Tuesday's Tip - Are You Using Message Boards To Their Fullest Potential?

I'm taking the "Social Media for the Wise Genealogist" course through NIGS that I blogged about previously.  While so far I'm finding the course a bit more basic than I would have liked, it's certainly an excellent course for people that haven't quite embraced new technology because they didn't think that they needed to, or because they were afraid to.

What I'm also finding while taking this course, is that despite the fact it's about social media, I see in fellow students' posts that they are still fighting it.  I don't blame them for that.  It took me quite some time (and convincing by friends) to even join Facebook, let alone begin blogging!  One of our recent assignments was to post our experiences with Message Boards if we've used them and if we haven't, to poke around some surname boards and relay our findings.  Do we think that they are useful in our research?  I was shocked to see how many posts there were about how worthless message boards are!  I began wondering if maybe they just weren't being used properly, and I posted my assignment suggesting just that, with some helpful hints, which I will go into more detail here.

We're bloggers or blog followers here, so it's most likely that we've all figured out how to use an RSS feed and some form of aggregator, i.e. - Google Reader,  to read them through.  That was also one of the first bits of reading covered in our class. I most commonly use Ancestry.com message boards, so that is what I will be referring to here.  We all know that we can go to Ancestry Message Boards and search for information on a relative, hoping to find something.  If we don't, sure we may think that the message boards were useless, but did you post a message to the board requesting the information or are you merely hoping to glean information from posts others have made?  Don't be afraid to post!  It may take awhile to get a response, but you won't get a response if you don't post anything!  With a mentality like that there'd be no posting going on at all!

If you find a post with information that you may be interested in and you post a follow-up to it, what's next?  If you check back you may get some information in your inbox, but what if you missed something in your initial search?  Why not subscribe to the posts from that message board?  If anyone posts to it, the information will be sent to your RSS aggregator and you'll be able to skim through it to see if it may pertain to you!  You never know...perhaps someone looking for that common ancestor won't find your post in their search and they create a new one.  If you've subscribed, you will see that new post and be able to contact them! 

Keep your email address up to date on Ancestry as well!  Have you ever come across a post that was made 10 years ago (or more)?  They're still worth responding too, particularly if that person is still at that email or updated their profile.  If someone responds directly to the post you made, you'll receive an email notification!

The message boards are free.  You just need to know how to manage them so that you can use them to their fullest potential.  I haven't covered every way this can be done, but I've touched on what I find easiest for me.  I can't begin to count how many distant cousins I've met through Ancestry Message Boards.  It didn't happen all at once, but it did happen and I've broken through some pretty big brick walls using them (always verifying information, of course!).  If they haven't worked for you yet, don't disregard them.  Think of how best to use them and give them time!

Tuesday's Tip - Pet Peeving on Message Boards

I've been wanting to write a "Tip" on Message Board posts, pretty much since starting my blog, but never got around to it because I always had something else to blog about that caught my attention.  As I went through my Google Reader today, I realized it was time.  Not because I think anyone reading my blog needs tips...it's more that I needed a bit of a rant.

When posting on a message board, make the subject line of the post something that draws people in and makes them want to read it.  Now I'm not suggesting that you post anything completely unrelated like "Ancestor busted as prostitute" and then in the post, "...now that I've got your attention..."  That will irritate and most likely get you flagged or removed.  Of course, if you actually have an ancestor busted as a prostitute and are seeking more information, then that's a completely satisfactory subject line!  What I'm trying to illustrate is not to expect to get very many responses when your title says something like:

"Trying to find my grandfather" 

(not enough info, especially if on a common surname message board), or

"Brown family", or

"Lee genealogy", or

"Looking for connections"

Those subjects don't tell anyone anything and I usually don't bother to read them.  I've got quite a few posts to read through each day, either as blogs, message board alerts, or news and I just don't have time.  If I see a subject like that, I just say to myself, "Well, they aren't really serious about this, or they would have said more".

Seriously, if you're researching someone with a common last name, you've GOT to put more detail in the subject (and, of course, the post).  Those boards have so many messages posted daily that people are looking for what pertains to them.  Such a general subject line will more often than not be ignored.  A better title for a common name would be "Lee family of the Hazleton, PA area", or "Brown family moved to Elmira, NY from PA".  That narrows it down considerably and would tend to get better responses.

One last peeve, and then I'll stop, because I so could go on, is content of the post.  Don't say, "I'm looking for the parents of Joe-schmo Hermann who moved to the US from Germany. Please help".  Again, pretty common last name, and it's not saying where they moved to....Wisconsin?  Texas?  Maine?  Where?  I would venture a guess that the majority of Hermanns in the United States came from Germany...can I have a time period?  A location before and after immigration, if you have one?  Tell the people reading the post all the details you have!  Let them know if there are details that you believe to be true, but haven't verified yet.  Something is better than a generalization.

OK...I feel a little better now.  I know some people are new to genealogy and jump right in and that's awesome, but a lot of this is common sense.  And sadly, I don't think that some of these ridiculous posts/titles are only from those new to genealogy.  Ah well...