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Resources for Reunion Committees
Wilson High Reunion Committees
are entitled to the use the secrets of our special classmate Jeri Hemphill
Livingstone, Class of 1963, in locating their missing classmates. Jeri
has found hundreds of classmates that other people could not find. We
have asked Jeri to give us her secrets and she provided the following
information. But first a little background on Jeri.
Early in 2006, Dick Johnson, long time chairman of the
1962 reunion committee and a star in his own way of finding classmates had a
heart attach and went to Heaven. While in Heaven , Dick meets Julie
Corrigan who Dick had listed in the class of 1962 missing list. Julie
corrected Dick and told him she was actually in the class of 1963 and her
class had a special angel named Jeri Hemphill Livingstone that was great at
finding missing classmates. We believe Dick pulled some strings in
Heaven because shortly after that encounter, Jeri gets a
message from above suggesting she contact the class of 1962 and help find
some missing classmates. In a couple weeks time, Jeri found 60
classmates that had been missing for 40 years. Some were dead, some in
prison, but most living healthy productive lives. Jeri cant help all the
classes, but provides the following information to help the reunion
committees.
The most valuable website I found --
although it wouldn't benefit the class of 86 - is the Vitalsearch
website for finding married names from the wedding license data by
entering maiden names ... but the data only covers marriages in
California from 1960 to 1985.
Prepare by gathering married names where
possible, middle names or initials if at all possible (the senior
yearbooks are a good source) and be sure you have verified full names
and spelling (i.e. Randy may be Randolph, but may also be Randall....or
actually Randy)
The first place I look, if the name is not
too common, is
www.birthdatabase.com ... enter first and last name and approximate
age, and it will bring up everyone nationwide within about a 5 year
range of that age. First, last, middle initial, birthday, city, state
and zip. I usually focus just on Calif if there are too many. And I
then make a list of possibles to check out, based on YOB, middle initial
if known, and geographic location. The advantage of this one is the
limited age-range. The disadvantage, no place to enter middle initial
or state if you think you know it.
Then there are two databases that help you
zero in. They somewhat overlap. Both are free.
These give great info, depending on how much
info you already have. They both will list the same person numerous
times, based on various address history. All these bases seem to pull
from
government records such as DMV and so on.
The free version of Private Eye also gives cross reference"possible
relatives" info like spouse's name, grown children, etc. who may have
been associated with the person. That is a great lead if you hit a dead
end with unlisted numbers. .. and are really determined to find
someone.. the person you seek may be unlisted, but their kids may not.
I try every combination - first name & last
for the whole state, last name only with city, first initial and last
name, etc. If the person is unlisted, or if the name is too common, you
will run out of luck here.
But if you get really close, are fairly sure
you have the right person, right age, right city and state but cannot
find a listing, that's when you decide if you want to pay money for more
info (which may get you unlisted phone numbers.)
www.privateeye.com gives you a
one-time search, I think 6 names, for about $10, a 24-hr search for
$14.95, or a month for about $39. I am presently in the middle of a
month I have paid for. With this service, you get home addresses, and
last known phone numbers IF AVAILABLE
(the free version lets you know if a phone
number is available.) Disclaimer though - these phone numbers often
have wrong A/Cs or NO A/Cs, repeating the same number over and over for
various towns and states. So the accuracy leaves much to be desired,
especially if the person has moved around from one A/C to another.
Sometimes I'll try the same number with a half dozen different A/Cs
before I give up.
Last, if you hear someone has died, and want
to try to verify, there's the Social Security Death Index
which you enter thru
www.rootsweb.com. That too is a
huge database but if the name isn't too awfully common, can be helpful.
The class of 1962 had been relying upon property records since Dick
Johnson was a real estate appraiser, he had access to property title
records. If your committee has access to these records, it can be a
helpful tool. Also, if you have any classmates that are in law
enforcement, they may offer some suggestions on locating missing classmates.
Good luck in finding those missing classmates. We hope these ideas
help you in your search. If you have any suggestions on tools to help
locate missing missing classmates, send us a note and share your secrets and we will make them available to all reunion committees. |