I know of a few people who use private groups on Facebook to collaborate with a small group of people on genealogy projects. Although I haven’t participated in one, I understand the concept and have heard great things.
Last week, my mom finally agreed to start cataloging our family artifacts/heirlooms, but was looking for an easier solution than the one we discussed many years ago. Initially, my first thought was to use our Flickr accounts. Many years ago, I had posted several unidentified photos there and she was able to go in and comment on them. They were private, only available to me and my mom. But a lot has changed on Flickr through the years and it didn’t look as simple to do this as it had been.
Since we’re both on Facebook and know how to use it, I decided, why not use a Facebook group to collaborate on our heirloom documentation project like others do for genealogy research projects. So I created a private (and hidden) Facebook group with only the two of us a members. She can take photos of the family artifacts around her home, upload them to our group, and provide details in the description. We can then use comments to discuss. I also have some family artifacts in my home that I’m going to take photos of and post, and then she can provide the details. I can easily download any photo she posts, and then copy/paste the details wherever I decide to store this information (I’m still considering my options).
This may not be the best solution, but if it gets my mom to sit down and start documenting our family artifacts/heirlooms, then it’s the perfect solution for us.
What about you? Are you doing something similar? What tool(s) are you using? Would love to hear about it, so drop me a comment below.
And the discussions between the two of you become part of the history of the item.
So true!!