Attacks in Facebook Genealogy Groups

Facebook admin have noticed an influx of accounts with hacked Facebook profiles infiltrating genealogy groups on Facebook. If you are an admin or member of a Facebook genealogy group, how do you keep safe? The admin of the Irish Genealogy Page, Anne-Marie Healy, created a support group on Facebook called Scam & Spam Alerts! Where genealogy buffs can keep abreast of "of current email scams and phone scams and scammers and spammers on Facebook and other internet dangers."

Inactive accounts

A Facebook account brings added responsibilities to protect yourself and the people with which you are connected. The worst thing you can do is to allow your account to remain dormant for months without knowing what is happening with your account. Admins see several dormant accounts when they go through Facebook Group member request. They cannot let if you are just not active or if you were hacked previously and stopped using your account. A good admin will not accept membership requests to a group if the Facebook profile has no posts for six months to a year. You should deactivate you account for a few weeks at a time until you become active again:

To deactivate your account:

1. Click the account menu at the top right of any Facebook page
2. Select Settings
3. Click Security in the left column. Choose "Deactivate your account," then follow the steps to confirm.

"If you deactivate your account your profile won’t be visible to other people on Facebook and people won’t be able to search for you. Some information, such as messages you sent to friends, may still be visible to others. If you've deactivated your account, you can reactivate it at any time just by logging in. If you can't remember your password, you can request a new password" (Facebook Help).

If you have set you Facebook preferences so that your posts or profile photo does not show, a good admin may not accept you to a genealogy group. Consider allowing your posts and profile photo to be visible until you have been accepted to the group you requested to join.

Change your password often, and use passwords that are not words that can be found in the dictionary. Use a mixture of letters, numbers, and symbols, and test to see how strong your password is at Password Meter. See more advice on how to keep from getting hacked at How not to get Hacked According to Expert Hackers.

Safeguards

Help protect others connected to you or in genealogy groups with you on Facebook. Be sure to join the Facebook group, Scam & Spam Alerts! They have more specific suggestions and illustrations:

• Do not give third party apps access to your Facebook profile.
• Do not like or comment "Amen" on Facebook posts that reference articles a year old.
• Be careful sharing posts by people that you do not know.
• Make your friend's list private.

Do not click on links to websites that you do not recognize. Use Dr. Link Check. As a member of Facebook genealogy groups, help to keep your group safe by reporting spam, pornography, and other suspicious posts to the group admins. You should also report the profile to Facebook.

Recent attacks

Recently, there has been a rash of Facebook accounts being hacked. Another account is created using the person's current Facebook profile. Then all connected friends receive another friend request, and the madness continues. Let your Facebook friends know immediately if you are hacked. Report it to Facebook.

Change your profile photo. Change your Facebook password, and your e-mail password associated with Facebook. Set your preferences to send a notification when someone logs onto your account from a different place than you ordinarily access Facebook.

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Finding Family Using Facebook

Have you run out of ways to discover more extended family? With 800 million active Facebook users, you just might find a connection. The question is, however, how do you go about such a monumental task? It does take work, but it is easier than you think. Below you will find four ideas that have linked living cousins together.

Join Facebook genealogy pages and groups

Can you imagine that there might be a long distant cousin that is also researching your ancestors? Where are the places on Facebook that you may cross paths? Most people who are researching their ancestor on Facebook belong to a community page or group.

Different types of groups exist. Two ways to locate a page or group are:

1. Enter “the state where your ancestor lived” and “genealogy” in the Facebook search bar. At the bottom of the drop down that appears, click to see all the results. Select groups then pages on the menu on the left. Look for groups and pages to join where you will learn more about genealogical resources and perhaps find people researching the same surnames. Here is an example of results for Virginia Genealogy.

2. Search Google using the search terms: “(state) genealogy Facebook.” Here is the result for the search terms: “Virginia Genealogy Facebook”

For a short tutorial on searching for Facebook Pages and Groups, see the video on the left: How to Find Genealogy Pages and Groups on Facebook.

How to Find Genealogy Pages and Groups on Facebook

Create a photo album

Hopefully, as you browsed the results on Google above, you noticed Facebook posts appear there. Imagine for a moment that you have an extended family searching Google for information about an ancestor. You can help them find you by creating a photo album on Facebook.

Be sure to include details about your ancestor such as place of birth and death as well as the dates. You can tell a little more about your ancestor, or link the photo to a blog post where they can learn more. Make sure that your album is able to be viewed by the public. Put a watermark on photos that you share. Here is an example of an ancestors’ photo shared on Facebook: Daisy B Chick.

Create a personal Facebook page or group of your own

Facebook users are great fans of community pages and groups. You have much more control over a group or page of your own. It is not necessary to duplicate any of the communities already out there. If no group or page exists for a certain area or if you want to have a page dedicated to your own ancestors on Facebook, it may be helpful to create one.

This page was created for sharing resources with the hope that it would be easier for living family members to find: Richland County, South Carolina African American Genealogy. What started out in the beginning as an experiment has led to the reuniting of the descendants of two Vance brothers who were born in the early 1900’s. Just before Thanksgiving two of them spoke by phone. Every other way to locate their whereabouts had been exhausted before one of them found this page on Facebook.

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Has Your Paper Trail Run Out Online?

If you are a newcomer to genealogy research, your experience in finding records to document your ancestors may have occurred mostly online so far. Quite possibly, you have filled out the initial slots on your family tree going back a few generations. Have you noticed that records get a little more scarce the further back you go? When you begin to run into challenges in locating the information you are searching for in databases online, what do you do? Experienced researchers know the answer to that question, and below you will discover key resources too.

Resources for finding records offline

Some of the most useful genealogy resources are not online yet. Perhaps only the index to an original document is online, and you want to see what is on the original. Sometimes only part of a collection is available in a genealogy database, and you may have spent countless hours searching without even realizing it. One tool that will help you get your bearings when you do not know where to turn is the Research Wiki at FamilySearch.org. Search the Wiki by location or topic to discover articles that link you to records both online and offline.

If you were trying to find resources to document a marriage in Montgomery County, Ohio, you would enter that location into the search bar on the main page of the Research Wiki, and Montgomery County, Ohio Genealogy would be the first search result. Visit the article and see an example of how the Wiki can help you learn about marriage records in Montgomery County, Ohio.

Many Facebook genealogy groups exist which provide help with genealogy related queries. Recently, Facebook updated the search feature allowing you to search across all public Facebook posts (See Facebook puts its search tool on steroids). That means you can search for groups by topic (Native American Genealogy) or locality (New England Genealogy) and post a question. Seeking an answer to a research question on Facebook is not so far fetched given the scores of people on Facebook willing to share what they know.

Specific places to find records offline

If the record you find is a book search WorldCat.org to find the library closest to you that has the book. Some of these books circulate through inter-library loan. If the book that you need does not circulate, contact the library for help in determining whether or not your ancestor is mentioned. Some libraries have online chat rooms accessible through their websites, and they have been found to be very accommodating.

When the record that you need is not online, you will need to determine if it is accessible through the local courthouse, archive, or some other repository. It is beneficial to research the available record types in an area. Study the online catalogs of the local libraries and archives. Visit the courthouse website to see if they provide a description of record types and time periods those records cover. Go back to that Facebook genealogy group you joined and post a question to find out what they know about available records that they have found useful in the area you are researching. Remember that the moment that you undertook the study of your ancestor's life, you also unknowingly became a student of record types too.

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First social interactive storytelling with Facebook

Meograph PRESS RELEASE
FOR RELEASE ON August 28, 2013

CONTACT:
Misha Leybovich
misha.leybovich@meograph.com

First social interactive storytelling with Facebook-Meograph integration

SAN FRANCISCO - Meograph (www.meograph.com) today announces the release of the first
social interactive storytelling, bringing live Facebook profiles directly into multimedia
content. Now Facebook friend tagging is deeply integrated into Meograph’s creation and
playback experience. In addition to creating stories out of video, audio, photos, text, and
links, Meographers can add visual, clickable tags of Facebook friends. No other
multimedia creation platform offers this type of engaging, socially viral product.

Balaji Gopinath, Vice President of Emerging Technology at Turner Broadcasting System,
said, "Media companies are storytellers, and we are continually exploring new ways for consumers to engage with our content. Meograph’s platform allows viewers to express
themselves alongside TV programming, and its social integration provides a forum to share
their thoughts, experience and creativity with others. We’re exploring how we might utilize
Meograph to enhance personalized engagement with our storytelling."

With this capability, organizations and their storytellers are able to incorporate live visual
links to social profiles embedded right within their stories. The tagged friend is notified
and gets a Facebook wall post that links to the story, an image from the content, and a list
of the other people tagged. Letting people know they are part of a story being told
massively increases virality of the content. This is timely as the age-old art of true, lasting
storytelling adapts to the digital, social era.

Soon following this rollout will be the ability to tag Facebook Pages, giving brands and

celebrities a way to become part of the stories and driving traffic to their pages.

“Meograph was already somewhat interactive with clickable links to any URL embedded

into the content. Publishers really like the links: they drive traffic and allow audiences to

dive deeper into the stories. Facebook profile tagging is the next step,” said Meograph CEO

Misha Leybovich. “We’re currently building other interactive media features in as well -

pretty exciting to be developing this new interactive storytelling medium.”

ABOUT MEOGRAPH

Meograph is the easiest way to create interactive multimedia stories. Makes turning

moments into lasting stories both easy enough for anyone to use as well as compelling

output to watch. Since launch in late summer 2012, Meograph has been used by dozens of

major media organizations, hundreds of companies, and thousands of schools around the world. The company is currently participating in both Turner Media Camp and Plug and

Play Startup Camp.

Press release available at

www.meograph.com/files/press/releases/130828-First-social-interactive-storytelling-withFacebook-Meograph-integration.pdf

Images available at

www.meograph.com/files/press/images/130828-Meograph-Facebook-tagging-player.png

and www.meograph.com/files/press/images/130828-Meograph-Facebook-wall-post.png

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Family: The Magic of "Make Them Hear You"

Alex Boyé is "hands down" my favorite artist.  When I came across this performance in Jerusalem of  "Make Them Hear You,"  I became curious about the origins of the song.  I discovered it was included in Act II of "Ragtime."  It has historical significance to Eastern Europeans and African Americans, but I believe there is a message that can apply to the whole human family.

In the production, "Ragtime,"  Coalhouse seeks justice through violence and revenge.  Others join him and many who are innocent are killed.  Booker T. Washington is sent to reason with him, and he eventually surrenders after telling his men to continue to seek justice through peaceful means.

My intent here is not to debate the topics of violence or non-violence.  There is great magic in living above taking offense.  This does not rob justice.  When I think about all the things I have personally faced in my life and all the things African Americans have gone through, I can honestly say that my own wounds have not festered.  I know healing.

To me, "Make Them Hear You," means that you are not silent nor do you turn a blind eye to injustice. It means that you do what is in your power to bring change.  For me that equates to helping the whole human family to know who they are and where they come from through saving stories.

In 2011, I spent all my energies in this pursuit.  One of the things I did has put me in the midst of experiencing some huge magic right now.  I can hardly contain myself.  I built personal Facebook Fan Pages for counties in South Carolina in hopes that my family searching in other parts of the country would find me.

I allowed Bernice Bennett to advertise her great shows on these pages, and I linked them to Twitter:  Research at the National Archives & Beyond.  I invited everyone with ancestry from these areas to join.
Last night, I stopped to respond to a question from someone on the Abbeville, Edgefield, Greenwood, South Carolina African Americans page, and I discovered a whole branch of my extended family that I have longed to find.  I will now have access to more history and more photos and more pieces of the puzzle of the past.

See also:
Richland County, South Carolina African American Genealogy
Newberry and Union County, South Carolina African American Genealogy
Clarendon County, South Carolina African American Genealogy


We have so many ways to be heard now.  When "Make Them Hear You" was written, the pen was one of the main means to be heard.  I can imagine the day when I am able to identify every living extended family member and  capture the history, photos and stories they have to share.  This is what brings me healing and joy. This will be the closure that I seek.

In the wee hours after this discovery, I looked for the first time into the faces of people that I could tell were my family.  I discovered a photograph of my great uncle, Ernest Aaron Vance, and I remembered a conversation between Uncle Ernest and his brother, Grandfather Emory Wallace Vance long ago.

I was not even school age, but I remember they talked of gardening and family.  I realized where I found my love of family and writing and gardening.  While they used pens to communicate with each family member, I have added on a few different tools, and I am feeling the magic of making people hear me.  This stands supreme among the many rewards for giving back this year.

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Tech Tuesday: Twylah Brings Down the Barriers Between Us

Two of my favorite things to do are catching up with my friends on social media and finding new technology that helps me do what I do more efficiently.  Last night while on Twitter, I was able to do both, and it has been a while so I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I use Twitter, Facebook, and G+ but I have to admit that my preference is Twitter.  Twitter is the place to learn firsthand about everything that is important to me that is related to genealogy and technology.  It is the place where my most "rabid" genealogist friends and tech buddies congregate.  I am following 1,102 people on Twitter, and I know I would be hard pressed at this point in time to find that many like-minded people on other platforms.  Do not get me wrong; I like G+ and Facebook, but when I want a focused dialog, Twitter is the place for me.

We do not have trouble jumping into a discussion anytime of the day or night on Twitter.  Yes, there is a character limit, but we seem to be able to have conversations without restraint.  I was really excited when I heard the news about Twitter brand pages being released last week, and I literally scoured the internet to learn  more about them.

While I was searching, I came across Twylah which is currently in beta.  They professed to bring followers a more enriched experience in a less chaotic fashion than Twitter.  I have a bit of a sixth sense when it comes to this type of thing, and my instincts did not fail me this time either.

@SavingStories on Twylah

I requested an invite, and after a short time Kelly Kim, Co-founder of Twylah, followed me on Twitter.  After a couple of days I received an email notifying me that my Twylah page was ready.  After only one click, I instantly fell in love with it. I have not seen any product provide so much clarity around  who I am and what I find important.

My readers can engage the moment they land on the page, and I feel like my tweets will live on a little longer instead of falling into TweetDeck oblivion at the bottom of the screen. I am excited that I can share the page link across G+, and Facebook.  Yes, I said it!

Why would I only hang out on one platform and leave out my friends in other places?  That is akin to only visiting one set of relatives because I do not like the neighborhood where the others live.  It is the relationships that are most important to me, not the media.  Thank you, Twylah, for figuring out a way to climb the fences.  Submit your request today!

Here is a great overview of the features of Twylah and how it can extend the life of your tweets and your reach:

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