Making Contact

Every once in a while, I happen to think of someone that I haven’t been in touch with for a while and I Google them to see if I can turn up an e-mail address or something. For most of them, I can come up with phone number, but I’m too cheap to pick up the phone and call. Well, that’s not exactly accurate either, since my cell plan has free long distance. I guess it’s the fact that I haven’t been in touch with some of them for years and wouldn’t know what to say.

Anyway, today was one of those days. I happened to think about my best  friend from high school and typed his name into the search engine to see what would come up. There were two links, and surprisingly, they were both for the person I was looking for. The first was a link to his confirmation picture back when he was in 8th grade. I’m betting that even he would be surprised that it would be available online.

What was really interesting was that the second link was related to church activities as well. It was a PDF version of his church’s bulletin with a listing of birthdays and anniversaries for that month. In looking at that bulletin, I learned something that I didn’t know. He got married the day after his birthday. I was even there for the wedding and must have forgotten about his birthday. Maybe it was forgettable because it was his second marriage and the young lady was fifteen years younger than he was. I think I was probably a little jealous of the little horn-dog.

Finding such interesting links to an old friend got me to thinking about what incriminating things I might find about myself online that could be found through Google. Turns out it’s pretty boring stuff. There are a couple of links to forums where I posted under my real name…which is highly unusual. Other than that, I couldn’t find much, and at least there’s nothing embarrassing.

What was interesting was that there are a couple of people in the world who have the same name. One of them is apparently an artist of some kind, but I wasn’t able to find out exactly what it is he does. It would be funny if he’s a photographer since that is something we would have in common. I’m going to try to find a way to contact him to see if there’s a familial link. I believe he’s from Texas, and there is a branch of my family in that part of the country.

Speaking of family roots, (kind of a lame segue, wasn’t it?) shortly after moving to North Carolina I did some research into my family tree. What I discovered is that my great, great, great, great grandparents were from Virginia and North Carolina. In fact, one set of great-greats were first cousins who had married. In that day and age, it was not unusual for cousins to marry, and I found a couple of branches of the family tree that linked back on one another. As common as the practice might have been, my dad’s sister was scandalized by my discovery and just knows there must be a mistake somewhere.

Knowing a little bit about genetics and how intermarrying can lead to genetic defects, there’s a lot about my family that suddenly makes sense. I think I’ll just leave that line of thought where it is.

Anyway, my main point is that the Internet is a fascinating source of information that would not be readily available in any other form. I never tire of exploring and discovering new things about myself and others. What have you found on the Web that was exciting or mystifying? Anything embarrassing you’d like to share? I think I’m going to go back to exploring. Hope you’re having a tolerable Monday.