#52ancestors Post Thirty-Eight: Unusual Sources

I am trying to finish the writing prompts for #52ancestors (in 52 weeks). There are only 3 days left in the year and I have three posts left. 

I postponed the completion of post-thirty-eight as I had a particular topic in mind to match the writing prompt Unusual Sources; however, the topic will take much research, some letter writing, and too many hours to complete this year. 

My most unusual source and unbelievable find was a photo of a Confederate soldier on Facebook that matched an unidentified Confederate soldier in a photo shared with me. I wrote about that find in 2016 - Friday's Photo: Thanks to Facebook, a Confederate Soldier is Identified.

Until that valuable find, Facebook was not on my go-to list of sources. This find showed me the value of Facebook in my genealogical searches. Now, when searching for a particular person, I always look for their surname on Facebook as there may be Facebook Groups or Facebook Pages devoted to that family. 

I created Facebook Groups for descendants of my Hairston, Bryan, Giddens, and Quinn/Murray families. This is a good way to get other family members interested in family history and also a way to share information.  

Looking for Facebook groups or pages related to a locality is also a great way to learn new information and find others researching your families. You might find a Facebook page for a genealogy society or historical society related to a particular location. 

Cyndi's List has a wealth of good information about using Facebook for Genealogy. 

Check out Katherine R. Wilson's Genealogy on Facebook list. This 300+ page document, containing more than 13,000 links related to genealogy and history, is organized by topic (location, surname, etc.) and has an easy to use clickable table of contents. 

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2018

Sources

Family photographs and documents from the collection of Marguerite Cook Clark. Accessed April 28, 2014, September 14, 2014, and November 9 to 11, 2016. Used with permission.

Photograph of John Lawson Wimberly from the collection of Ken Shively. Used with permission.