it's a public community, but it's a close community, and that engagement really helps them to connect with cousins. So I have Indiana ancestors, so I'm on there, and I'm constantly they'll share old photos of different areas, county birthdays, stuff like that. And that's the stuff that if you engage with, you're probably going to connect with somebody. And I have connected with cousins thanks to that engagement. So like, if you're following a page or group or anything and there's not anything. Nothing says you can't post something and say, Hey, this is who I'm working on. What are you working on? It's okay to post a question, and I think we just got to get over that fear of being the first one to make a comment. But it's okay.

Genealogy Guy 8:57
So which social media platforms do you think are the most effective for genealogy, and why?

Jon Marie 9:03
You would say my number one is Facebook. Facebook has, you know, the private groups, they have public groups. Almost everyone seems to be on Facebook. There's some groups that aren't. But also, I have found that, especially recently, you're finding more of a global community on Facebook. It used to always be, and you can still find it over there. On X, which used to be Twitter, you would find a lot of connections from like, you know, England, Ireland and stuff like that. But it's hard because you want to connect with a specific group, but then it's not always there, and tick tock has been, you know, the number one globally. But we don't know if all countries, like United States, we don't know how long we're gonna have access to that so, but it's also important not just to have you. One community like Facebook has been the number one, but it's also important to have other communities within that whole global world, you know, connect on LinkedIn and all these other social media platforms, because none of us own our profiles on those platforms, and so you can build a community. But like for me, I have an email list and my website so that people can still find me.

Genealogy Guy 10:31
Interesting point, because you have to think about what you're putting out there is also what the rest of the world will see. So only put things out there that you actually want to share,

Jon Marie 10:41
yep, and then you've gotta be careful, because some people don't want their photos on social media. So if you have an old photo that you're going to share of like grandma, grandma's passed away, but there might be some living people still in that photo. So you gotta be careful what information you're sharing, because there are some topics that can bother other people. You know, we're uncovering stuff in our family history that are sometimes secrets that they thought they took to the grave, but we're uncovering now, so, but you've gotta be very careful of what, like you said, once you post it, it's there, you know, and so people are going to see it. And so you don't want to cause a rift within the family, you know. And you also don't want to share photos. I've seen people share photos, and they don't have the original photo, but they got a digital copy, copy from someone, and they shared it, but it wasn't their original photo, and they didn't have a right first to post it. So you gotta be careful of those legal parts of you know, what you post, and

Genealogy Guy 11:43
The platform side of things, one of the ones that I've always found quite amusing is to take surnames and just do a YouTube search, just looking for that surname to find out if someone's, you know, someone that might be a famous vlogger, or someone that's doing their family tree themselves, and they're actually got a YouTube channel about their their surname. So it's just a different way of thinking about how to reach out to people.

Jon Marie 12:06
Yeah, so, like, because I recently on my stoner line, I recently had put it in there, and now all of a sudden, and I mean, you almost got to do it constantly, like, make it a yearly thing of, okay, let me pull out my surnames and do all these searches, because you never know when someone's going to start something. And I had done my stoner line, because I've been digging deep into that, and all of a sudden I started connecting with cousins. And I was like, I had done this like two years ago, and I found, like, nobody,

Genealogy Guy 12:39
I remember back in the old days when, when I first joined Facebook, many, many years ago, and I look for loads and lots and lots of people, and it's, it's only been, I would say, the last sort of 10 years, that a lot of the people, particularly from my own school year, that I actually find that they're now on Facebook. And I'm thinking, I've been here for ages. I've got bored of that. I've moved up to something else, but at least I kept the account ready so I can actually still see them.

Jon Marie 13:05
Exactly, because you just don't know. I mean, people are joining various platforms all the time. And I think one of the hardest parts is there's so many platforms, oh yes. And it's like, how do you narrow down? You know, because, like, I have eight that I'm currently working on. But how do you narrow down your focus? And so I always tell everyone, well, start with one that you feel that you have the strongest connections with, and then slowly add in those other ones. And a lot of times you can cross post. So if you post one thing on one platform, you can have it go to the other platforms. I mean, the virtual social media world is getting out of control. In some ways.

Genealogy Guy 13:50
It's great that there's so many different platforms, but as you say, can get very confusing very quickly on which platform on forever getting a message from somebody that's on for instance, they've messaged me on WhatsApp, then they'll continue the conversation on a text message, then they'll send me an email. And I'm thinking, Oh, which which bit did they send the details, and I can't remember which platform they were used. And it can take you half an hour to find the original message.

Jon Marie 14:18
Then you can also get lost in the world of scrolling, you start scrolling and you're like, Okay, I'm just going to get on see what's going on in the Gmail community. And so I've kind of made a rule for myself, is that I don't scroll past three messages without replying or responding or engaging with at least one of those. And if I don't, then I make myself get off.

Genealogy Guy 14:40
That's a good policy, actually. That makes you interact with what you're reading. As you say, otherwise it just becomes Doom scrolling. It's just like an hour passes and you're going, I can't remember the first three posts. Never mind the last one.

Jon Marie 14:53
Or why did you get on the platform today?

Speaker 2 14:55
Armchair genealogy.com, for generations of all ages.

Genealogy Guy 14:59
Now let's have a break hearing from Jon Marie Pearson about using social media as part of your genealogy research, and have another one of those tips for getting started. So starting your family tree. Well, here's a secret. The most powerful tool isn't a website, it's your curiosity begin by choosing one family line, maybe your mother's side or your grandfather's surname. Narrowing your focus keeps things manageable. Next, look for documents hidden in plain sight, birth certificates, marriage records, old letters, even scribbled names on the back of photographs, these everyday items can unlock generations and don't forget your local library or archive. Many have free access to ancestry and local records that aren't online. And a tip that many overlook, keep a research log track where you've looked and what you found or not found, it'll save you hours downtime later on in your journey through your search, genealogy is not just about facts, it's about people, places and the stories that bind them. So start simple, stay curious and let each discovery lead you to the next and now back to tips about using social media as a research tool in genealogy. With Jon Marie Pearson,. What role do you think that storytelling plays in sharing family historyOnline?

Jon Marie 16:33
Social media is all about storytelling. It's about sharing. And so I think we forget that aspect of social media, and we all love stories. That's why we read books, we watch movies and watch TV shows. And I get people all the time, they're like, Well, no one's going to care about my family history. But that's not true, because we love stories. And so the trick is just breaking it down. Because, like YouTube, you can make it long form, but you're, you're breaking it into little chunks. And so I think people are challenged with the idea of breaking down those stories into little tidbits. And so I think if we could get people to overcome, you know, and we have aAI now that can break those into little tidbit stories, or tell us, you know how we can do that. So we've got help now, but I think it's important in preserving our ancestors stories, to break those stories down and to share it. You could break it into a series, and people will follow that series. I mean, I follow series all the time,

Genealogy Guy 17:43
And everyone does on television. So it proves a series works. People want to know what happens next. Exactly. How would you say that societies and organizations can use social media to grow their membership?

Jon Marie 17:55
It's important for societies like historical genealogical societies and museums and all of that, there's been studies to show that people will go to their social media platform. And I find I do this, I go and I do a search, and if I don't find it on social media, most time, I'm not going to go look for a website. So if you're not in that virtual world and sharing, you know, what do you have to offer members and then also building that community on social media where people are talking, where can we discover more about our ancestors? And this is the perfect opportunity for societies to tell people what they offer and what they have, because not everything's digitized. You know, I had a society that they found an old postal book record that showed how much it cost to ship to different things, and this was back in the 1800s people didn't even know this existed, you know, and it had a list of the postmasters. And so when you have something like that and you post about it, you're going to get curiosity, because people are going to reach out to you and be like, I need to know more about this book. Or, you know, can you check this? And the societies have an opportunity more than ever, to really connect to the genealogy community and show what their mission is, how they stand out and what they can help people with.

Genealogy Guy 19:21
You're always singing the praises and telling people and promoting the use of social media. So how do you see social media evolving in the genealogical space the next sort of 5 or 10, years?

Jon Marie 19:33
I think social media is going to be the number one way people are going to be able to get awareness on what societies are offering, such as webinars, conferences, it's, it's a free platform. I mean, you pay for advertising, but it's a free platform for you to advertise these things and to also spread the word. You know, communities, societies can ask members to share an upcoming conference that's coming up. But it's unlimited. I mean, the virtual space is actually going to where, you know, I've read where some platforms are hoping eventually that you can join, get a membership, right there on social media without even having to go to a website. And I think, you know, they say, you know, people want to do things in less than three strokes. So if they have one button they have to press, some platforms are getting ready to take payments, right there. The world of social media is growing so vast, and our capability to connect and all of that stuff within this virtual community is beyond anything we can probably imagine. I mean, we didn't expect AI to become what it is already today. So I can just imagine what social media is going to be. I mean, I think the hard part with social media is being able to access it, and I know my German ancestors are my hardest ones to connect with, just because I haven't quite found where they're at on social media wise. And so we do have that playing a part in how we're able to connect. Now, if we lose Tiktok, that takes out several communities that I follow on social media, and so it's hard. It's like we've got this amazing world, but we have so many platforms, and we can only manage so much.

Genealogy Guy 21:38
Have you found in your experience using Facebook, but changing the end so it's not just.com it's the UK version or the the German version or the French version. Have you found that can throw up better results?

Jon Marie 21:51
I've actually never tried that. That's something new for me to try. Yeah, I never thought of that. I normally I I've tried the hashtags, and so I found that works a little bit on Instagram and Tiktok, but I never thought of changing the ending of that. I might have to play with that now.

Genealogy Guy 22:10
I'll be interested to hear you get on with it. You've just mentioned Instagram and Tiktok and that. So what are some of the creative ways that genealogists can use the platforms of Instagram or Tiktok in a different way.

Jon Marie 22:21
Instagram is very visual heavy, and so what that means is you're going to want to share images and also videos, short video clips. And a lot of people say, well, it's too hard to share a short video clip. Like I said, you could take AI and take an entire timeline of your ancestors, upload it into AI and ask it to create a bunch of 60 second clips, and it'll break it down for you. People are finding that, you know, because our attention span is shortening, and so if you, like we said, with a series, you're cutting that story down into tidbits, and we're finding, like all generations are enjoying this short form video

Genealogy Guy 23:15
In a former life you used to really promote getting younger people involved. And I can see the connection between social media and then getting the youngsters involved. But added to that, how, how do you think the community of genealogists, particularly older brigade, can actually encourage more youngsters to actually get involved?

Jon Marie 23:34
By just posting like we get to, kind of talked about earlier. I mean, I post my family history, and I actually find my kids, even though they might not want to admit to it, they'll actually watch my entire video, you know. And so and I have a on Tiktok, we do a live event where a bunch of us just get on there and chat. And I've seen my kids stopping in there and like, you know, making comments and stuff, and I think it's a great way for all generations. We need the younger generations to know about their family history and get interested. Then we need the older generation to learn how to take their stories and put it on social media, taking both of those, I feel like my challenge is to show them how we can take both generations, all generations, and connect them. And I think social media is the place to do it. You have this private area where you're at home, but yet you can engage. I don't know. I feel like social media is a win for all generations. We just need to teach everyone how to do that.

Genealogy Guy 24:47
If someone was to be start sharing their family history on social media today. What's one of the first things that that you would say you should do this to get going? This is how you should start it.

Jon Marie 24:59
Tell everyone. Why you've started your journey. Oh, very good. It's, it's, it's simple, it's easy. I mean, it's, you want to build that personal connection to let people know why you started your journey, you know, and go back and redo that every year, because you get new followers all the time. But, I mean, it's simple, and it just lets people know, hey, this is why I'm here. You could either do it and, you know, just write a little story and post a photo, or you can even just make a short video. Very flexible.

Genealogy Guy 25:33
I think you're hitting the nail on the head. As I say, it is flexible. It's, there is no hard, fast rule, it's whatever you feel comfortable sharing and thinking, well, this, this will interest those people that are interested in that area. Could be the war. It could be that their job is something that makes people suddenly go, Oh, I'm interested in that as well. So it's, it's that formulating that sort of connection, if people want to sort of connect with you or follow you. What's, what's one of the most popular platforms or places to find out more information.

Jon Marie 26:07
You can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, I'm on X, LinkedIn, I'm on Tiktok right now, but I'm you can pretty much find me anywhere, almost.

Genealogy Guy 26:20
What's your tag? Is it? Is it at, is it Jon Marie? Or is it at, like, simple genealogist, or what is it at,

Jon Marie 26:27
@simple livin Gene, but with just 1g so leave the G off living, and then it's G, E, N, E.

Genealogy Guy 26:37
And is there a website, if I get completely lost, where you've got all those listed?

Jon Marie 26:42
Yep the simple living genealogist, and I've got a blog on there, and then I have a free newsletter where I send out tips on what's happening in the social media world and ideas that you can create content around. So,

Genealogy Guy 26:57
and that's simplegenealogist.com, I like to get other people that are doing it even more than me, because, as you say, it is time consuming, but a little bit like often, is better than trying to think I'm going to become super challenged and be a big hit on the internet. It's like, it's it's not about that. It's just about sharing your story.

Jon Marie 27:19
Well even I tell people, go on just earmark 15 minutes a week, just go on once a week for like 15 minutes, and you're going to find your community is going to build, instead of just going on like maybe once a month, if you just put in that 15 minutes every week, then, yeah, you're going to build your community that's going to be there for you and help you and not roll their eyes at you.

Genealogy Guy 27:44
That is the classic. Well, thank you very much. Jon Marie, it's been a pleasure to chat with you, and as you say, it's nice talking to somebody else that's also into social media and gets gets the point of it, because you have to sometimes break that wall down.

Jon Marie 28:00
Actually I thank you for the opportunity. And like I said, because social media and genealogy are an important part of my life, and I feel it's so important. And so thank you for giving me this opportunity.

Genealogy Guy 28:12
The pleasure was all mine. And thanks there to Jon Marie Pearson with some of her tips on using social media as a research tool. And also remember you can always read the transcript of each of the episodes of these podcasts. It allows you to read the tips and the websites mentioned until the next episode. Happy and productive research.

Jingle 28:37
And remember to subscribe to the podcast to be informed when new editions are published.