Do you have facebook pages for your ancestral town?

Poipu04

For those of you with websites, I was wondering if you have formed facebook groups or pages to link to your website. I did have a facebook group but a while back I got a notice that they would be changing the format and archiving the groups. I just got a bit lazy and put it on the back burner. I am not sure if I wanted to form a new page or group. If so, do you recommend that I form a page or a group.

nuccia

I have both and provide links to my sites and here. Pages are great to post info - groups are a bit tricky. Its almost like a mini forum and you will have people asking. Some will be about genealogy but others stop stop by to say hello and to tell you about how they link to your family or ancestral town.

Poipu04

Thanks, Nuccia. I will have to take a look at your pages. They block FB at work so I will have to check at home Smile

Cathy · V.I.P. Joined: Jul 10, 2007 Posts: 2681

I finally made 1 for my Montalto site also and provided a link on the main page of my site.

MikeSavoca91 · V.I.P. Joined: Jul 10, 2007 Posts: 399

I made one for my grandparent's town on the Croatian side. To date, it has over 200 members, many photos shared, and got word of my research out. The most meaningful thing to me was 2 years ago, when a man (who ended up being a cousin) came up to me and shook my hand, thanking me for my work. Besides, it has gotten my younger cousins who are my age to look at the pictures and stuff. I'm all for the pages on facebook!

Cathy · V.I.P. Joined: Jul 10, 2007 Posts: 2681

The Family Search officials have begun making Facebook pages for different areas of research also. The index for available places is here. They are looking for Admins also!

charliemis

I have been thinking of using FACEBOOK (I don't have an account yet) to try and connect with more distant Italian relatives from my Dad's birthplace of Corato, Provincia di Bari. I have a lot of security concerns about doing so, but I guess the benefits will outweigh the risks. What steps do I need to follow to create a SECURE Facebook page? I have heard many stories of Facebook accounts being hijacked, so I have steered clear of using this popular tool.

Also, since I will be looking for strangers, how do you know who is really legit and who is just playing games or looking to do damage?

Poipu04

So, you guys do PAGES as opposed to GROUPS?

I think I found Cathy's link, which was a group.

Mike, do you do a page or a group.

Charlie: I can tell by context who is for real and who isn't, sort of the same way you can tell on the genealogy boards here and elsewhere. You have to have a little faith but be careful too about giving out too much personal information. I have connected with a lot of cousins in Italy through FB.

MikeSavoca91 · V.I.P. Joined: Jul 10, 2007 Posts: 399

You're right Lori, my page is a group. I have not made a page as of yet, but might soon enough. You do hear from people all over the world which is really nice.
Charlie, I would say go for it! You can do a lot when it comes to making it private, even down to making yourself unsearchable by others. Cathy, you do great work always!

charliemis

Thanks Lori and Mike.

nuccia

Charlie regardless of what people say, Facebook is as safe as..email (or almost so). You can do secure logins as well to ensure you are actually redirecting to the "real" FB. Be careful of links regardless of who they are from, DO NOT CLICK of things that *could* be spam and check out the people you accept as friends before accepting or delete them if they show limited relevant posting. Also, and here is something that gets us all at one time or another - the games can be addicting and many of those games are from third parties so be careful of which application you allow to access your information.
If you take the time to limit so of the distractions and set your security settings properly it's strangely enough not that bad.

charliemis

WOW.....so after all that it is still worthwhile....EH?

OK, I will need to read "facebook for dummies" so I know what I am doing. I would like to set up an account to attract folks from my Dad's birthplace in Corato and hopefully find some more relatives either there or with origins there.

Thanks

charliemis

"I found this online while doing a Google Search on Facebook for Genealogy; it might be an interesting way to use Facebook"

Facebook Page For Your Ancestor?

One of my favorite resource blogs – Free Technology for Teachers – has a great post today on how to set up a Facebook page for a historical figure. And as the wheels of my mind are usually in a constant state of churning, I said to myself: “Well, why can’t I use this to create a page for one of my ancestors?”

I think what is presented is a fun way to bring your ancestor to life, especially since you can then share it with other family members on Facebook.

Another thought I had is this: would this offer a serious challenge to Foonote.com’s I Remember application on Facebook and the link to Footnote Pages?

If anyone does create a Facebook page for their ancestor, please blog about it at your site. I’m sure other members of GeneaBloggers would be interested in learning more.

©2010, copyright Thomas MacEntee

Any thoughts on this??

nuccia

Thomas MacEntee is awesome - He does have a webinar on the Legacy site about Facebook for genealogists as well as numerous other tutorials. Pages are a great idea - if you want to go that route and I think it makes perfect sense. I believe you can't limit who views pages on facebook but can limit groups - closed groups are available to only those you give access too which can be useful in sharing info with just the right amount of privacy. But I prefer my sites for that though or better yet, create a blog using Blogger (which is free and you can add to it as you need to) or Wordpress (same idea). I like Blogger - security is good, easy to use and the geneablogging community is wonderful.