Reddit has become a powerful place on the web for genealogists, though it remains unknown to many. If you are looking for help with your genealogy research, a brief translation of a record, or identification of someone in a photograph, Reddit may be the place to go for answers.
Reddit is organized into “subreddits,” or pages where users can post questions, photos, and links devoted to a particular topic. Here are a few of the most useful subreddits for genealogists:
Reddit Genealogy Help (General)
- Genealogy (~24,000 subscribers):
- Easily the most useful subreddit for genealogists. Post questions, stories, and news here about nearly any topic genealogy related. A number of enthusiastic and capable people follow this subreddit. They generously donate their time and expertise on occasion to help with tricky problems.
- Ancestry (~2,800 subscribers):
- This subreddit is devoted to questions/comments about Ancestry.com, but occasionally fields material on genealogy in general.
DNA Help
- 23andMe (~12,500 subscribers):
- As the name suggests, is devoted to users of the DNA services provided by 23andMe
- AncestryDNA (~1,600 subscribers):
- A forum for questions and discussion about Ancestry.com’s DNA service
Photo Editing and Identification
- The Way We Were (~237,000 subscribers):
- On this subreddit, users post old photographs. Although not all of the photographs are genealogy related, many of them are.
- OldSchoolCool (~13,200,000 subscribers):
- Another great place to share old photos.
- Pics (~19,500,000 subscribers):
- Try posting a photo here for help with identification. Where was it taken? When? (Example: in this thread, a user asks for help identifying an item his father is holding in an old photo.)
- picrequests (~40,700 subscribers):
- Great place to go for help altering or touching up an old photo. See, for example, this thread in which redditors help a user with a photo of his grandfather.
- estoration (~8,300 subscribers):
- Go here for help with restoring old photographs. (Example: Photo of a great-great-great grandmother restored here.
- colorizationrequests (~4,500 subscribers):
- Features redditors skilled in colorizing black and white photos. (Example: in this thread, redditors colorize a users photo of his great-grandmother.)
Old Newspapers
- Old News (~36,000 subscribers):
- A subreddit where users share and discuss old news clippings they find online.
Translation Help
- Translator (~33,300 subscribers):
- Need help translating something? Post here!
Identifying Objects/Artifacts
- whatisthisthing (~683,000 subscribers)
- Pretty self-explanatory. Take a picture of something you have from family and post it here to help figure out what it is. (For example, Grandpa’s French artillery fuse setter is identified in this thread.)
- Antiques (~16,400 subscribers)
- Similar to above (e.g. What is this clock my Grandpa owns?)
This list is by no means exhaustive. Please don’t hesitate to let me know if you run across a great genealogy subreddit not on this list.
Best of luck to all of you in using Reddit as a tool in your genealogy research in the future!