Today I had an interesting conversation with DearMYRTLE (see links bar to left) about social networking online as a genealogy tool.

She described how on [1] Second Life, genealogists have created spaces for many different genealogy areas: searching geographically, for surnames, and more. Now they have joined together in a Genealogy Union, to reduce duplication of effort and help users of that online social network find what they need more easily.

We also discussed how to use [2] FamilyTree on Facebook and MySpace to have not only a backup of your genealogy, but another way to communicate with family and other genealogists. You can save stories, recipes, gift suggestions, and more with your genealogy with this application.

From the beginning, online genealogy has been about connecting with people who share your passion for family history, who might be searching the same lines, and who might benefit from what you have learned. The social networks are an extension of this, which started with FidoNet and will continue to the next generation of web applications!