Genealogy Serendipity Moments - Facebook

First, I want to thank my forty-one followers and all of you who have spent time reviewing my blog posts. In just two months I have had over 2000 page views. A special thank you to Randy Seaver for his two recent highlights of my posts. Geneabloggers by Thomas MacEntee, which has over 1900 genealogy blogs listed, also recognized Gopher Genealogy. As a newby in the blogging world I find it educational and a valuable resource in my growth as a genealogist.


Tonight I am at 299 facebook friends. Not long ago I had about fifty. When I started to realize how many fellow genealogists were making connections on facebook I knew I needed to reach out to others. About half of my friend links are genealogy related. Some of my close friends are not on facebook, but their children are so I have connected with them. Each time we receive a note from a friend it helps to build our connections and support for one another. For genealogists this is an important tool in our research and learning process.

My serendipity moment came last week when my husband signed up for facebook. At first he had not posted a picture, so I was hesitant to add him as a friend. After he requested that we connect I asked him if we were related. He said yes, but that was still not a defining answer for me, so I waited for his picture. We are also connected to all of our six children and many other relatives. Today we celebrate thirty-three years of marriage and now have another great tool for communicating with each other.

The 299 seemed like a great number to me until I looked online to see who are the big colletors of friends. As of October 2010 the top collector was Texas Hold 'Em Poker with 25,568,343 friends. Now, I know how to play the card game, but I can not imagine there would be so many people interested in this facebook page. Facebook was second with 23,630,608 friends.

Then I checked out some genealogy facebook pages to see how many connections they had. Here is what I found.

Networked blogs - 1,538,488 monthly active users, with 91 of my friends
Who Do You Think You Are? – 128,591 likes, with 83 of my friends
Cyndislist - 13,636 likes, with 87 of my friends
NEHGS - 9,134 likes, with 49 of my friends
Legacy Family Tree Software – 8,156 likes, with 25 of my friends
Familysearch - 4,588 likes, with 53 of my friends
RootsMagic Genealogy & Family Tree Software – 4,099 likes, with 30 of my friends
National Genealogical Society - 2,302 likes, with 58 of my friends
The Genealogy Gems Podcast – 1,426 likes, with 31 of my friends
Genealogy Network - 885 likes, with 17 of my friends
Geneabloggers – 856 likes, with 37 of my friends
Randy Seaver - 855 likes, with 113 of my friends
APG - 624 likes, with 48 of my friends
Southern Genealogiacl Society and Library - 718 likes, with 42 of my friends
Southern California Genealogical Socitey - 461 likes, with 25 of my friends
FGS - 295 likes, with 34 of my friends
ICAPGen - 206 likes, with 14 of my friends
Utah Genealogical Society - 165 likes, with 25 of my friends
Genealogical Coucil of Oregon - 88 likes, with 9 of my friends
Genealogcial Forum of Oregon - 86 likes, with 10 of my friends
BCG - 8 likes, with 1 of my friends

I am amazed by what I found. Some of these findings surprise me. While these are the people who hit the like button, there may be others who are linked in other ways. As you can see above we are all connected in different ways. Learning how to make connections is important. We all benefit when we share information and knowledge. How often do you connect to these and other valuable genealogical connections? Please share comments about your favorite online connections.