I have been quiet on here for the last few weeks because I have been putting my energy into goal number 4: “Look into making a Family History Facebook Group with my Aunts and Cousins.”
Over the years I have shared bits of research on my Facebook page but it did not make it easy for family to review the information after the post date. I felt that a Facebook Group would be a great way to connect regarding family history and a place to share images.
I started with sending out a feeler to those family members on Facebook to even see if this was something that they even would be interested in. While They were interested I think I will be the only admin as least for a while. No one was ready to take on the extra commitment which is understandable.
Once I got their responses I got to work.
In planning a name of a Facebook group you need to think about your target audience. Even though they are family I still had some concerns about coming up with a name that would include everyone. We are the decedents of a blended family and I do not what to exclude or offend anyone. I asked for ideas but did not receive any feed back so I went with…
K L R Family Connect Project
The KLR stands for Keele Lewis and Reynolds. Keele was our grandmothers maiden name, Lewis was her first husband and Reynolds was her second husband.
Next I went over to Canva and created a Facebook header. I spent a couple hours on this making it just right. Here is what I came up with.
“Welcome to the K L R Family Connect Project. As we raise up future generations, we do not want to forget those who have gone before. Our goal is to provide a place to share and collect family data and stories on the Keele, Lewis, and Reynolds ancestors.”
My goal is to post two times a week. One post will be a picture or document with a story and the second post will include some kind of tool or resource for researching. I hope that others will share but I think it may take a while for others to be comfortable to post.
I am excited for the opportunity to connect with family. I have years worth of information swirling around in my head and this gives me an outlet and an audience that I hope will appreciate what I share.
If you are looking to set up a Facebook group there are a lot of helpful tutorials out there but here is a run down of things to consider.
Your purpose: this can be included in your description of your page.
Group name: Be creative and specific. This will likely be your first impression of your group.
Privacy Settings: Public (everyone can see all), Closed (people can find the group but must have Permission to see post and to post), Secret (Will not show up in searches)
Post plan: What and when are you going to post. There is a feature that allows you to schedule post
Advertisement: I did not go into this much because we are a family group but think about how you will get your group’s image out there.
Branding: There are a lot of tools out their for creating a logo and developing and image. As I stated above I used Canva.
What are some ways that you share your research with your family?