"At the end of February, FriendsReunited sadly closed down."

[John915]

Good evening,

I have never used social media but i'm beginning to think I will have to. More and more groups, some of whom I belong to, now have FB or similar to pass notices etc around members rather than e-mail.

Here's a list of most of them; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites

The 15 most popular are; http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/social-networking-websites

John915

[Rosinish]

If Facebook is the future, I'll stay in the past, thank you.

Guyana,

I have had more genuine "hits/hints" on FB than I ever had with any other site regarding Genealogy!!!

I have found many descendants of my Ancestors by sending a message if I think there is a strong likelihood of a connection & I can send a Gedcom or Report for them to peruse & get back to me which is actually more personal than going through A/cestry etc.

It's FREE & great for connections!!!

I have found people who were not really "into" Genealogy, taking an interest for the simple reason it is FREE & on a 1-to-1 too 

You don't need to reveal anything by PM which is a function on FB too & I am not "Friends" with most of my contacts.......it is purely PM for Genealogical purposes 

Annie

[3sillydogs]

I use FB to keep in touch with relatives and I belong to a few genealogy groups and they have been useful in finding information.   A cousin that I didn't know I had found me that way....

As has been mentioned, it's up to you how much information you want to reveal. 

[starcat]

I joined Friends Reunited many years ago, it was free, it worked realy well, I found some old school friends &  old school photos, but at some stage they totally changed the format of the entire site & it just was not the same & didnt work very well & I stopped visiting, I didnt even know they had started charging for membership, im not surprised it didnt last.

[jaybelnz]

I use Facebook with privacy settings for friends and family only.  It's great to connect with overseas families and friends.  I don't have zillions of "friends" like the young ones, and those that I do have are all personally known to me.  It's great to keep up with each other's news, and certainly saves a lot of emails as well.

I also belong to the Quebec Family History closed group on Facebook. A volunteer on there took photos of several of my family graves in the Mount Royal Cemetery for a small donation.   I had originally had a Findagrave request in for about 3 years, had given them the detailed grave plot locations, but never had a result from there.  Not only did this kind volunteer take photos of the graves, headstones etc, she also took extra photos of the surrounding areas, and also provided me with a transcription from a couple of the graves that were quite badly eroded. 

It's a closed group, and one has to apply to join, but that wasn't an issue.  But it's been very helpful to me.  I believe there are more groups like that in different places in the World, but that's the only one I'm in.

I used to belong to one here in NZ called Old Friends, I think maybe it was an offshoot of Friends Reunited, with schools, works places, areas etc.  That was free too, and contact was made with quite a good number of old friends and workmates. We had some great meet-ups too.

 I think a lot of people were disappointed when that closed down, but Facebook has more appeal I think, especially for the youngsters, with being able to connect with more people around the world.  But I do think they need to be a little more careful with some of the content they post!

[rosie17]

I also use face book with private settings for family & friends don't give out much information where I live or date of birth ...I find it good for keeping in touch with family in N Z and Aust;.saves talking on the phone 
Rosie

[jaybelnz]

My real name isn't on there either, a user name (as on here) but a different made up one!

So many use their real names so they can be found I suppose, but I prefer not to! I don't mind if some certain people don't find me 

[Rena]

I joined Friends Reunited many years ago, it was free, it worked realy well, I found some old school friends &  old school photos, but at some stage they totally changed the format of the entire site & it just was not the same & didnt work very well & I stopped visiting, I didnt even know they had started charging for membership, im not surprised it didnt last.

Ditto.

[lydiaann]

I joined Friends Reunited many years ago, it was free, it worked realy well, I found some old school friends &  old school photos, but at some stage they totally changed the format of the entire site & it just was not the same & didnt work very well & I stopped visiting, I didnt even know they had started charging for membership, im not surprised it didnt last.

Ditto.

Ditto again.  When I first joined, I found all sorts of old friends and reconnected on a visit to the UK from Canada (where we were living at the time) with several of them.  One was my "bestest  friend" from childhood; I had lost touch as I had lost my address book on one move between postings (Himself was in the RAF).  On return from our foreign posting, I tried finding the place where they had lived but couldn't.  Forty years on, because of FR, we met up again - twice in fact.  I am so thankful that we did, as she died suddenly 10 years ago.  I also 'belonged' to the book lovers group when strangers from all over the world discussed books; we occasionally agreed to read a specific book and then comment on it at a preset date 4 weeks from choice of book...what fun!  As far as I am concerned, FR rebuilt a memory of happy times as a child.  Now we have returned to the UK permanently, I have met up with some of these people a couple of times - and I'll always be grateful to the people who set it up.