changed up to be about me and not about our adorable fictional character in botswana. :)
i've been asked to help a family- a daughter, to be precise, in finding her father.
she lives in Israel, he live here.
so...
after a few moments on the internet i found his name on those sites that if you pay this amount of money... etc., you can have this etc., info- which i won't do!
but sticking to my guns, i looked closer and found a couple of names that kept showing up when his did. i searched out in the white pages and found a phone number for one and dialed.
a woman answered. and she knew the man i was looking for. it turns out that she was an ex wife- but she did not have any information on him, being that she had been out of touch for years and, she included, he owed her money.
to me she was lovely and quite helpful, giving me more names to work from.
i ended up finding the man's niece, her husband, and their two children- but addresses only.
i also was given the man's parent's names- but was told that if they were still alive it would be a surprise, do to age.
and i found that to be exactly true. the man i am looking for, 'E''s parents were 'H' and 'G'. i found H's name mentioned in a newsletter, in a 'In Memory' listing. i called the Rabbi that was listed on the following page.
we didn't speak- but i did speak with his lovely and helpful wife who gave me the info that her husband Rabbi H did do the service and knew where he was buried. i then acquired that info and the following morning gave the temple where he was interred, a call.
contact info is kept, but in this case not a phone number- it is an address.
meanwhile...my head is thinking...
i really did not want to write the man a letter. it seems so old fashioned. and so unreliable! how would i know if he ever received it- or if he just refused to respond?
i thought back to what E's ex wife had told me... she went with him to where the child was living some 25 pluse years ago, only to find that the child and her mother no longer lived there. he was so distraught that he was hospitalized for a few days, suffering from a mental/emotional break down. i can only hope that he wants to be reunited should i be able to reach him!
this morning i sat down at the comp and the array of people that i've been trying to find played in my head once more. if only i had a phone number!
i opened up my facebook and went in to get caught up when it occurred to me that i should try looking there.
i typed in the youngest one's name. found a match and msg'd him. he responded right away- but it was not the right man.
i then typed in E's niece's name- and found a match...looked in her friend's list and saw other familiar names. bingo! i sent her a msg telling her the story.
it wasn't long before she responded. i had found her- but she had lost contact with her uncle 4 years ago...
again, i'm at a dead end- well, i do have an address.
write? say? send certified?
hmmmmm....
7 comments:
Like I said, give me the name and I can at least enter it in ancestry.com and see if anything comes up. They have phone books from everywhere on there. And even if you don't find him, you have a possibility for a new occupation to add to your list!
A natural slueth you are. If I was a betting man, I'd bet on you finding him; alive or dead.
What a remarkable woman you are! I am sure you will find him, especially with your detective skills at work!
Good luck! What a difficult task you have! It sounds like he would probably love to hear that his daughter is looking for him, so maybe try writing... it certainly couldn't hurt, and then keep trying the other stuff too. You are doing a great job so far!
Wow! Amazing story! I hope you find him. I'm sure he would want to be reunited despite his previous disappointment. Let us know what happens!
I love a detective story. How interesting! I don't think I can add any help beyond what's been said. Good Luck!
Your mom has a good idea with Ancestry. My mom and I were super sleuths ourselves last year and it resulted in a family being reunited after the parents were killed and all the children being adopted out! One of the children was my adopted brother. He's been reunited with aunts and cousins who have wondered for years what ever happened to him and his siblings. It was a great experience to be a part of it. But a lot of it had to do with getting some info from Ancestry. Good Luck!
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