Today, our very DNA can now be ‘weaponised’ as a primary source to lure in our genetic cousins
surprised to learn that two genealogist friends in Scotland and Australia, who I have known for many years, have both turned out to be distant cousins. In pursuing a DNA test, we need to be prepared for the possibility that the addition to our family knowledge from the results may not always be quite what we expect.
Joining a forum
Using our research to establish connections with distant cousins can open many doors, and there are many other ways to do so beyond the use of family trees. We can share our ancestors’ details on sites such as Lost Cousins (www.lostcousins.com) and Curious Fox (www.curiousfox. com), and work out connections to
“The documents we find in our family history pursuits will never provide the full story, and what we may already know can always be added to, enhanced and at times even transformed with the assistance of others. In short, it is good to share”
relatives from census results, or towns and villages where common ancestors once resided. One of the simplest, and often the most effective, means to seek an answer to a research question, or to help others with theirs, is to participate in an online discussion forum. The free to access Rootschat platform at www.rootschat.com and Talkingscot at www.talkingscot. com are two well known sites in Britain and Ireland, with dedicated sections covering a variety of topics. On military matters, one of the best resources is the Great War Forum at www.greatwarforum.org, which covers just about every topic that you may wish to discuss for the First World War, with many military historians only too happy to assist with enquiries.
Sharing records
Of course once we have established our connections through such platforms, we can further build up a relationship with folk to explore our shared ancestry. Whilst in the past this involved writing letters and sending emails, the possibilities today in the digital era are expanding almost exponentially. We can exchange large documents through cloud based hosting platforms such as Dropbox (www.dropbox.com), Google Docs (https://docs.google.com) and Evernote (www.evernote.com); on platforms such as Google Docs we can even work collaboratively together on research reports.
Using social media
Social media platforms, such as Facebook (www.facebook.com), Twitter (www.twitter.com), Tumblr (www.tumblr.com), Snapchat (www. snapchat.com) and Whatsapp (www. whatsapp.com) can also allow us to communicate instantly with one another, to exchange messages, links to websites, photographs, music and embedded video clips. This can be done both through the open platforms, posting in a public capacity, or privately through such platforms’ chat functions where they may exist.
One aspect to be aware of when signing up to social networking platforms is that they are not charities, but businesses in their own right. When you add information about yourself to a site, it can be used to ‘profile’ you as a means to push specific forms of advertising your way. Conversely, whilst some of these platforms may be seeking to use us, we can equally use them to try to spread the net a bit further with our enquiries, by posting questions out to a wider audience. On platforms such as Facebook we can even set up group projects, to invite participants from around the world to share knowledge about an area or a specialist subject, for the benefit of all to enjoy.
Attending virtual meetings
Perhaps the greatest revolution in 2020, ironically embraced as a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic lockdowns, was the massive
rise in the use of video messaging tools and video conferencing, through platforms such as Zoom (https:// zoom.us), Gotowebinar (www. gotomeeting.com/en-gb/webinar), Facebook’s Facetime tool, and Skype
(www.skype.com). Indeed, many family history societies which had to cancel long planned for meetings and physical conferences, were able to switch to online platforms to hold virtual replacements in the form of ‘webinars’ and general meetings. In one example, a five day course I was due to teach in Salt Lake City in October 2020, to discuss topics across ten hour-long based lectures, was successfully transformed into a day-long online conference offering four 90 minute long sessions, all taught from the comfort of my home! Similarly many family history shows have found virtual replacements to be immensely successful, including that of the Family History Federation
(www.familyhistoryfederation.com), already planning for its next event in April 2021.
Indeed, for many family history societies in particular, video conferencing has in many cases offered a lifeline in terms of their own survival as groups, and for many it has provided something of a revolution to their proceedings. Aberdeen and North East Scotland Family History Society (www.anesfhs.org.uk) is just one of many to take the potential of this even further, by establishing Zoom based local groups worldwide
in Ontario, Brisbane and London. I have spoken to many societies over the last few months via Zoom, and every group I have spoken to has been enthusiastic about the newfound energy that their society has been experiencing as a consequence of the various lockdowns forcing new approaches. The monthly meeting in person will always be a mainstay of any group’s activities, but the use of Zoom and similar platforms has the potential to offer many fascinating new ways forward in terms of collaboration, particularly with the ability to invite speakers from further afield, and even overseas, to the regular proceedings.
Crowdsourcing research
On other fronts, many research projects have also adapted to use such platforms to gather evidence, for example the University of Manchester’s ‘Conflict, Memory and Migration: Northern Irish migrants and the Troubles in Britain’ project (https://conflictmemorymigration. org). This seeks to document the impact on members of the Northern Irish diaspora in Britain during the Troubles, including those who were born to Northern Irish parents in Britain during the period, with the impact on identity and other issues that follow.
Blogging, podcasting & more
Finally, the online world also allows us a wonderful range of opportunities to present our findings once we are in a position to write them up and share. We can produce our own accounts on a blogging platform such as Google’s Blogger (www.blogger.com) and Wordpress (https://wordpress.com and https://wordpress.org), or create our own dedicated family history websites on easy to use platforms such as Wix (www.wix.com) and Weebly (www.weebly.com). If we are particularly creative we can even selfpublish a book online through Lulu (www.lulu.com) or Kindle Direct Publishing (https://kdp. amazon.com).
But why stop with the printed word? We can also convey our stories through audio-visual content presented online. We may never be able to produce our very own slick edition of Who Do You Think You Are?, but we can certainly turn on a microphone or a video camera and record a tale or two! On the video front, Youtube (www.youtube.com) allows us to freely host content on our own dedicated channels, whilst Vimeo
(https://vimeo.com) provides a free basic package offering 500MB upload capability per week, with various paid subscription levels offering further storage and functionality. For the spoken word, we can easily record ‘podcasts’ and host recordings on platforms such as Soundcloud
(https://soundcloud.com). And for a bit of inspiration on how to do so, check out Cyndi’s List at www. cyndislist.com/podcasts/general/ and Geneabloggers Tribe at https:// geneabloggers.com/resources for those who have already tried!
If you are a little more cautious, Familysearch Memories may well be a useful place to start, at www. familysearch.org/photos. This allows users to create a form of living time capsule of photos, stories, documents and audio recordings, by way of a digital scrapbook, which it stores within a user’s ‘Memories Gallery’, and where items can be tagged so that they can be placed with individuals on a user’s family tree on the site. Digital images and audio recordings can be uploaded through the main website on a home computer, or through the dedicated Familysearch Memories app or Familysearch Family Trees app for phones and other portable devices (see www.familysearch.org/blog/en/ familysearch-apps-oral-histories for a guide on how to do so). Recordings through the app can be up to a maximum of fifteen minutes in length – so you can record quite a tale in that time.
There is a lot we can do online to share our stories. Have fun in 2021!