Anonymity

absent that made me Quite often someone in our family will say 'Ask Mum, she's a mine of useless information!' Can't work out whether to be pleased or not

Movedalot I haven't taken an interest in the life of anyone in particular. I also, for example, have my mind cluttered with details about jingle's household linen, especially bath mats, her serendipitous discovery of hidden chocolate originally destined for other family members and her account of posting while wearing nothing but a shower cap. Unfortunately, useful pieces of information do not lodge themselves in my brain half so readily.

Gosh, pages and pages of a man with my name, who is American. No sign of little ole me

I appear to be an american

I've just googled my real name and am absolutely amazed at the number...it's not that common a surname, and my namesakes are everything from authors to professional sportswomen!

I, myself, am not among them though...which isn't surprising as I'm not on any professional register or social network.

Absent with respect I don't think you have enough information to find out my name or address. It is heartening to see that you have shown such an interest in me though!

I am sure that if someone was grooming me, as happens to some young people, they would have quite a lot to go on but still not enough to find me without a team of detectives.

I put that challenge forward in the hope that it would reassure anyone who had been frightened by this topic. I believe it is possible to go on any forum with an unidentifiable alias and not be outed unless somone is sufficiently motivated to pay for expensive experts to track you down. I do not believe ity is as easy as it may appear.

BTW, I don't think you do know my profession absent. Greatnan assumed she did but was not correct.

We share a common Christian name and an unusual surname.

On FB only two other people share my real name and we are all related through marriage.

I know my BFs 'name' and she knows mine, I know she looks up my comments but don't mind. The only problem is I can't let off steam about her annoying ways on here in case she sees it!!!! Only kidding Doggy

Nothing interesting at all for my real name - and on Facebook there are 127 of us!

By Googling DH I found out everything about him from his first job to his OBE, I even got to see his companies house entry. There were links to company newspapers in which I too was mentioned and even the number and sex of my children.

Movedalot I won't take up your challenge but I do remember some of the things that you have posted – where you live, where your son went to school, your profession, your daughter-in-law's nationality, your holiday destination spring to my mind (I have a retentive memory for useless trivia) and no doubt there are lots of other small pieces of information. You may even appear in a photograph of one of the meet-ups. I am reliably informed that collecting and collating a number of small pieces of information and considerable patience are pretty much all it takes.

In my case, googling my name (which is unique) produces "about 127,000 results" (I've just done it while typing this post). Very few of the entries are personal but would certainly confirm conclusions that can be drawn from the snippets of information I have posted on gransnet.

In the past I googled my full name and my maiden name and only came up with others with the same name. All seemed to have written very learned papers.

I issue a challenge to you all to find out who I really am. If you do, please PM me and then I will tell the rest of you that I have been discovered!

I have just Googled my real married name and I found a painting of a name sake C1700s in a National Trust house somewhere.

A primary school has my maiden name attached to it.

I should really be doing something more useful this morning!

posp agreed!

Oh Marelli gosh you have just taken me back years. I remember going to see Joyce Grenfell and she sang that song, oh happy days. I apologise for going off subject. And I didn't realise people were so worried about losing there anonymity, I have never really thought about this before, it could be quite worrying I suppose but I think and hope that all of us come on Gransnet for a good debate and friendship. I know I am fairly new and it took me a little while after joining before I posted, but you have made me feel welcome and I just feel that Gransnet is a pretty united front and would join together to protect its own and that is why I think identity is safe for those who need it to be. For my own part, I am just interested in what everyone has to say and it doesn't matter where you live, although with my memory, even if I knew, I would have forgotten by the next day.

Well yes, I think genealogy research is different in that you do need the key information to start with. A distant cousin contacted me via my DD (FB again!) after her mother had traced her relatives on an ancestry site.

I was shocked to see my name, date of birth, my ex husband's name, my children's names, their dates of birth and my all of family's details etc on a website for the ancestors a family tree. Nothing is private.

...'as stately as a galleon, we sailed across the floor,
Doing the military two-step, as in the days of yore'

Oh here I go again.....

I think the ship should have an e on it?

Marelli
I'm a fully rigged ship, someone who frightens or a French bulldog - whichever way you look at it, I think the cap fits!

If you reveal details about yourself in your profile or in a post someone out there can work out who you are. Mrs. Grumppa (not her Gransnet ID) spotted a detail about someone, and we worked out who she was very quickly. We were subsequently introduced to her, for the first time, at a function but did not make any reference to Gransnet, respecting her use of a nom de plume.

Moral: most of us know how to "play the game", but if you really want to conceal your identity you do have to be very discreet.

If you've ever been a company director, or a board member of any organisation, even in a voluntary unpaid role - your name will be out there in the public domain, with your detail, date of birth, etc.

Same if you are a local councillor, etc.

I'm an Italian water pump . Nothing pretty, though - a WASTE water pump!

One of my daughters (not the obvious one) was once the subject of a quirky news item. She was known by her married name and living in Cheshire. As her father and I were divorced and I had remarried I had also changed my name - and was living at the opposite end of the country. My mother; also divorced and a different name from me was living in Manchester. Within 24 hours the Daily Mail had reporters on mine AND my mother's doorsteps; they had no problem at all in tracking down the relationships between us and coming up with the addresses.