I search Facebook for people with the surname I am researching, then I confirm what they send me on OneGreatFamily.
Joan
How to use Facebook and OneGreatFamily.com together
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Facebook.com has quickly become a favorite among Genealogists because they can now easily find living people anywhere in the world with the same last name as a surname they are researching and those people actually respond! Additionally, there are many groups on Facebook working on specific surnames whose members are eager and willing to help.

Use Facebook to find people with the surname you're researching:

  1. Open a web browser and go to www.facebook.com.
  2. If you already have a facebook account login to your account. If not, sign up for an account, it's free.
  3. Once you are logged into your facebook account notice the search box up in the top right of the facebook website.
  4. Type a surname you are researching into the facebook search box and click the small search button to the right of the search box.
  5. Facebook will then return a list of all the facebook people, pages, groups, events and applications that have your search term in them.
  6. We only want to look at the People so click the People tab at the top of the facebook search results.
  7. Now if you want to narrow down the results of people, simply type in a city and state into the "Show results from" box. For example type in "Atlanta, GA" to only see the facebook people with your search term from Atlanta Georgia.
  8. When you find a person you are curious about click the "Send a Message" link to the right of that person's name.
  9. This will open the Facebook Send Message window. Type in your subject and message. Typically genealogists will tell the person who they are and who they are researching. Then they will ask the person if they have any additional information about the line or individual they're researching.
  10. If you hear back from the person they may have photos, gedcoms, dates or stories.
  11. Once you receive the information open a second web browser window and go to www.onegreatfamily.com and log in to your account.
  12. Go to the Family Tree tab and click on the blue "Genealogy Browser" button to install or launch our full-featured family tree software.
  13. If you need to install Genealogy Browser, please follow the installation prompts. (What is the Genealogy Browser? Tutorial: Genealogy Browser installation instructions).
Genealogy Browser installation instructions
Internet Explorer 7
FireFox 3
Windows Vista
  1. Click the "Genealogy Browser" button.
  2. A small "Launching Application" window will open.
  3. When the "Launching Application" window finishes, it will automatically go away and next you will see a "Downloading Genealogy Browser" window.
  4. Once the Downloading Genealogy Browser progress bar finishes Vista will show you a "User Account Control" window.
  5. In the "User Account Control" click Allow.
  6. The Genealogy Browser will then open. The Genealogy Browser is now successfully installed on your computer.
Internet Explorer 7
Windows XP
  1. Click the "Genealogy Browser" button.
  2. The grey "Launching Genealogy Browser" bar will appear.
  3. Inside the white box on the right of the grey launching bar will be the message "Click here to install the following ActiveX control: 'Genealogy Browser' from 'Onegreatfamily.com'..."
  4. Click the "Click here to install" message.
  5. A small menu will appear with two choices "Install ActiveX Control..." and "What's the Risk?"
  6. Click "Install ActiveX Control..."
  7. An Internet Explorer - Security Warning will now appear.
  8. Click the "Install" button.
  9. The Genealogy Browser will then automatically install and open. The Genealogy Browser is now successfully installed on your computer.
FireFox 3
Windows XP
  1. Click the "Genealogy Browser" button.
  2. You'll be taken to the Important Installation for Netscape and Firefox Users page.
  3. Listed on this page are a series of steps we are going to repeat here.
  4. First click the "HERE" link in step 1.
  5. Firefox will popup an "Opening npgb13.exe" window. Click the Save File button.
  6. Firefox will next show npgb13.exe in the Firefox Downloads window.
  7. Once dpgb13.exe is completely downloaded double-click it in the Downloads window.
  8. Firefox will then popup a window asking you if you want to "Open Executable File?". Click the OK button.
  9. Windows will then open a "Open File - Security Warning" window. Click the "Run" button.
  10. Next Firefox will popup a "Genealogy Browser Plug-in" window, click the "Yes" button.
  11. Firefox will then display a "Genealogy Browser Plug-in installation successful for Fire Fox 3.0.8 (en-US)!" message. Click the OK button.
  12. The Genealogy Browser will then open. The Genealogy Browser is now successfully installed on your computer.
  1. After you have the Genealogy Browser open find the individual in your family tree that you have new information about from your facebook friend.
  2. Click the person in the tree so that they become the selected individual on the left side of the Genealogy Browser.
  3. Now click the selected individual so that the individual details window will open.
  4. From the individual details window you can change facts, add stories, add notes, add images and anything else you might have collected from your facebook friend.
  5. OneGreatFamily is a great place to centralize and collect all the data and evidences you find about your family history.
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