{"id":3522,"date":"2018-10-26T23:35:05","date_gmt":"2018-10-26T23:35:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefhguide.com\/blog\/?p=3522"},"modified":"2019-01-16T21:29:17","modified_gmt":"2019-01-16T21:29:17","slug":"using-pinterest-for-family-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thefhguide.com\/blog\/using-pinterest-for-family-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Using Pinterest for Family History"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pinterest is\u00a0<\/b>a social media network that allows you to share and discover new interests by posting or “pinning” images and videos to your own “board,” which is a collection of pins with a theme or subject. Think of it as \"\"a type of search engine like Google, Bing, or Yahoo but with its own twist. Pinterest has an estimated 200 million active monthly users (and those numbers will continue to grow). Learn more\u00a0in this article<\/a>\u00a0by Penney Fox. She states that Pinterest has now become “a combination of a search engine and an advertising tool — the place for people to plan and aspire about what they can do to enrich their lives.” What could be more enriching than discovering and learning about your family history?\u00a0Type in your selected search words and you will see images and pictures. This can be very helpful for those who do family history. You may be surprised to find out that many of your relatives are posting on Pinterest, and you may be delighted to discover photos and information that are new to you. Not only that, but you will see where these are stored which may lead to finding lost relatives!<\/p>\n

In a previous\u00a0blog post<\/a> I wrote about using social media for family history:<\/p>\n

Social media has been referred to as \u201cthe new language of family history,\u201d and The Family History Guide is here to help anyone learn to speak it! In addition to suggestions found in\u00a0Social Media Activities for Youth,<\/a>\u00a0Families,<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Individuals,<\/a>\u00a0more tools for learning and using social media for family history are listed in\u00a0Project 7, Goal 3<\/a>\u00a0(FamilySearch) or\u00a0Project 6 Goal 3<\/a>\u00a0for Ancestry, MyHeritage, or Findmypast. For many people in our modern world, social media is the preferred platform for sharing stories. In an article entitled,\u00a0\u00a0Social Media: Real-time Family History in the First Person<\/a>, Steven and Jill Decker explain that\u00a0\u201cNever has so much first-person family history been contributed by so many \u2013 and most do not even realize they are doing it. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media outlets such as Pinterest, are forces that can be utilized to document and share a family\u2019s history in the here and now. They are modern methods to journal our activities and, unlike handwritten diaries and journals, they are accessible to multiple \u201cfriends\u201d or \u201cfollowers\u201d at the same time. Often the history is accompanied by photographs.\u201d With social media available in so many forms, blogger Ellen Bahr asks the question, \u201cShouldn\u2019t we be taking advantage of it?\u201d She discusses the ways we can tap into social media resources in her article Hashtags, Tweets, and Blogs: The New Language of Family History.<\/a><\/p>\n

There is definitely a learning curve, but there are also many online tutorials and articles to help you learn how to use Pinterest for family history.\u00a0 For example, read these helpful tips by Ellen Bahr in her FamilySearch post,\u00a0Just Pin It! The Power of Pinterest For Family History:<\/a><\/p>\n

At the 2014 Conference on Family History & Genealogy at BYU, Valerie Elkins, a family history specialist, blogger, and avid pinner, shared how she collects and saves genealogy-related pins. She warned that to make the most of your time you must stay focused on the task at hand or you can easily get distracted (Oh look! A cute outfit!).<\/p>\n

Here are some of the most helpful tips for that she recommends for pinners:<\/p>\n

Create specific boards. If you file everything under the broad title \u2018Family History\u2019, it will be difficult to find exactly what you want later. Subcategories such as \u2018Archives\u2019, \u2018Reunions\u2019, or \u2018Photography\u2019 will help refine your searches.<\/p>\n

Check out to see what other people are pinning. Follow genealogy enthusiasts who have collected useful pins and \u2018raid\u2019 their boards, making your finding time shorter\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>more productive.<\/p>\n

Just pin it! You can always delete things later that don\u2019t fit the bill. Chances are if you go looking for that specific pin you passed by earlier, you won\u2019t find it.<\/p>\n

Just\u00a0do<\/em>\u00a0it! Don\u2019t pin things and then never follow up on those wonderful ideas. (There are people who actually do that. You know who you are.)<\/p>\n

Learn about how to combine FamilySearch and Pinterest for family history from Lisa Louise Cooke:<\/p>\n

The Secret to Pairing FamilySearch and Pinterest for Family History<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n