My mom wants to have a family reunion. Sure, fine, whatever. It sounds awful to me, but the woman is slowly but surely becoming old and crazy, so we’ll do whatever we need to keep her happy in the meantime. Unfortunately, she’s already old and crazy enough to have lost contact with most of her relatives, which leaves me the daunting task of tracking them all down.
Tough job. Fortunately, not as tough as you’d think. Definitely not as tough as it would have been, say, ten years ago when I would have had no choice but to rummage around my mother’s attic trying to find old letters and address books to find everyone we should consider inviting. Thank goodness for the internet, and thank goodness for People Search!
Granted I’m still figuring out all the bells and whistles of people search, but so far, it’s been nothing short of amazing. My Uncle Ted that I vaguely remember from childhood, I typed in his name, and within seconds, his most recent address came up. Amazing! Same with my cousin Maxine and my mom’s cousin Julius. (By the way, how are Julius and I related? Second cousins? Cousins once removed? I have no idea, but I feel like I should, since I’m planning a family reunion. Anyway.)
Apparently, my Great Aunt Patty died, which is sad, but expected, since she wasn’t in the best condition when I last saw her. Still, it was heart-breaking news for my mother. Haven’t yet been able to track down my Uncle Roger - but I think he’s been plagued by credit problems for his entire life, so maybe he’s being extra protective of his most recent address, wherever that is.
But all around, I’ve been surprised and delighted by how much I’ve been able to do with People Search that maybe it won’t be that bad after all? Or maybe the hard part comes after I’ve tracked down all our relatives…