52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 1 "Unusual Source"

I've joined a genealogy prompt challenge called 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.  Each week, I'm shooting for Fridays, I will be posting for the next 52 weeks!  I will continue to write about other topics in between the weeks.  For more info check out  AmyJohnsonCrow.com/52ancestors2018/.  While this is week 1 for me this is actually week 39 for the 2018 challenge. 

So this week's challenge topic is "Unusual source".  

Thinking about this topic I was reflecting on what is an unusual source for finding genealogical information.  It came to me.  A source that we probably don't even consider a source...yet.  It's probably something that many of us use every day, or even multiple times a day!  It's something that has changed the way the world communicates. 

Of course, I'm talking about social media!  This is not something I think any of us would think about using as a source, but think about it!  We post about marriages, births and even deaths on our Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat...(the list goes on!) This is a great way to find details on the current generation of the family, sometimes much more quickly and easily that it is writing or emailing family members to get the information.  Additionally, many families have created pages for their family.  I'm in several of these groups!  I love that my family shares stories of my great-grandparents.  Plus I've saved a lot of photos to my files.  For me, these photos and stories are what makes those people that I've been researching about into real people. 

This is a great way for me to update my database with my current generation of my family.  I'm terrible about keeping the current generation updated!  I spend so much more time researching historical generations.  Am I alone in this?

So, that being said.  Get out there and get all those vital statistics on your family!  Update those databases!!!!  Share those stories about how you plan to use social media to update your family files.

Happy Hunting!