• Sign yourself up for a Facebook account if you haven't done so already, and sign into your account.
• You will see a link for "Groups" on the left hand side of your page.
• Click "Groups". Then on the right hand side of the screen, click the button that says "Create a Group".
• This takes you to another page, "STEP ONE" with a series of boxes that you need to fill in.
• The first box is your Groups name.
• Call it Genealogy - <name of people researching>

• In the description field, type as much about your research interest as you can. Include full names, dates etc.
• I also include a disclaimer stating that the group is open only to descendants/relatives and that if they request an invitation to join the group, they should state where they think they may be connected. It is important that your family feel that you are keeping their privacy safe.
• I select "Common Interest" and "Families" in the group type scroll down menus.
• The box "recent news", I reserve for my most up-to-date research breakthroughs, and try to keep updated.
• I leave "office:" box blank, but I fill in my email address, so that I can be contacted.
• If you have a family history website, then put the website address in the website box. I leave street address blank, but I do put my city in the town/city box.
• Click "CREATE GROUP" at the bottom, which then takes you to "STEP TWO"
• A series of options have been pre-selected. Read them carefully, but I leave them all as they are, EXCEPT the bottom subheading which says "ACCESS". I choose "this group is closed" for this option.

• Click SAVE, and it will ask you if you want to post the new group profile to your Facebook profile wall. I would say "Yes".
• Lastly, you get the opportunity to invite people who are already your Facebook friends, and also to invite people via email, who aren't on Facebook list.
• Keep your Facebook group up to date, with news. Use "Wall posts" to communicate with your family. Encourage them to post family pictures and anecdotes.

It's my experience that family history brings families together. Not just with the ones that have passed away, but also with the ones still very much alive. Its also a great way of meeting new family members too! 

Years ago, when I first started my family history, I was introduced to new family members in person - who then gave me information about their branch or twig. 

A wee bit later, I progressed to posting queries on RootsWeb message boards, and was tickled pink to get email responses from other people who were also tracing their family tree, and had found we had relatives in common. 

Eventually, closer relatives that I had never met also got in touch. I have spread my net wide, and have posted my "interests" as we family historians call it, on various genealogy websites. I am always excited and amazed when I get a response from a posting that I made 10 years ago. 

I thank goodness that I chose and maintain a webmail address, so that I would always be found, no matter what country I live in, and no matter who my Internet Service Provider is. 

In more recent years, I have made great use of Facebook. I started genealogy interest group pages in the names of the four main branches of my father's family, and the four main branches of my mother's family. Just this year, so far, I have "met" six new family members, and in turn, been introduced to their immediate families. 

Like so many families today, our geographic spread is far and wide: UK (Scot-Eng-Ire-Wales), Spain, South Africa, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. 

But the internet brings closer together and makes us neighbours . . . 

NEWSFLASH 
Also, a heads up to let you all know that the 1901 Census for Ireland is due to be launched on 3 June 2010 (UK time) and will be free. The site is fully searchable www.census.nationalarchives.ie . 

Along with the 1911, this is the only fully surviving pre-independence census for Ireland so is quite important for those with family in Ireland at the time.

Happy hunting to you all . . .
Seonaid

Guest contributor: Marie Hickey

When looking at some documents among the Newgate Gate Gaol Delivery Books (1785-1834) on microfilm at the Auckland Research Centre recently we found some records relating to Boards of Guardians that we had not realised we had. This is particulalry exciting given the recent apology of former British prime minister Gordon Brown to children who were sent overseas under the child migration scheme.

The records are for the areas covered by the Boards of Guardians for Brentford, Hampstead and Lambeth as well as minutes of the Central Unemployed Body for London (1905-11), all relating to emigration of children and families.

Some of the records of the Boards of Guardians relate to children who had been placed in schools having come from the workhouse eg Chase Farm School (run by the Edmonton Board Guardians). There are lists of children proposed for emigration to Canada and New Zealand (1891-1926), emigration consents and refusals (1925), and contracts and agreements to send children or families to Australia (c.1852-c.1855). Most of the material is unindexed but is quite legible and apart from names can include information such as: address sent to in the new country, school sent from, cost of emigration, date of emigration, and port of arrival.

Amongst the records is a booklet relating to the settlement of boys to Australia and a Handbook on the Dominion of New Zealand: containing information regarding openings for settlers, wages and hours of labour, cost of living, assisted passages, fares, etc (1925).

On another note, those who enjoy reading the Ancestors magazinepublished by TNA (the National Archives, UK) will be disappointed to learn that this has now ceased publication. It is envisaged that a different magazine will be produced, possibly later in the year.

Who do you think we are?  series 2 (Australia) UKTV Mondays 7.30pm. 
UKTV on Sky is currently repeating this series, if you missed it the first time around you may want to catch it this time. Auckland City Libraries has series 1 & 2 for the Australian Who do you think you are? and series1-4 for the UK version.

The Australian series is similar to the UK one but includes much more social history and perhaps slightly more insight into different records available in Australia. I really enjoyed this series and found it interesting as well as informative as the format follows the lines of how a family historian would work. Nick Barratt makes an appearance towards the end of the Ben Mendolssohn episode explaining how the ancestor probably came to be in the workhouse.

Also, we are now subscribing to the Who do you think you are? magazine and currently have the March and April 2010 editions available in the Auckland Research Centre.