The wonders of Facebook

[Phoenix]

Have another DNA match born 1945. There is no tree, probably because it's complicated.

Her name is a google-whack, and her Facebook page has proved a mine of information, since from this I have discovered she was adopted as a little girl, emigrated to Canada aged 4, and because she is in contact with her birth family, and is fond of commemorating anniversaries, I have found her birth mother in 1939, and worked out exactly what the connection between us is.

It's a little bit scary that I've been able to link so much back to records, when she has provided quite small pieces at a time.

Of course, had the link been through her birth father, I'd still be fumbling away!

[marquette]

I have done this from time to time.

One in particular, I remember, has a very unusual name - I saw him on TV and thought "he's a DNA match!" - his facebook page has virtually no posts or photos (for very good reasons).

I did not expect much as I looked through his few friends and discovered a person with a similar name to another DNA match and looked at their facebook page - a mine of information from photos of her father to posts by her mother (with the same initials as another DNA match).

But how to link them to my family - I looked into more friends who responded to the family photos and discovered the link and in all was able to place 4 DNA matches into the tree.

I thought I could guess which family member the family had descended from, by the geographical locations, but I was wrong, it was another brother who had about 14 children. And there are a lot of the family who have done DNA tests!

I was able to follow up a lot of the information through BDM indexes and Ancestry electoral rolls and even simple google searches to expand their family circle.

It is a bit scary that it was so easy piece together the family but I guess it was because I had several clues in the DNA matches user names. Without those, I would have not linked together the facebook friends.

[ElizabethHerts]

I have also used Facebook to discover more about a DNA match.
The name has to be sufficiently unusual to enable this, but it can be an extremely good way of obtaining further information.

[Kit]

I love facebook researching. I've actually spent the last 4-5 days researching and then backing it up with records. My MIL comes from a small town where many are related to each other and if not related are friends.

Family reunions and weddings are also awesome if someone posts and tags people.

[Glen TK]

Facebook is something both I and a relative use quite often during our lengthy messenger chats. My relative calls it stalking...........I mean researching.

[Kit]

I call it stalking, um, researching too