Most people probably wouldn’t consider using LinkedIn to help with your family history research however it could be very useful.
I’ve put together 3 ideas for how you could use LinkedIn.
1 Find living relatives
LinkedIn allows you to see a wider network than the people you are actually connected to. These are your 2nd and 3rd degree connections. Searching amongst these people could identify living relations, some of whom you may be aware of and some of whom may be new to you.
There are several different family names that I am researching and one is Fonblanque. This comes from my grandmother Pamela Eve Barrington de Grenier de Fonblanque Cox (aka Pamela Cox). It’s also a relatively uncommon name so there aren’t many people in the UK.
I am lucky enough to have a family tree created in the 1930s however it finishes at Pamela’s generation and does not show any descendants.
I decided to search for Fonblanque and see if there was anyone with this name on LinkedIn. For anyone unfamiliar with LinkedIn search, simply typing the name in the search box at the top of the LinkedIn screen will bring up lots of different results and you are likely to want to refine them to the People option. You can then choose to filter further and choose a location. In this case I chose United Kingdom.
I found two people this way. I then sent a connection request to the first one saying I believe we are related (and giving some genealogical information to say my Fonblanque connection). She has connected with me and I now have a shared connection with the second person.
So, two new distant relations!
2 Find people to help you with your research
There are lots of different specialists on LinkedIn. Some of the headlines I found include
- Unclaimed Asset Researcher, Heir Tracer, Genealogist
- Professional Criminal Genealogist
- Professional Researcher and Genealogist
- Forensic Science Consultant (he posted about someone being caught using DNA)
- Genealogy Blogger and Content Writer
- Suffolk County Historical Society (US not UK)
- Genealogist and Photo Restoration and Colorization Specialist
- Mexican Genealogy Blogger and Researcher
- Genealogy Stories
- Genealogy presenter, writer and speaker
- Owner of Genealogy TV
- Family History Researcher and Author
- Genealogist | Genetic Genealogist | Family Historian
- Probate Research Tracing Missing Beneficiaries
- Family and Business Legacy Storytelling
- The Memoir Network will help you get your memoir written
Could any of these people help you?
3 Find out about events that are happening near you such as conferences
Lots of family history conferences and events are mentioned online.
The Family History Show is on in York tomorrow.
One happening in London later this year is RootsTech London on 24-26 October. Donny Osmond is headlining this. Find out more about the conference at rootstech.org/london
So please consider using LinkedIn to help you with your research.
One final tip: You can follow hashtags on LinkedIn now. #genealogy and #familyhistory is where I located all of the above articles so I suggest you follow it too….
If you’d like any help with using LinkedIn or with your family history search please get in touch.
