Social Networking with Your Ancestors
When most people hear the term "social networking," they think of apps and hashtags, not old wills or land transfers. But in genealogy, I've come to see that social networking isn’t just a modern phenomenon — our ancestors had networks, too. And understanding those networks can be the key to unlocking some of their best-kept secrets.
Over the years, I’ve learned that tracing the lives of my ancestors often means going beyond their names and dates. It involves looking at the people around them — their neighbors, in-laws, church members, and business associates. These connections can reveal crucial context, and sometimes even help resolve puzzling identity questions.
One of the most surprisingly rich sources of information? In-laws. Because they're family, they tend to show up in all the right places — wills, land transactions, marriage records. And when you're working with common names (like John Smiths in the same county), those relationships can help confirm whether you're following the right person or just a red herring.
I've found myself diving deep into entire communities just to better understand one ancestor. At one point, I was documenting nearly every household in a small village — just to figure out how my earliest known relatives fit into the social web there. It felt a bit like solving a mystery novel: who knew whom, who saw what, who married into which family.
Church records have also been goldmines. Ministers often traveled or served multiple communities, and their records sometimes hold surprising details. I once stumbled across an old church log that listed not only marriage officiants, but also bridesmaids and best men — giving me a whole new angle on who my ancestors' closest friends and relatives were.
Genealogy isn't just about building a family tree; it’s about understanding the world your ancestors lived in. And just like today, relationships mattered. People didn’t live in isolation — they lived in networks. So, the next time you're stuck on a family line, consider this: maybe the answer doesn’t lie with your ancestor directly, but with the people they knew, trusted, and shared their lives with.
After all, social networking isn’t new — it’s just that our ancestors did it without smartphones.
Yes. It's always good to check out the FANs - Friends, Associates and Neighbours - to guide a broader understanding of the people we are researching ... Loved this line at the end of this post: "After all, social networking isn’t new — it’s just that our ancestors did it without smartphones"
Yes = this is particularly the case in rural areas , though of course towns and cities where people were crammed together can also provide stories. I've learned a lot from reading through some of the Kirk Session records (a Scottish thing - images of the pages are now online - I am always hoping for indexing but it would be a monumental task). You can get a good idea of where people fitted into the community from those, and often how people were related to each other, as in some parishes most of them were!