Use a Genealogy Forum to Get Your Questions Answered!
By it’s very nature, the Internet allows people from all over the world to connect with each other. For genealogists, this opens up a wide variety of possibilities. Genealogists love to talk with each other about research and exchange stories about their ancestors. One of the places you can REALLY get down to specifics and find people to help with your research or just exchange ideas or chitchat, is a genealogy forum, also known as a genealogy message board. Basically, this is a website where people can post topics or questions and other people can answer or have a conversation. You can find so many clues or other tidbits that will lead you down the right path in your genealogy research. There are a few large genealogy forums and many, many more smaller ones where you just might find that missing link.
Before I list links to genealogy forums, I just wanted to share a quick story. I found myself looking for my great-great grandfather on one of the USGenWeb county sites. They had a small genealogy forum on this site. I posted a query and a couple days later, I got an email from a nice lady who said she would photocopy pages from the local history book that mentioned my ancestor’s name! What great luck! Well, it gets better. She also happened to have the email address for the author of the book, whom she had corresponded with previously for her own research. Very quickly, I shot off an email and got a reply! As it turns out, while the author was doing research for his book, he acquired some documents regarding my ancestor. These documents included a copy of the original marriage certificate, army discharge papers and passport from Czechoslovakia! These documents gave me enough information to hire a genealogist in what is now the Czech Republic. All because I decided to post a query on a genealogy forum. You NEVER know who might read your message so take advantage of a genealogy forum!
Below are some of the more well-known genealogy forum websites:
GenForums - The largest and most well-known genealogy forum, you can browse by topic or surname or location.
Ancestry Message Boards – These boards are set up in a similar way in that you can browse or search by surname, location or topic
MyHeritage - The brand-new smash website also has a genealogy forum
About.com genealogy - They have a genealogy forum as well
photo credit: lizzelizzel
