Social Networks for Family Tree Researchers

A few years back I decided to research my family history. The biggest reward for me was connecting with family members I never knew existed. A few months ago I was very excited to be invited to join a social network for family tree researchers. My excitement quickly turned into disappointment when I realized the membership wasn't free and I would be required to pay a fee to access and use the site. Bummer! The good news is, I love social networking and spend a lot of time surfing and exploring social networks. I am excited again because I recently discovered some pretty awesome social networking sites for family researchers just like me! Even better, membership is free. Absolutely perfect!

Originally, my plan was to list a few of the social networks and give an in depth view of each one but I decided to just provide a list and a quick overview instead. Since, I will be joining and using the majority of the sites I have listed I do plan on creating a hub for each one and my experience.

Amiglia is free for the first 365 days but , you would have to pay a yearly membership of $49.95. Just browsing the site and the features, it looks like it may be well worth the investment.

Famiva consists of a couple of different areas to make your family research easy and enjoyable. Family members can collaborate on the family tree, use interactive maps, share stories, photos, videos and so much more.

KinCafe is social network for families to connect, stay in touch with family members around the world, share photos, memories, stories and build a family tree.

Family Link is a free social network for family history researchers. Members can create their family tree and connect with other genealogists around the world. Currently in Beta and members can expect to see new features added in the future.

Geni.com is another great place to build a family tree online and then invite family members to join and add other relatives. Family members can share photos and work together to create profiles for common ancestors. Free and password protected.

At myfamily.com, family members can keep in touch and share memories. Myfamily.com sites are available for FREE, no matter how many you create. In addition to your family site, you can create sites to stay connected to your friends, co-workers, teammates, classmates, alumni - you name it! You can also upgrade to another plan to have access to more features.

MyHeritage community is another great social network where members can explore other members, photos, sites and family trees.Plus you can explore other MyHertiage sites like the genealogy center, media center and the site center. Although some of the features are available for free, other do require a fee.

People blog to share their their stories online but there's other options available. I found a few sites that looked interesting. The whole concept behind these sites is to create an online timeline of your life and share it with the rest of the world if you want too. People are creating timelines about their families, college years, pregnancies, trips and a ton of other events to remember.

The Story of My Life website looks quite interesting social network. You can write your story, upload photos, videos and audios, make friends, create groups, write journals and so much more.

Our Story allows you to create timelines for free. You can create a timeline about anything and invite your friends and family to collaborate. You can share your time line with anyone, add it your your Myspace, blog, website or other social network. A premium service is available.

Dandelife is a social network for sharing your life's stories. You can use Dandelife to create your own personal biography and then share that with the rest of the world. If you currently have photos on Flickr or on Youtube, you can easily add them here.

The whole wiki thing has always been confusing to me until I watched a really interesting and amusing video on Youtube entitled Wikis in Plain English. It's interesting to see how the wiki is demonstrated because not only does it apply to the how the wiki works, it's also a pretty great description of how the collaborative family tree works on the social networks and time-lines I have listed on this hub.

WeRelate is a genealogy wiki and it works just like any other wiki would. You would create a wiki for your family and invite other family members to join and add their family information to the wiki. There's a ton of coll features to make building your wiki a breeze. There's a helicopter to give you and overview of the site and there are tutorial videos to explain how each feature on the site works.