According to an entry I saw in the Urban Dictionary, the word 'Ancestorian' is a portmanteau of ‘Ancestry’’ and ‘Historian’ and synonymous with ‘Family Historian’ and ‘Genealogist’[1]; a very apt name, then, for a website that aims to bring family historians together.
There are a number of free online platforms that provide an opportunity for family history researchers to engage with one another. It is difficult to belong to, and fully engage with, them all. So why choose the Ancestorian platform?
Ancestorian has huge potential for supporting people to advance their family history research through the sharing of information and collaborative effort. All it needs are members to engage with it and with one another. The website stands out as being a bit different to the other platforms. This is why when I was asked if I would join the Admin team at Ancestorian, I was happy to volunteer my time.
So what does make Ancestorian different? What will you find there?
Dedicated Family History Website
Ancestorian is a website dedicated to family history research; a sort of free-to-belong to online family history society. Many of the other platforms around support the creation of genealogy-related groups within a general broader-interest context.
Sole Developer Origins
Ancestorian was created by a sole developer using various open-source software tools. It is not owned by an organisation, corporation or company. The developer wanted to provide a place where researchers could meet; a sort of community hub where family history researchers can share information, help one another and collaborate in their research without the tracking that comes with platforms provided by corporate entities.
Non-Profit and Self-funded
Ancestorian is non-profit. Registration, and ongoing use, as a member of the Ancestorian website is entirely free. The creation and ongoing maintenance and improvement of the Website are self-funded by the website developer. He has put a huge amount of his own time and money into creating the Website and ensuring it functions as smoothly and efficiently as possible. He continues to maintain the platform, at his own expense, and make improvements as time and funds allow. While donations to support the ongoing costs of the Website are welcome, there is absolutely no requirement for payment of any sort.
Edit: March 2022 - Up until now, the owner of Ancestorian has tried to maintain the Website without allowing advertising. More recently, it has become necessary to include adverts on the Website in order for him to keep it up and running.
A Community Effort
Ancestorian is intended to be a community effort.
The website is moderated by a team of volunteers (Website Admins). In addition, a number of members have either created groups or volunteered to manage existing groups within the website. Anyone can do this if they see a need. Essentially, the website has been created for its members. The more people who register and engage with others on the Website, the more successful it will be.
What will you find there
Ancestorian provides a place where you can meet other family history researchers with common research interests. It offers lots of possibilities for engaging in discussion and collaborative effort with others. As well as a facility for day-to-day discussion via discussion posts, there is a blog function to enable members to make more occasional blog posts if they want to. Discussion posts are intended for relatively shorter less detailed posts, via a discussion feed, to generate, and support, discussion and collaboration among members about family history research-related matters. These posts are akin to a short newsclip or item of interest. Blog posts are intended for more detailed posts that pull together a range of information into one place e.g., to tell a story or provide information of interest to family history researchers. These posts are akin to a magazine or newspaper article.
There are a range of Groups to join on Ancestorian.
At the time of writing, there are 1133 Groups on Ancestorian in total:
- 918 of the Groups focus on the family history associated with a specific Surname;
- 185 of the Groups are Place name groups focused on family history in a specific geographic location; and
- 30 are General Groups which span a range of topics including, genetic genealogy, birth death and marriage certificate exchange, brick wall challenges, deciphering hand writing, dating photographs, general genealogical chatter, and a variety of other foci.
Most are open groups. A few are private groups which you can request to join.
Why not come along and have a look – https://www.ancestorian.com/
Notes
[1] An entry in the urban dictionary at: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ancestorian
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