Hello Family Historian,
Publishing your family history, in any form, matters. Whether it is a book, eBook, a website, or a blog/newsletter post it is important that the information you have spent hours researching and writing about be preserved. Once you have accomplished that, how can you make sure it can be found online? The internet can be a place where posted information becomes obscured by trends, algorithms, and well, a lot of weeds. Is social media the solution? That seems to be the go-to spot for promoting just about everything. Could there be another way?
In this post, I am focusing on how to promote your family history so that it can be found by future generations. This is not about marketing to sell the publication. There is absolutely everything right about a writer earning a living writing about what they love, but that kind of promotion is something I know little about. I steer clear of attempting to write about things outside my knowledge base.
How then can we promote our website, book, eBook, Substack Newsletter in a way that it can be found in the future? I’ve thought a lot about this and researched the basic concepts behind promoting your published family history.
The element that kept coming up in the research was “Know your audience.” Where would my audience be online? Social media? That seems like such an unpredictable place to leave a legacy. Creating a promotional path to a specific surname or ancestor on social media is also difficult.
How then, can we possibly promote published family histories in a way that they will be found in the future? If only we could leave a genealogical treasure map behind for our specific audience.
Thinking and then overthinking about who my audience might be, I happened to catch a glimpse of myself as I walked by a mirror. I stopped, then backed up.
“Oh. It’s you. You’re my typical audience.” I explained to myself.
I am a great example of who my audience might be, someone researching my specific ancestors. Where would I be looking online if I was the one doing the searching? Where would I look for a specific ancestor or surname?
That’s when it hit me. Where I spend my time researching is not on social media. It’s on genealogy websites like Ancestry, WeAre.xyz, My Heritage, Family Search and Find a Grave, just to name a few.
Of course! That is where my descendants will be looking. That is where I need to leave my genealogical treasure map! Such a simple idea, yet it has eluded me until now.
If you can create a link to your published work on genealogy research websites, you can create a path to anything you have preserved about that specific ancestor. There are many genealogy research websites where people from all over the world post sources for others to find. Why not include a link to your book, eBook, website, or post? How happy would you be to find something like this on the genealogy research website you use?
How to make the Link
The list is of course not exhaustive. I found a way to link to my published site on all the platforms included in this section. I have no opinion about whether one platform is better than any of the others. Whichever platform you use should be where you make your links.
Ancestry
On Ancestry.com, you can add a web link. If you have a membership on Ancestry, you can add the link to your published item to the profile page of the ancestor.
WeAre.xyz
On WeAre.xyz, on your ancestor’s profile, you can use the Add Content button at the top of the page.
Then choose “Add Article.”
Next, choose “add content block.” From there add some text about what you are linking to and click on the link button. Add the link to your book, eBook, website, or post, then publish.
My Heritage
On My Heritage, on the family tree page, click on the specific person in the tree you want to attach the link to. A box will pop up on the left side of the screen. In the Biography section, click on the + Add button. This will give you a place to add text, with the option to link a URL. I haven’t developed much on My Heritage, so I added the link to my grandmother’s biography. You can see how it displays when you have entered it below.
Workarounds
I found that two platforms I looked at did not have the option for adding a URL link, however, there is a workaround.
Family Search
Family Search did not have a place to add a link to a URL (as far as I could find). The workaround is to just add the URL address in the text you add. The user will have to copy and paste it, but at least it is there. You can add it to the “Brief Life History” section found on the right side when you click on the person in your family tree.
Find a Grave
In Find a Grave, it is a bit more complicated. You have to be the person maintaining the memorial to be able to add information. If the person managing the memorial is not directly related to your ancestor, and you are close enough in generations to the ancestor, you can request that they turn over the management of the memorial to you (if you are interested in managing it). If you manage the memorial, you can add the URL, but there isn’t an option for adding it as a link. Like Family Search, the workaround would be to just provide the URL in the text.
X Marks the Spot - for the Win!
No Not that X.
These platforms are just a small sampling of what is out there for family historians to connect their preserved and published family histories. My thought is that any area that allows you to add notes or a biography will also provide the option of adding a link. If there is no option for a link, the workaround with URL as text works too.
The link you provide may just be of great importance to a future researcher. I can assure you that any link I might find for a book about a specific ancestor of mine is like finding the location of the X on the treasure map. The book will go straight into my shopping cart. That would be an arms-in-the-air, fist-pumping, wahoo-hollering win for me!
Grateful
I would like to acknowledge and express my gratitude to Zelda York, my editor. I couldn’t do this without her! Thank you!
I just love the community of family historians on Substack! You are the best! Thank you.
Thank you for investing your time in reading this newsletter. My goal is to be able to:
Research and provide information about organizing and preserving your family history.
Focus on what matters to you as a family historian.
Provide worthwhile resources that are accessible to all family historians who subscribe to Genealogy Matters.
If you feel inclined, I’d love it if you shared the Genealogy Matters Newsletter with others who might find value in it.
What a great idea!
I'm amazed that I have never noticed the 'add link' on Ancestry. Thanks for this great post.