Are you using Facebook? There are many reasons to use Facebook for genealogy. First of all it’s a great place to get your Legacy Family Tree questions answered. But you probably knew that.
We all have our own reasons for using Facebook but one of mine is to keep up on genealogy resources. I also love to find recipes, history, and even interesting books to read when I scroll through my Facebook News Feed. I like that Facebook provides me a place to read more about topics that are of interest to me. But let’s face it, we don’t always have time to read an entire article. In some cases I catch a glance at Facebook while I’m waiting at an appointment or when I’m inbetween other tasks. So how can we "bookmark" those Facebook posts that we want to refer to at a later time?
You can Save them.
Facebook has a feature called Saved that allows you to save posts. This feature works slightly different depending on whether you are using it via the website (as you might if you're at your computer) or on the Facebook mobile app. So let’s first take a look at how it works via the website.
Saving Posts via a Computer
To save a Facebook post, click on the three horizontal dots at the top right of the post. This will reveal a drop-down menu and one of the choices in that menu is to "Save post" (or "Save link"). Click on "Save post." Please note that you can save more than posts. You can also save events, links, and videos.
Now, to see where that post went, go to your Facebook News Feed page, and on the left side under the Explore header, click on Saved (it has a purple bookmark icon next to it).
Your Saved Page on Facebook will show your "Collections" and all of the posts you have saved.
“Collections” are just that. They are a collection of saved posts that you curate around a topic. They are a way for you to save items that are alike in one group. So you might have a Legacy collection or a Recipes collection or a Social Media Tips collection. You can also add your Saved items to more than one collection if you'd like. You can also delete items once you are done with them.
Saving Posts via a Mobile Device
If you are using the Facebook mobile app and want to save a post, link, video, or an event, save the items just as you would using Facebook on your computer by clicking the three dots.
When you save, a menu will appear prompting you to add your newly saved item to an existing collection or create a new collection.
Once you save it to the collection of your choice, click Done.
I love this Facebook feature and most admit I use it frequently. Even if it’s something I want to save temporarily, it’s so much easier to save it to a collection and then later delete it then to try to find where I originally saw it. Consider making a few collections right now for your genealogy interests and see how saving on Facebook can help you make the most of your social media time.
Gena Philibert-Ortega is an author, instructor, and researcher. She blogs at Gena's Genealogy and Food.Family.Ephemera. You can find her presentations on the Legacy Family Tree Webinars website.
Thank you for this. I knew about saving but didn’t realise I could make up a collection. 🙂