[Just in this post in order to change the title of the thread - nothing more!]

[ 01-16-2002: Message edited by: Linda1 ]

Even though this is a "private forum" where you need to be registered with a password to post messages,,,I would still be cautious about what information you supply. As a few of you know, I am a strong advocate of online privacy,,,and quite aware of the "electronic footprints" which are left behind by what one does, and says, and where one goes online! (The "cut and paste" utility can take your words to places you never intended them to go, if someone so desires to do that for some weird reason,,,)

I thought that I would do a google search on "moonrockie",,,,and sure enough the results returned directed me to the "Welcome!" I received when I became the community's 5000th member! Posts are archived in searchable databases,,,the "electronic footprints" are there,,,,and,,perhaps,,,they will be for years!

Recently I crafted a quiz which I purposely made very easy. It was more of a public service quiz, than what I suppose most people would consider "trivia",,,but,,,only one person has sent me a negative message about it,,,so,,,maybe I'll make more like that one,,,if they are acceptable..??

Stay safe!

Seems that the Google search engine, heads above the rest, has accentuated the power of the average computer user to find info on given word combinations etc.
The more unusual the name the easier it is to find.

I was using it the other day and found my grandmother's graduation records, my sister and cousin's birth records from a hospital, my grandfather's SSN and death certificate through a genealogy table and many others.
Funnily enough my own real name only appeared once as one of the web pages I helped construct went down into the depths of oblivion. As it had received national acclaim, I was sad not to have saved it, but life goes on.

Another thing you might want to watch for is sending a file from your home pc that is registered to you!
The pathname clearly shows where it comes from.

Moonrockie, I hope that our greetings and hoopdela didn't alarm you. Normally we don't force nametags on people and in fact, we let them look around and introduce themselves.
But 5000 was too good an occasion to pass up. If you had chosen not to respond, we would have lived yet another day.
We are happy you did answer us.

As you know, we look out for each other here in the forums so that's another reason I appreciate your comments.

Has anyone got any quirky hits on their user id's?

cheers

Mod: Maybe this thread to be moved if it continues??

Yes,,,it can be interesting to search on one's member name,,,but the original intent of my message has been lost...
oh well...

I certainly hope so...........aw, who am I kidding? Thank God I didn't put my real age down!!!!!!!!

wez
GOOGLE......Don't ya just love it?
Seriously.........'Go careful out there'.

As the name I bear is only from descendants of people in a certain area of Italy, anybody listed is generally related to my kids no matter what country they eventually settled in.
I was alarmed to see the birth records pop up for my sister and my cousin, born in a small town. I mean, first hit!

So even though your name might not be that distinctive like Anne Smith or something, if you were to add, Podunk Illinois, the filter might find you'd been listed as winning an award for charity, participating in a barbeque, or attending your high school reunion!

If I sound rather familiar with this procedure, it's one of the skills I use in my profession from the beginning of the internet's expansion.

I was not only listed but also my degrees.
Another thing you need to watch out for is the reverse telephone directory. I wish they didn't put it on the net.

Because of this, I'd like to move the first part of this thread out into its own thread - I do think it is important to make sure we highlight.

The "searching on your name" part of this thread is interesting, too. I don't want to distract from it. But, you're right that it's a tangent to what was originally being discussed in the thread.

I'll try to fix both threads where they make sense! Hopefully, this will work!

Use the thread you are now in to discuss searching on your name in Google.

Linda thanks for moving this over as it is an interesting subject. I for one believe that rather than knowledge is power and both aspects are important.

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tap in Copago and it's apparently something to do with Spanish medical insurance forms

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Well, considering "pagar" is "to pay", my guess is that a "copago" is a copayment.

Has anybody tried doing a Google search with their real names? I was totally surprised by what I found!!!

The very first link that came up was for the Henry Whitney Genealogical Database Index. At first I thought it was probably some OTHER Kristen, but I looked at some of the other names that shared my last name. There was a Jeffrey (my cousin's name), a Kerri-Lee (another cousin), a Keith (my brother), and a Laurence (a great-uncle). That was just too much of a coincidence, so I checked out the site. Turns out practically my whole family was listed on the site! But almost no birthdates, so we weren't listed there by any of my close relatives. My dad's birthdate was known but my mother's was not, so I'm assuming one of my dad's distance relatives added the info.

Weird!!

quote:

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Well, considering "pagar" is "to pay", my guess is that a "copago" is a copayment.

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My real name only comes up through work-related stuff. We have a very unique surname (as far as well know), so it probably wouldn't be that hard to track my family through the 'net. But we're very good at covering our tracks!!

The majority of genealogy pages are put up by nice people who are seniors and there are many many people working on it right now. The Latter Day Saints are, because of their beliefs, the keepers of more information on ancestors etc and if their members publish your family names without your knowledge, you may be the victim of the mother's maiden name thing. Their hearts might be in the right place but when you think about it, until this method of identifying bank clients is given up as archaic, it's risky.

I was simply relieved that my grandfather's children were not listed. Too bad for the continuity of the whole thing!

But then, I did a search for my grandmother's maiden name, one of the top ten I imagine, with something that could only be her, and whammo, I see her college records!

So be careful with geneaology records people. I saw one search engine that was so strong that it did international searches in five seconds on surnames and they'd pop up in three countries.