52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2023 - Week #6 - Social Media

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far far away (well... 24 years ago) before Facebook or Instagram, there was a site called MyFamily dot com. It was somehow a step child of Ancestry dot com. There were private group sites with a small annual fee. Members could be invited, similar to the private groups on Facebook. In August of 2000, a few 2nd cousins (descending from a common Great Grandmother, Lizzie Terry Griffin) got together on the above site to reminisce about our childhoods and find out more about our family. We nicknamed the group "The Lizzie Site" or just "The Liz". Soon we found more about Lizzie and her life, her Terry parents, and her husband's Griffin family. Each one of us contributed photos, letters, and memories. We contacted more relatives and picked their brains. A few of us did a lot of genealogical searching and built out our family tree to share. We got acquainted across the miles, and planned a couple of reunions in Oklahoma, where Lizzie had homesteaded. I'm not sure how we were able to "branch out", but we quickly added Terry and Griffin descendants.... 3rd, 4th cousins and maybe further. We found friendships and even traveled to visit one another. This group lasted from 2002 until 2014 when it was closed down by its parent company. During that last few months, a couple of us salvaged all the photos and many historical finds, gathering them according to the appropriate family lines. It was a sad time when the site closed. We had added over 150 relatives from all different branches. Many didn't want to go over to Facebook and we lost track unless we were in email conversations. Today the many posts from MyFamily dot com groups have been saved by a group called Spokt. One can access with his or her old email and password, and search for photos or articles. I often go to the Spokt site to find posts that were memorable. Many of us have also joined private Facebook group, still finding new relatives and sharing photos and stories. If you were part of a MyFamily group who didn't know about Spokt, you should do a search and try to access using your email which you used “in those days”.