Thrifty Thursday: Using Twitter as a Genealogy Resource

Cover photo I use on my Twitter acount

I’ll have to admit that I was drug kicking and screaming (well, not literally, but certainly in my head) onto Twitter a couple of years ago by a tech-savvy friend of mine. She convinced me that I should have a presence there to promote my new genealogy blog.

I certainly felt like a duck out of water because I’m truly not as knowledgeable as I should be about technologically-related venues. I will admit to being intimidated by new things, but I will also admit that once I get the understanding of something new under my belt, I’m fairly good with it.

Thus, I started my adventure on Twitter. At first I would post my own blog, and then re-tweet other posts, until I eventually built up a small following of fellow genea-friends, as well as a few others, too. I had wandered into other areas of personal interest that include history, archaeology, antiques and collectibles (shabby chic and vintage styles in particular), as well as books, libraries, museums, news, politics, and well – you name it! I’m one of those people who are interested in way too many things…a true Gemini, for sure.

In the beginning, I would only check Twitter every few days or so. Of course, that always left me behind on things, so I began to check it more often. In fact, today I can say without doubt that I’m a true twitter-holic; maybe a twit-holic? Perhaps twit might be a better description!

At first I found myself following everybody under the sun that I admired or in whom I had ever had any interest; you know, Patrick Stewart, William Shatner, and well, the entire cast of every Star Trek ever made. Important stuff. Seriously.

Before I personally had even 800 followers, I evidently exceeded the 2,000 number limit and was told one day that I could not follow anybody else until I got a particular number of followers myself. What? Well, of all things!

Needless to say, I began to pare down the list of people whom I follow. I had to make some tough decisions, but I will say that Patrick and William still remain on the list…naturally!

Through it all, I began to realize one major thing: I was truly learning more about the genealogy world, and I was being steered towards some wonderful research sites and opportunities that I would not have known about had I not been on Twitter. Twitter not only gave me the chance to learn new things, but it also allowed me to keep up with what was going on in the genea-world. I also ‘found’ some wonderful genea-bloggers.

So, I’m a firm believer that Twitter is indeed a thrifty approach to learning more about genealogy. I especially love the news ‘dailies,’ those online newspapers that some people put out each day that highlight what others have posted, whether it’s someone’s blog post, or some other news about genealogy, history, archaeology, and so many other subjects.

I generally take a few minutes every day to look at a few sites that post history, archaeology, or genealogy related articles. When I find something interesting, I’ll share it on Twitter. I’ve found that some of the articles I’ve found about archaeology have even made it into the genealogy news dailies. Of course, all three of those subjects are so irrevocably intertwined, I really should not be surprised.

Do I know what I’m actually doing on Twitter? Not really. But two years on, I do feel more comfortable about it, and I know I’m learning new things every day in all of my areas of interest. Somehow I’ve managed to accumulate over 1400 followers on Twitter, and I’m not even sure how that happened, especially since I’m not exactly sure what I’m doing myself.

Perhaps twit was the best description for me personally after all. But thrifty resource is the best description for Twitter by far.

Try it. You just might like it!

@2014 Copyright by Carla Love Maitland