Slack is an online collaboration hub – essentially a real-time group chat app – that helps people work together and stay organized. Originally created for businesses, it’s free to use at the basic level and widely adopted by companies, non-profits, and community groups alike. In Slack, conversations happen in workspaces (private groups you create or join) where members can message each other, share files, and use handy tools in one place. Slack is searchable and retains conversation history, so important information doesn’t get lost as it often can in long email chains.
For genealogy researchers, Slack offers a friendly, easy-to-use platform to collaborate with family members, research partners, or society members. Genealogists of any level can leverage Slack’s user-friendly features to boost productivity and coordinate projects more efficiently. Instead of scattering discussions across emails and social media, a Slack workspace creates one central place to communicate, share documents, and plan together in real time. This can instill confidence for beginners – you’ll have all your genealogy collaboration in one organized, searchable space.
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Joining or Creating a Slack WorkspaceJoining or Creating a Slack Workspace
Getting Started: To use Slack, you need to be part of a workspace. You can either join an existing Slack workspace (if someone invites you) or create your own workspace for your genealogy group. A Slack workspace is simply your private Slack group – with its own members, channels, and messages – dedicated to your team or project.
- Joining an Existing Workspace: Most genealogy Slack communities (for example, a society or family Slack) will send you an invitation link via email. Clicking the invite link lets you create a Slack account (enter your name and a password) and immediately join that workspace. Within minutes, you’ll be inside the group’s Slack, ready to read and send messages. Tip: If a friend or society uses Slack, ask them to invite you or share their workspace URL.
- Creating Your Own Workspace: If you want to set up Slack for your family or team, Slack makes it easy:
- Sign up: Go to Slack’s website (or open the Slack app) and choose “Create a Workspace.” Enter your email address – Slack will send a confirmation code.
- Workspace Name: Open the email from Slack and click the link. You’ll be prompted to name your workspace (e.g. “Smith Family Research” or “Jones Genealogy Team”). This name will help others identify the workspace.
- Workspace URL: Slack will also have you choose a workspace URL, which will look like
workspace-name.slack.com. This is the web address members will use to sign in. - Invite Members: You can immediately invite people by entering their emails, or skip this step and invite others later.
- Start Using Slack: Once created, your new workspace is ready. Slack will create a default #general channel for you – you can add more channels as needed and start messaging.
Whether you join or create a workspace, you can access Slack via your web browser, the desktop app, or the mobile app. Many users find the desktop or mobile app convenient for receiving notifications and staying engaged. And remember – Slack’s basic plan is free and typically sufficient for small groups or families, so getting started won’t cost anything.
Key Slack Features for GenealogistsKey Slack Features for Genealogists
Slack is packed with features to make group collaboration smoother. Here are the key features most helpful for genealogy projects, and how you can use them:
Channels: Organize Conversations by TopicChannels: Organize Conversations by Topic
Slack organizes discussions into channels, which are like chat rooms for specific topics or groups. Instead of one big, cluttered chat, you can have separate channels for different needs. For example, a family workspace might have channels like #family-tree-updates, #photos, and #dna-discussion. A genealogy society might set up #research-help, #local-history, and #announcements channels. By dividing conversations by topic, channels bring order and clarity – the right people can join the discussions that interest them, and each channel stays on its dedicated subject.
Channels can be public or private. A public channel is open to all members of the workspace, useful for general topics or broad collaboration. Private channels are invite-only – great if you have a research discussion that should only involve certain people (for instance, a private committee or a sensitive family matter). When you create a channel, you decide its type, and you can invite the relevant members to it.
Genealogists benefit from channels by having a focused space for every facet of their research. You might create a channel for each major surname or branch of the family, for particular geographic regions your ancestors lived in, or for specific projects (like planning a family reunion or writing a family history book). Members can subscribe to (join) channels they’re interested in and mute or ignore channels that aren’t relevant to them. This way, everyone sees only the discussions that matter to them, and conversations don’t get tangled. Slack even allows members to pin a short topic description for each channel to clarify its purpose (for example, “Channel for sharing and transcribing old family letters”).
Threads: Keep Discussions Organized within ChannelsThreads: Keep Discussions Organized within Channels
Busy channels can sometimes have multiple conversations happening at once – that’s where threads come in handy. A thread lets you reply to a specific message in a channel, creating a sub-conversation that’s indented under the original message. This keeps the main channel timeline tidy. For instance, if someone posts an old census record in the #documents channel, others can click “Reply in thread” on that message to discuss deciphering the handwriting or verifying the details, without those replies cluttering the main channel for everyone.
Threads create organized discussions around a specific message, similar to how comment threads work on social media or forums. Genealogists can use threads whenever a side conversation is needed: ask follow-up questions about a posted family tree chart, comment on a photo with details or memories, or brainstorm solutions to a research “brick wall” question – all within a thread tied to the original post. This way, the main channel remains focused, and anyone not interested in that particular sub-topic won’t be flooded with unrelated messages. It’s considered a best practice in Slack to use threads to keep channels focused and easy to skim. You’ll still be able to see threaded replies (Slack will show a notification or “[# replies]” link under the original post), and participants or others can click it to view the entire threaded discussion. In short, threads help maintain context and order, ensuring important announcements or other topics in the channel don’t get lost in the shuffle.
Genealogy often involves exchanging documents – pedigree charts, old photographs, census images, DNA reports, you name it. Slack makes file sharing simple. You can upload photos, PDFs, text files, or other documents directly into a channel or direct message. Just drag-and-drop or use the paperclip “Attach” button to share a file. Everyone in the channel will then be able to see it, download it, or comment on it. If your files are stored elsewhere, Slack integrates with popular cloud services – you can easily share a document from Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, etc., into Slack without leaving the app.
Files shared in Slack don’t just sit in isolation – they become part of the conversation. Team members can discuss the file in the thread or channel message where it was posted, so you have contextual discussion around the document rather than separate emails about attachments. All these files and the conversation around them are archived in Slack, which means they’re searchable later on. For example, if you remember a cousin shared a passenger list image last month but can’t recall in which channel, you can search Slack for “passenger list” and likely find the file and discussion (assuming it’s within your plan’s message retention).
Another perk: Slack has a pinned items feature – in any channel, you can pin important messages or files so they’re easily referenceable by everyone. A genealogy Slack channel might pin a research log spreadsheet, a welcome message with guidelines, or an important family photo so that these stay at hand. Slack’s built-in file browser also lets you view all files shared in the workspace, which is convenient as your archive grows.
Search: Find Past Conversations and Information EasilySearch: Find Past Conversations and Information Easily
As your collaboration continues, Slack becomes a living archive of genealogical knowledge: discussions, dates, theories, documents, and links that have been shared over time. Slack’s powerful search function lets you quickly retrieve this information when you need it. Instead of digging through old emails or remembering who you told what, you can search keywords (names, places, keywords like “marriage certificate”) and Slack will show all matching messages and files.
All messages and files in Slack stay accessible and searchable (on paid plans, the full history is kept; on free plan, the most recent messages are searchable, which for a small group can cover a long time). This means even a newcomer joining your workspace later can search past conversations to get up to speed on what was discussed or decided earlier. For genealogists, this is invaluable – you can quickly find that discussion where a cousin mentioned an ancestor’s military unit, or locate the GEDCOM file someone shared last year, without having to ask them again.
Slack search can be refined with filters (by channel, by person, by date) to narrow results. And it doesn’t just search text; it also searches within document names and even text in some PDFs or images if OCR is enabled. The bottom line: Slack acts as your genealogy research memory. As one tech guide puts it, messages and files in Slack don’t disappear, so important information stays accessible – whenever you need to recall something, just search for it in Slack.
Integrations: Connect Your Tools and Enhance SlackIntegrations: Connect Your Tools and Enhance Slack
One of Slack’s strengths is that it plays well with other apps. Through integrations, you can connect a variety of tools and services directly into your Slack workspace to streamline your workflow. Slack offers an App Directory with thousands of apps – but even as a beginner, a few integrations can greatly help genealogy collaboration:
- Calendars and Scheduling: Integrate Google Calendar or Outlook Calendar to Slack so you can get reminders about genealogy society meetings or family calls right in your Slack. This helps a team keep track of events (Slack can post a message like “Meeting starting in 10 minutes” in a channel).
- File Storage: As mentioned, connect Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive. This way, when someone shares a link to a document or photo from those services, Slack can automatically preview it and notify others. It saves time toggling between apps.
- Task Lists/Notes: You might integrate a task management app (like Trello or Asana) or even simple to-do list bots to track research tasks. For example, you could have a Trello board for genealogy tasks and Slack will update the channel when a task is added or completed. This keeps everyone informed of progress.
- Web integrations and alerts: Slack has simple integrations like RSS feeds or website monitors. A genealogist could pipe in updates from a genealogy blog or archive site via RSS, so that, for instance, whenever FamilySearch or Ancestry releases new records for your region, a notification appears in Slack. This keeps the team informed and can spark new research.
- Communication tools: Slack also supports voice and video calls (called huddles or Slack calls). You can hop on a quick audio chat or share screens within Slack – useful if you want to show a cousin how to navigate a website or discuss a document in real time. (For beginners, this is optional to explore – but know that Slack can handle one-to-one or small group calls without needing a separate app.)
Integrations are optional and you can start simple. Even without adding many apps, Slack itself already supports a lot (messaging, file sharing, search, etc.). But as you get comfortable, integrating your everyday tools can save time and keep everything in one place. Slack’s philosophy is to bring “the right people, information, and tools together” in one platform. By connecting external tools (like your document storage or project tracker) into Slack, you won’t need to constantly switch contexts – it makes collaboration more seamless. For genealogists, this means more time focusing on research and less time juggling apps.
Examples of Genealogists Using Slack to CollaborateExamples of Genealogists Using Slack to Collaborate
Here are a few scenarios of how Slack can be used in genealogy collaboration:
Collaborating with Family MembersCollaborating with Family Members
Imagine you’re working with scattered relatives on a family history. By creating a Slack workspace for your Family and inviting your cousins, you now have a private space for everyone to chat and share discoveries. In Slack, you could have a channel called #family-updates where you post progress on building the family tree, and relatives chime in with corrections or new finds. Another channel, #photos-and-memories, could be used for sharing old family photographs or stories – each picture shared can be discussed in threads (“Who’s in this photo? What year might this be?”). Maybe set up #questions where anyone can ask genealogy questions (like “Does anyone know where Grandpa was in 1950?”), and others can help answer.
By using Slack, your family can communicate more fluidly than by email. It feels like a group chat, but more organized: conversations are sorted by channel topics, and important posts (like a reunion announcement or a link to the online family tree) can be pinned so everyone sees them. Even family members who are new to technology find Slack approachable, since they can use it on their phone or computer and get notified of new messages. Over time, your Slack workspace becomes an archive of your family research – new family members who join can read past discussions and catch up easily by searching the history. It’s a great way to keep everyone in the loop and involved in the genealogy journey, no matter where they live.
Working with Research PartnersWorking with Research Partners
You might have a genealogy research buddy or two – say, a distant cousin or a friend – with whom you’re jointly researching a particular ancestor or lineage. Slack is an excellent tool for that kind of close collaboration. You can create a small workspace just for the project (or simply use a private channel in a larger workspace) and use it as your research command center. For example, you and your research partner can maintain a research log in Slack: post what leads you’re pursuing, share screenshots of records, and discuss findings in real time. If one person finds a clue (“I found a will from 1860 that might be our ancestor”), they can upload it to Slack and the team can immediately react (using emoji reactions or thread comments to discuss its significance).
In Slack, all your brainstorming and analysis is documented. Threads help here: long analytical discussions about “Are these two people the same individual?” can happen in a tidy thread attached to the initial question message. Meanwhile, simpler updates can stay in the main channel. You might also integrate a tool like Google Docs – if you have a draft of a research report or a family tree chart in Google Drive, you can paste the link in Slack and Slack will display a preview, making it easy for your partner to click and view it. You can even set reminders in Slack (via Slack’s /remind command) to nudge each other about tasks (“/remind @alice to check the archives on Friday”). By using Slack with a research partner, you create a focused workspace for your project – no more hunting through different email threads for attachments or forgetting where you saved a conversation. Everything is consolidated, searchable, and updated live.
Engaging with a Genealogy Society or GroupEngaging with a Genealogy Society or Group
Genealogy societies and group projects can also thrive on Slack. Many societies traditionally use email lists or forums, but Slack can provide a more interactive, real-time community space. For instance, a local genealogical society could invite all its members to a Slack workspace. In that workspace, they might have channels like #general-chat (for casual genealogy talk and introductions), #help-requests (where members can ask for research help or look-up requests), #events (announcements about meetings or workshops), and perhaps channels for special interest groups (#DNA, #technology-tips, #surname-projects, etc.). This setup allows society members to connect and help each other anytime, not just during monthly meetings.
One society described their Slack as “a space to connect, communicate, discuss, and plan, surpassing the capabilities of our general email list-serve”. In Slack, conversations are more dynamic – for example, if someone is stuck on a research problem, they can post in #help-requests and others who are online can reply within minutes with suggestions or resources. Threaded conversations ensure that even if multiple questions are asked in the same channel, each gets its own thread of replies, keeping it organized. Files like society newsletters, meeting minutes, or lecture handouts can be shared in Slack for members to download at their convenience. Slack’s search means even if a member recalls “Someone mentioned a book about Irish records last week,” they can find that recommendation easily rather than asking again.
For leadership, Slack can have private channels for society board members or project committees to coordinate. They can plan agendas, share documents, and make decisions without endless back-and-forth emails. Some societies integrate Slack with tools like SignUpGenius or Calendars to coordinate events. Overall, Slack fosters a sense of community – members feel more connected because they have an ongoing place to chat and collaborate. It’s more immediate than a mailing list and more organized than a Facebook group, giving the society a modern way to engage members. Newbies in the society also find it welcoming: they can introduce themselves in Slack and quickly start interacting, rather than lurking on an email list.
Tips for Staying Organized and Getting the Most Out of SlackTips for Staying Organized and Getting the Most Out of Slack
Slack is powerful, but a few simple practices will help you and your fellow genealogists stay organized and productive:
- Use Clear Channel Names and Topics: Create channels thoughtfully and give them descriptive names (e.g.
#smith-family-lineor#dna-discussionrather than just#misc). In the channel settings, add a topic or description to explain what it’s for. This helps everyone know where to post and find information, reducing confusion about where to ask something. - Keep Conversations in Threads: When a specific question or sub-topic comes up in a channel, reply in a thread instead of posting a bunch of new messages. Threads keep the discussion grouped together and the main channel tidy. This way, side discussions (like analyzing a document) don’t derail other conversations.
- Pin and Bookmark Key Information: Take advantage of Slack’s pin feature to save important messages or files in a channel. For example, pin a message that contains your shared Google Drive folder link, or an instruction post like “How to request research help in this channel.” Pinned items are easily visible to all members (usually via the pin icon at the top of the channel) as a mini reference board. Individually, you can also star messages or channels to bookmark them for yourself – starring a channel will list it under “Starred” for quick access.
- Utilize Search and Archives: Encourage members (and yourself) to use Slack’s search before asking a question that might have been answered. Chances are, if you discussed a certain census record last month, you can find that conversation via search rather than rehashing it. Slack’s archives are a treasure trove of your group’s collective knowledge – make searching your first instinct.
- Customize Notifications to Your Needs: Slack can send notifications for all messages, or just when you’re mentioned, etc. As you join multiple channels, fine-tune your notification settings. For channels that are very active but not critical, you might mute notifications (you can check them later at your pace). For important channels (like #announcements), you can set alerts for every message. This way you won’t feel overwhelmed, and you won’t miss key updates. Each user can adjust this in Preferences > Notifications to find a comfortable balance.
- Integrate Helpful Tools: As you get comfortable, try adding an integration that suits your workflow. For instance, add the Google Drive app if you frequently share documents – it will preview files and manage permissions smoothly. Or use Slack’s built-in
/pollor simple bots to take quick polls (e.g., “Which weekend should we hold the family reunion?”). These additions can enhance Slack without much effort and help your group work smarter, not harder. - Maintain Respect and Clarity: Finally, treat Slack like you would any group setting. Be respectful in your tone (it’s easy for text to be misread), and consider creating a welcome message or guidelines for your genealogy workspace (perhaps pinned in #general). Encourage members to fill out their Slack profiles with their full name or research interests – it makes it easier to know who’s who. And don’t be afraid to ask questions! Slack is there to make collaboration friendly and easy. With channels and threads, everyone can contribute without chaos.
By following these tips, your Slack workspace will remain an organized, efficient environment where genealogy collaboration thrives. Remember that Slack is a tool meant to adapt to your group’s needs – you can always create new channels, adjust norms, and explore features as you grow more confident.
Explore more about using Slack for genealogy researchExplore more about using Slack for genealogy research
Slack for Genealogy Projects - Legacy Family Tree Webinars
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