Families do not exist in isolation. Neighbors, congregations, workplaces, friendships, and shared institutions all shape how families live, adapt, and remember.
On MyCousins.org, community is treated as evidence of belonging—the networks of connection that explain how families supported one another, shared resources, passed along information, and built lives together.
This topic brings together pages that explore the social connections surrounding families: formal and informal, enduring and temporary, visible in records and remembered in stories.
Why Community Matters in Family History
Community influences:
- Where families settled and stayed
- Whom they married and partnered with
- How information and opportunity flowed
- Who appeared as witnesses, neighbors, or sponsors
- How families were supported in times of need
Connections Beyond Kin
Community connections may include friends and neighbors, religious and civic groups, workplaces, schools, local institutions, and shared geographic or cultural environments.
These relationships often surface indirectly—in records, photographs, shared addresses, repeated names, and overlapping life events.
Community as Context
Families often lived, worked, worshiped, and celebrated within familiar circles. Recognizing these patterns helps explain repeated associations across records and reveals how families navigated change together.
Who This Topic Is For
- Researchers exploring Friends, Associates, and Neighbors networks
- Readers seeking social context beyond family trees
- Families preserving stories of connection and support
- Anyone interested in how people lived together, not just related
Pages Related to Community & Connection
The following pages are formally assigned to this topic:
- Faith, Culture & Community
- Belief, Practice & Place
- Churches and Cemeteries: Where Belief Became Place
- Places & Geography
- The Story of a Norwegian Family
- Record of the Brekke Gaard and Family in Nedre Telemarken, Norway
Continue Exploring
Community and connection intersect closely with faith and family traditions, work and daily life, immigration and identity, and records and evidence—where relationships give meaning to movement, memory, and proof.