At the beginning of her life, my mother was born in a mother & baby home with the third highest death rate in Ireland.

At 15 days old, my mother was sent in a taxi to an adoption home halfway up the country with her mother.

Her mother would visit her a few times by... ...working and earning money to buy stuff and visit her a few times before she could no longer bring herself to do it.

At 54 days old, my mum was put with her family who'd later adopt her.

She was raised in a family that always supported her to find her birth family.

I'm am giving (and continue) to give my all into @Project_Infant to turn it into a beacon for people wanting to:
a) learn more about the homes and their backstory
b) learn more about those who died

But recently I've felt vexed. Which is why I'm adding another small thing to NLB. For those who aren't adopted, we are lucky as we can easily trace our family back to goodness knows when, you have to admit that.

But I want to use my skills to help those adopted through mother and baby homes, I want to help them trace their birth families.

With yet more restrictions being imposed on how you can use Twitter, here are two ways you can still keep up to date with the #Genealogy community on Twitter.

A thread... The first way (and this is not intended to be self-promotion) is my Twitter community. All sorts of genealogy blog posts, and dilemmas are here. I will work on bringing discussions into this as well. To join, go here: twitter.com/i/communities/…

Hey #Genealogy Twitter, don't scroll past this yet!
So as time progresses, I've seen people wondering if Twitter does go down in a ball of fire or people leave, where to go?

One of these suggestions was Mastodon. While it's been described as not an alternative to Twitter, it's very similar to how it operates. You can respond, boost (retweet) and favourite (like) tweets and even see all the hustle and bustle of Twitter.

There are also some improvements to Mastodon that aren't on Twitter.

Saw this tweet from @SBkcrn, who was the person who was developing the Twitter Communities feature.

EM has layed off 7,500 employees today. (Source: amp.theguardian.com/technology/202…)

It’s speculated that 50% of all employees would be laid off.

But that’s not even the worst part…

https://twitter.com/SBkcrn/status/1588357614211158018

This tweet had gained a bit of traction, some people were sympathetic with Simon that this has happened (and especially in this way) and the BILE that others quote tweeted Simon’s tweet with is horrendous.

Guess any sort of human interaction has just gone out the window then?

And I shall! Second tech tip of the day, who would’ve thought it! So #genealogy folks who have either an iPhone or iPad, this is for you. (Android folks, stay tuned - I may have a similar way)

Here’s how you can get TweetDeck as an app.

https://twitter.com/researchdogbody/status/1571600964553158656

Firstly, what you’ll want to do is open up TweetDeck on Safari on your device (it has to be Safari, from what I’ve tried) and make sure you sign into your account. Once you’ve done that, and your TweetDeck has appeared. Hit the share button (box with an up arrow - as shown)

Here you go, @nellstra (and anyone on Twitter wanting to know how) - here's how you make a Twitter moment.

A thread. First things first, this can only be done on the web version of Twitter. It can't be done on a Twitter app. So when you open up Twitter, on the menu on the left hand side, click 'More'.

Really thought provoking thread about grief from @ScientistSoph and how we should normalise talking about grief and one thing I’d also like to raise is that grief affects people in different ways and different durations.

My take is…

https://twitter.com/ScientistSoph/status/1570328966774366208

Back in January 2017, my inspiration for starting my genealogy journey Padraig - my grand uncle died at the age of 85. I never met him many times but while I was there at the funeral home, there was one person who I didn’t see there - my grandfather. Turns out he wasn’t doing…

On Wednesday, January 26th - myself and @mishjholman are setting you a challenge. We want as many people interested in genealogy to tell your genealogy story either in the form of a blog post, Facebook/Instagram post, Twitter thread or any form that you like! We'd love to read about how you got into genealogy, your favourite discovery/part about genealogy and where do you hope to see the genealogy world/community/industry in the future? We hope to have all posts showing on social media throughout January 26th (so you can schedule them

A thread... but one I feel is quite important to be discussed.

As family historians/genealogists, we are often taught how to research in the past. But what about the here and now? At the #GenealogyForAll discussion I co-hosted a few weeks ago, the topic of gender... /1 ...identities as well as the different kinds of relationships [can't take credit and don't want to as they weren't my ideas, just merely wanted to share these very valid points] Firstly, when someone fills out their profile on a family history site, they are given three... /2

Will try and do these threads listing the newly updated/added collections on @Ancestry too! I won't always remember but will do them if I think of them...

This will be done Newest to Oldest and will include date when they were updated/added, [Info from: ancestry.com/cs/recent-coll…] UPDATED - 26/10/2021: Western Life Newspaper Name Index, 1900-1902

UPDATED - 25/10/2021: U.S., Newspapers.com Marriage Index, 1800s-2020

UPDATED - 21/10/2021: Hawaii, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1822-1962

AN UPDATE TO THE BELOW:

To clarify the largely asked questions (read full thread) "How will FG know if the person is related?" - I got this from Peter Drinkwater at @FindaGrave who I hadn't mentioned in my original post. Apologies for confusion - this is what I received... [1/]

https://twitter.com/DanielGenealogy/status/1432750006054891526

"On the question of how to make sure someone is related, it’s a good question and one of the trickier parts of the change. We’ve thought about and have plans for it, but will need to watch it carefully. Our plans focus on limiting the number of relationships someone can... [2/]

A thread...

Following my thread about FG I began contacting people to try and speak to someone to FG about a waiting period and last night I spoke to @FindaGrave and this is what's coming.

*NOTE* In this thread is only what I've been told in an email, it may change. 1/ So first things first:
"When a Find a Grave member creates a memorial for a person who has died recently, we'll ask if they are related. If they are, they can create a memorial that will look and act just like other Find a Grave memorials on the site... 2/

A thread...

[To @Ancestry/@FindaGrave]

One thing I want to try and achieve is to help improve the genealogy community and industry as a whole. And a major thing I want to improve on is FindaGrave. You might think "here he goes on his rant again" but hear me out... [1/15] While FindaGrave has proved to be an invaluable tool for family historians and genealogists all around the world seeing headstones of ancestors or relations that are very far away. (For example me being in Ireland and having relatives buried in New York)... [2/15]

Okay, this is going to be the start of a humongous thread! Below are the links to lists of genealogists that are able to do genealogy research (and other bits!) in different countries. Think of it as a directory of genealogists! Please feel free to refer people to this list! If you're looking to research your Irish heritage (the only list I'm in!) find Irish genealogists below: twitter.com/i/lists/129210…

Genealogists who specialise in research in Ulster - see: twitter.com/i/lists/129207…