Google My Name

Have you ever Googled your name? Are you the result? Because I am. When I Google my name, the top result is me. The real me; not just somebody by my same name.

There are 72 relevant hits when I search my first and last name in quotation marks. I have to use quotation marks because my last name is a first name, and if don't use quotation marks, there are about a billion hits, and most of them just happen to have my first name and my last name (as somebody's first name) somewhere in them.

While I was looking through the hits, identifying the ones that are me and the ones that are not me, I found a few pages I didn't even know existed. I remembered that I had spoken to a reporter about Dick Cheney's visit to BYU. I remembered some work I had done with Freshman Academy. The other hits were for my WVR piece that I blogged about on Monday.

You may not know it, but Google is FANTASTIC for genealogy. Google "newton van dalsem." He's my great-grandpa. Yeah, the one with the matches. Google "sherman danby." The hits there are for my great-grandpa and his son (my grandfather). Yeah, those are really him. Google "stephen sexton chicago pioneer." He's my fourth-great-grandpa, and you can get his biographical sketch as simply as that. Google any ancestor you've got with a unique name. If he's out there, and somebody has transcribed a biographical sketch about him, written about something he's done, or anything of the sort, you'll find him. You might have to dig through irrelevant data, but you'll find him. Also, you'll probably want to put the names in quotes. And if you know the middle name, try it with and without the middle name.

So, what happens when you Google your name? Is it the real you?