Member Search and Profiles

ADVENTURES IN GENEALOGY: Member Search and Profiles
Or
Rednecks, Mega Huhs and the Broken Printer

Yall might not believe it but I aint what you would call a computer geek. When I first started doing this Generology stuff I used a couple of spiral notebooks, pencils and a big old box for filing. I used this system for a couple of months
Then one day I got an email from some guy I didn’t know complaining that the printer I sold him didn’t work right. Well being the calm, level-headed, tactful person yall know I am, I immediately sat down and wrote a two page email back to him telling him I didn’t know him and what he could do with that printer. Before I could send it, my blonde read it and said "Baby that aint very neighborly and besides I don’t think that’s physically possible. Did you ever think maybe there’s another person online with the same name. " I told her "Babe you know what the odds are that there is someone else out there with my name?" She said "I don’t know Bill, why don’t you ask your cousin Bill, or your nephew Bill or your Uncle Bill!" Then she just walked off grinning. You know for such a sweet little blonde she shure do love to let me know when I have overlooked the obvious.

Deciding it was at least possible she could be right I decided I needed to find out how to check for other folks on AOL with my name. I punched that little button named "Help" and typed in "anybody else got my name". Well I aint gonna tell you what it said the first time but eventually I got to the members search. I typed in my name Billy D Waffle (Bet yall thought I was gonna tell you my real name – didn’t ya?). To put it mildly I was shocked when someone with the same name showed up, on top of that we had almost the same screen name. He just added a couple of numbers on the end of his.

I gotta tell you I was as excited as a man with front row tickets to a Tanya Tucker concert. I yelled out "Babe, there is someone down in Houston with my name." She stuck her head in the door and said "don’t pay no attention to what I suggest after all you the big Online Expert." Like I said sweet as Golden Eagle honey but I think some of the bee’s are still hangin around.

Well I deleted the less than nice email and instead forwarded the complaint to the other "Waffle" with a short note explaining who I was and how I got his mail. I also asked him if he was interested in genealogy and if he would mind helping me add his family to my database.

Well a couple of days went by and I forgot all about it. Then I got a phone call from this guy in Houston. We must have talked for an hour, turns out he was doing Genealogy too and he had been aware of me, but because I didn’t have a profile he never bothered to contact me. Thanks to a misdirected email, I got a new cuzzin, added a lot of info to my database and made a new friend.

Thus another Adventure in Genealogy ends and again without meaning to we learned 3 things. 1) Make a profile for yourself, don’t put personal stuff in it but put the surnames you are looking for and the word Genealogy. 2) Do a member search (on AOL) for your surnames, and 3) Listen to your blonde. Adios and keep Smiling.

NOTE: Again based on the truth ---- sorta. I did get the broken printer letter and my sweet blonde did make the suggestion that I do a member search, but I really didn’t lose my temper that bad.