Thursday, October 3, 2013

INTELIUS.COM - HOW TO CONNECT WITH COUSINS




CONNECTING WITH COUSINS
and Intelius.com

One of the best things I've discovered during my 10+ years of genealogy research is finding cousins.  It might be a first cousin, or a second cousin, or even a 3 times removed cousin.  But, whatever the relation, they can be a joy to talk to and can sometimes provide invaluable information about your family.  
When I was beginning my research I decided to try and find a 2nd cousin that I had known when I was a child.  What are the chances I could find her decades later?  As genealogists we all know "never say never." 

All I knew was her first & maiden name.  Mmmmm...where to look for her?
I remember a co-worker talking about a site you can use to find people.
It's called intelius.com
Never heard of it?  Neither had I.  I turns out that you can go to the site and plug in a name.
I chose a famous person from the past, Clark Gable. Here are the results of that search:


There were, of course, many more people with that name who came up on the list.  But, you can see that the green check marks to the right tell you that a DOB, Phone number and address are available.  Having the previous locations for residence and "related to" will help you pick the right person.  So far, we haven't spent any money. 

LET'S GO FURTHER IN OUR SEARCH
You can then select which one you think would be correct, click on "get more results" or you can choose "Get the Report on."
If you click on "get the report on" you will be taken to another page.  You'll have several choices:

I chose the first option, for $1.95, because I was only hoping for a phone number and maybe an address.  
One thing I want to say to you about all this.  Yes, our information is "out" there.  No matter how much we try to stay off the radar, our information is public record.  That is a fact.  Go ahead and do a search on your own name either on Google or on this intelius site.  You may be surprised.  That being said, let's continue............


I was looking for my cousin, Paula.  The last time I saw her was when we were 16 & 14 (she's the younger one).  That's several decades ago. 
SURPRISE!  I found her.  Just like that, there she was.  I knew it was her because it gave her date of birth, some family member names, and to my surprise, she had not changed her last name, however, she appeared to be married.  And, guess what?  She was here in California, just up the coast from where I live.  How cool is that?
I made the phone call.  She knew exactly who I was and we were giggling like kids again in no time.  That was 9 years ago and we have only grown closer since then.
There are a couple of other stories like this that are equally as rewarding.  I'll go into more information about cousins in another post.
Happy hunting,
Michigan Girl




copyright ©  2013   Diane Gould Hall
 

2 comments:

  1. Wow! George Orwell sure got it right in his novel 'Nineteen Eighty-Four'. At least we are making it easier for future-generation genealogists.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree Dara. 1984 came and went and little did we all know. Our information is out there and it's our responsibility to keep track and be vigilant. But, yes, finding cousins is certainly easy because of it. For that I am very grateful. The cousin I contacted 10 yrs. ago and I are very good friends now. And she lives only 3 hrs away. Thanks for stopping by.

    ReplyDelete

I look forward to reading your comments. If you have any connection to the people mentioned in this blog, please let me know. I write about mine and my husband's ancestors and would welcome new information or meeting a new cousin or two. Thanks for visiting and come back soon.