Old friends you can't find online

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
81

Anyone that is looking for me is going to have a hard time of it. My last name is in the top five most common last names, and my first is in the top ten most common first names.

When I google my name, I get over 300 million hits. I tried googling my full name, but my middle name is a common last name as well, so I got a lot of hits for people with my first name and my middle name as their last name.

I have also noted that when I google a name, some of the first (unpaid) hits are for companies that promise to tell you everything about persons sharing that name (for a fee, of course).

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In high school–both schools I went to–all the other kids treated me like absolute garbage… save for one. His name was Trevor. He and I got along really well. The fact both of us were pretty much in the same boat socially helped that a lot, of course. He was very intelligent and cool, though his hygiene level left a lot to be desired (my best guess is that he took a shower about every two weeks).

I’m not sure why exactly he disappeared. My best guess is that he got sent to an ‘alternative’ school, or perhaps plain ol’ juvie. Guy had sticky fingers (mostly at school and in stores) and often broke into buildings and such with theft and vandalism on the mind.

Either way, I lost contact with him in 2008. Over the years after, I tried to find him, to no avail…

…until this year, when I found a thread about him on an obituary website’s message board. Turns out, he died of a drug overdose in January of 2012. One of these days, I’m making my way out to the cemetery where he’s buried to pay my respects.

And then there was James. Like Trevor, he was the only kid who gave me the time of day–except this was in the sixth grade. He and I had quite a bond going on, but it was short-lived, as his family relocated to Michigan in the middle of the school year.

This was in 2004, and I haven’t been able to get in touch with him since. This problem is probably a “needle in a haystack” one, both because he has a very common first and last name, and because he shares his first and last name with several semi-famous people.

He also looked like a very generic white male–no permanent distinguishing features whatsoever–and so likely still does. That adds to the challenge of recognizing him from a photograph.

For the record, I say “permanent” because he sported a very obsolete “bowl cut” type hairstyle back then; if he has any sense whatsoever he has left that behind by now. :stuck_out_tongue:

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I was fascinated by this too, and would like to know more.

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I’ve found a couple people for my high school reunion by searching real estate transactions, which are public records and also often include addresses and phone numbers. Just because someone doesn’t have a social media presence, that doesn’t mean there’s no trace of them on the internet.

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I’ve tried over the years to find people from the old days - mainly the ones with unusual names. I did come across the guy who took me to my 8th grade graduation dance - he’s a bit of a big-shot engineer with the state - and we met for dinner one night. I emailed him a few times but he never answered - oh well.

One of my sister’s FB friends has the same last name as a former classmate - a relatively rare name. I messaged him but he doesn’t know my classmate. That was disappointing.

Mostly I’ve had no luck. Not that it really matters - I searched more out of curiosity than anything. I was hoping for some nice surprises, but came up empty.