Finding Your Family Online

In the news yesterday is a story about a couple who are engaged and planning to wed soon. What makes this story really unusual is that they have the same name, Kelly Hildebrandt, and they met on Facebook.

One night (female) Kelly was bored and typed her name into Facebook to see what came up. Up popped Kelly Hildebrandt but it was a guy and he was in Lubbock Texas. She sent him a note that said “Hi, We had the same name. Thought it was cool.” He “thought she was pretty cute” and on it went.

The story is a familiar one. They met in person, fell in love, and are now planning the wedding after making sure they weren’t related.

What makes this story particularly appealing to me is how simple it is to type your name into a social media tool such as Facebook or even Google your name and a myriad of options pop up. The implications of that simplicity for those of us rapt fans of genealogy or personal history is enormous. Sure it takes some work but it sure beats the days of yore when you had to spend hours in the public library with microfiche phone directories from around the U.S. waiting to spot that one word, your last name.

Just this morning I received a Twitter message from another Twyford who’se collecting Twyfords through the social media tool. We’ve started a dialogue and I will be curious to see what the connection is. Twyford is not a common name but I know there are a few branches around the US.

Read the complete blog entry from July 2009 here...>