Did I Mention Social Networking? Again?

It is amazing how fast the face of genealogy is changing. Remember when the above was your best friend. You would write a heartfelt letter to a relative asking for information, enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) as a courtesy and wait and pray for a reply! I think that I personally drove the mailman nuts with my waiting! That's a post office drop box for those of you who haven't had experience with the U.S. Postal Service. How about this?

Kind of hard to stuff in your pocket! Remember the days when you waited until after 5 or 9 p.m (that's when the rates went down!) to make a long distance phone call to a distant relative for genealogical information? If that was the case and I knew that the phone call would be long, I would wait until Saturday when you got the cheap rates all day. When I mention this to my kids, they just laugh and talk about mom and her "dinosaur" days! My point is that ways of communicating have changed and we can (and should) be taking advantage of every resource out there to further our genealogy along. So, this brings us to the very popular social media of the day. Now, you may not be interested in Facebook, Twitter, Google + and other social media, but the next generation lives on it. And if you think outside the box (but not too far!) you can see a genealogical application here! I have been able to connect to cousins that I barely know. We grew up across the country from each other and lead very different lives. However, they are still family and I am very interested in their lives. For a great article on social networking, click here and read James Tanner's latest on social networking. Yes, there are pros and cons to social networking, but I believe that the pros (humble opinion, of course!) outweigh the cons. See for yourself!