[Randy Barnett, May 15, 2006 at 4:06am] Trackbacks
Harris Barnett:
While I am linking to old blog posts, I was contacted tonight out of the blue by a cousin I had never met who found me via this blog post of mine from 2004. He had done a Google search for "Harris Barnett Custer" and up popped my post. Yet another cool thing about the internet in general and blogging in particular. I have in the past been contacted by someone who thought we might be related, of course, but this is the first time it was true. (He is the grandson of my grandfather's brother and we share Harris Barnett as an ancestor.) Has anyone else found or been found by a long-lost or never-met relative because of your blogging?

Related Posts (on one page):

  1. Harris Barnett:
  2. My Name:
Oris (mail) (www):
Not a relative, but a long-lost friend e-mailed me out of the blue a couple years ago. Amazingly, I seem to be the only "rebeccafrog" on the internet. At least, so far as a couple search engines are concerned.
5.15.2006 8:45am
Fishbane (mail):
Not a relative at the time, but my partner is someone whom I met in summer program in highschool (Governer's School, if you're heard of it.) 12 years later, she net.stalked me, and now we're 7 years into our relationship.
5.15.2006 9:43am
CharleyCarp (mail):
I set out several years ago to locate all of my living 1st, 2d, 3d and 4th cousins -- it's been great fun, and a majority of the cousins I've reached out to have been helpful. And several have become friends.

Some cousins (or cousins-in-law) have had blogs, and this has been a way to find them.

Blogging with a pseudonym -- as I do -- isn't particularly helpful, I have to say.
5.15.2006 10:16am
Michael Last (mail):
My brother had an interesting experience - he was updating his resume, and searched for papers by M. Last, and found a bunch that he didn't write. Seeing the topics, his first thought was that I had a bunch of papers I hadn't told him about - most of them were on stuff I'm interested in, and being another M. Last....

Turns out there is a third academic M. Last, who is in the same field as my brother, with research interests similar to mine. We aren't sure if we are related or not, but, at least according to family lore, the Last branches of each family may be from the same area.

Not quite discovering long lost siblings through blogs, but close enough:)
5.15.2006 11:36am
Raw_Data (mail):
I sympathize.

I am constantly contacted by people looking for my distant relations, of whom I know very little, the Informations.
5.15.2006 11:39am
Glenn W Bowen (mail):
ran down family members of Eli Bowen, of Bowen and Tripp, circus freaks. Bowen had no legs, Tripp no arms. A friend, an amateur magician, asked me several times over the years if I was related to Bowen, one day he showed me a photo of Bowen and Tripp on a tandem bicycle. Facially, I'm a dead ringer for Eli. Searched around the web and found his grand, or greatgrandaughter.
5.15.2006 12:22pm
Rational Actor (mail):
I have recently been contacted by large numbers of relatives from numerous countries in Africa and Asia informing me that I have just inherited large sums of money that I can obtain by depositing smaller sums in overseas bank accounts.
And, while I doubt I am a blood relative of Randy Barnett, I will note kinship as another Jewish "Barnett" of Russian descent. Barnetunafishsandwichsky, I think, was the name before it was abbreviated by (British) immigration (ok, it was just Belostotsky)
5.15.2006 12:53pm
Houston Lawyer:
I received a call a number of years ago from a man claiming to have the same last name as me and wondering if we were related. He war a Carney in town with the circus and was looking for a place to stay. The conversation didn't last long.

Also ran into a man working on a deal on the left coast. We had the same first and last name, and he was about my father's age. We determined we probably were related, but pretty far back.
5.15.2006 1:01pm
Glenn W Bowen (mail):

and now we're 7 years into our relationship.


Fishbane, be a mensch. Marry the girl already.
5.15.2006 2:38pm
Soccer Dad (mail) (www):
It wasn't blogging, but in 1997 a second cousin once removed e-mailed me out of the blue. We've been in touch since then. Since my last name isn't common I've gotten an e-mail from an Israeli, but we weren't able to establish a family connection.
Jewish-Gen has been a useful way to find relatives.
5.15.2006 2:59pm
Oris (mail) (www):
And I find it terribly amusing that it should be today that I receive my first plea from the representative of a relative of mine, tragically killed in a car accident on the way to the airport in Togo. I'm sure this gentleman must have been related to me, as Davidson is such a terribly uncommon name, and it would be awful to allow his fortune to escheat to the state...
5.15.2006 3:40pm
Joshua Marinacci (mail):
Not exactly a blog, but my great uncle Rudy found some college newspaper writing of mine online when he was Googling our last name (a rather uncommon one). My grandfather died when my dad was twelve, and my family hadn't heard from Rudy in probably 30 years, so without the internet I probably never would have met him. I'm now preparing some equipment and software to record interviews with him and scan about a hundred years of family photos.
5.15.2006 4:01pm
LTM (mail):
Funny that it happens to both Oris and I right as we read this post. A distant relative in Nigeria died and left me a fortune from his oil exploration. I still find it hard to believe that I had family out there, or that his name was MUHAMMED WEINSTEIN.
5.15.2006 4:03pm
Rodger Lodger (mail):
What is the relationship between me and others with the same last name who I dug up on the internet, given that my family name was coined by my father?
5.15.2006 5:03pm
Rodger Lodger (mail):
What is the relationship between me and others with the same last name who I dug up on the internet, given that my family name was coined by my father?
5.15.2006 5:03pm
Dave Hardy (mail) (www):
Not by blog, but by webpage. I was contacted by descendants of my great-grandmother's first marriage, to the first JP of Phoenix, AZ Territory. He was relieved of duty after he shot a man in a street fight, and I could fill them in on the details.
5.15.2006 6:34pm
nyejm (mail) (www):
Not blogging on my story either, but when I was researching my student note for our law review, I recognized the middle (i.e., maiden) name of a judge who wrote an opinion in the case I was discussing. Turns out she's my second cousin, once removed. So I sent her a letter introducing myself, and we've since chatted on the phone. Kind of fun.
5.16.2006 11:32am
Ted:
When my great great grandfather and his brother came to this country, their name was changed. Nobody knows for sure what it was before, but as a result of the change, it is unique. Anybody with my last name is no more distantly related than 4th cousin.

Googling for my last name (once you get past all the zoning references because of book on zoning law that my grandfather wrote) I have found a number of relatives from the "other side" of the family that I have then contacted, and have also had relatives contact me.
5.16.2006 12:18pm