Family-History-Through-the-Alphabet

For 26 weeks I will take you on a family history journey through the alphabet, one letter at a time.  I have decided that each post will be educational in nature, focusing on topics related to resources, methodology, tools, etc.  Although the challenge is complete, there are still some people who are finishing up and Alona, the host, is encouraging others to participate anyway.  Additional information on the challenge, can be found at Take the ‘Family History Through the Alphabet’ Challenge. 

sAs genealogists and family historians, it is important for us to share our research and family stories.  We tend to want to preserve our history and memories for our relatives and future generations, but we also hope to connect with others who share our common roots.

There are so many ways we can share our information, and with advances in technology, more options become available all the time.  In this post I’ll briefly discuss my three favorite ways for sharing your genealogy with others.

Blogs

Blogs are one of the hottest genealogy sharing tools.  In most cases blogs are free to set up and run, they do not require much technical know-how, and the author can share as much and as often as they please.  Some genealogy blogs are strictly news, how-to, or personal stories, or a combination of everything (my blog would be an example of the whole kit and caboodle).  GeneaBloggers has some great resources for learning how to start and maintain a blog.

Online Family Trees

There are plenty of websites where you can share your family tree and many of them are free to use.  Here are some of the most popular places:

Or you could create and post your own tree online with software such as The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding.

Story and Memory Sharing Sites

Over the last few years, there has been an emergence of website that are geared toward sharing stories and memories.  Some of these websites also have family tree capabilities.  A few of these sites allow you to create private family networks, so you’re only sharing information with people you invite.  Most of the services are free to use.  Here are some that I have found and explored:

Blogs, online family trees, and story and memory sharing sites are just the tip of the iceberg.  There are plenty of other ways to share your family history including books, articles, videos, presentations, and scrapbooks.  I just wanted to highlight some of my favorites.  The most important thing is to figure out what your sharing objective is and how best you can accomplish it by using what’s available at your comfort level.

What are your favorite ways to share your genealogy?  Do you use a tool that I didn’t mention?  I’d love to hear about it, so please leave a comment!