What you learn when...

What happens when you google your name or someone you know?

My best friend Danielle, thanks to her distinctive name, appears pretty high up from her time at the wolf sanctuary. The Gap year website has chosen her quote to use online: "The people were amazing - both the permanent staff and fellow volunteers. I made loads of new friends and have kept in touch with a lot of people. The work was great, I enjoyed the building and maintenance projects and learned a lot! The wolves were also fantasic, I fell in love with all of them and developed real bonds with some. I miss the wolves and the people loads!" Ah, bless

I googled Martyn Richards and discovered a snippet of dad's writing on a strangely named website about the Umbrella Club called Musical English Lessons. Weirdly it's not available if you search pages by UK. I discovered that:
"Once a thousand strong, Coventry Umbrella Club had become a shadow of its former glories. It had slimmed down to fewer than fifty members. My wife and I are still members of the club. Its various activities now operate through the home of its Secretary.The Umbrella Club was opened in November 1955 by Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe and Spike Milligan. The trio were then presenting their "Goon Show" at the Coventry "Hippodrome" Theatre, now demolished.Early magazines of the club contained entries from Coventry poet Philip Larkin and city novellist Susan Hill. This early heritage, however, has only recently re-emerged due to the reminiscing leading to the celebration of the club's Golden Jubilee in November 2005."
Wow. I mean seriously wow. Philip Larkin? Harry Secombe. Spike Milligan. All giants. This split second research actually managed to catch my interest in te same way that tuning into radio 4/radio 2 does on my way back from drama rehearsal at night. I also discovered there is a Martyn Richards who is a Visiting Teaching Fellow at the Centre for Peace Studies, Coventry University. I wonder how many times he and dad have submitted articles to that toilet paper substitue of a local newspaper? I wonder how many local journalists have been confused?

Antonia Richards, Antonia Tomas and Antonia Tomas Mascaro are very numerous but nothing enlightening.

My cousin Laura's face pops up on image results when you google her name!

Despite what my nan thought of her parents choice for her first name there are, it seems, quite a few other Winifred Richards out there, including a peer. Not that that's an accolade. This particular Winifred can't be particularly well heeled however, being on page 40182 (Prince Charles is on page 1).

Rather wonderfully, my quiet, unassuming, hard working auntie Shelagh gets a mention and is at position number 1, 2, and 3 of the Google search for her name. Bless! Companies would kill for that kind of listing... Here's what's said online:
"Last but not least we have to say we are also very grateful to Shelagh Monks for being our ever hard working tea lady who looks after us all with a little help from Dave by making sure we all have our welcoming cups of tea at all our meetings, from the bottom of our hearts Leigh, Richard & Jean thank you all so much, we could not do it without you all. "
And
"We have almost reached another milestone in the history of the Coventry & District RP Branch as we will be celebrating 30 years of giving support information and above all friendship to so many who have walked through our doors suffering from Retinitis Pigmentosa... It was great to take a trip down memory lane and there are so many we would love to mention, perhaps one or two more such as Betty Hall who always kept our refreshment trays in order just as Shelagh Monks does today," both from http://www.the-eyesite.org/
And
"Shelagh Monks went to the Locarno in 1967 with a friend (after having found the Lanchester College too noisy) and met her future husband (who was dressed as a page boy)" http://www.vornster.co.uk/AIW/pages/library/lib2.html

As for my other half, Al, there is apparently a singer, song writer and performer from Royston, Camridgeshire, a mountain climber, an American political photographer, and a recently deceased paralympian. In fact there are so many websites with names like alex.harris.com that I'm starting to think there must be some implicit arrongance that comes with having the name and start to forgive my very own Alexander for his occasional big-headed moments. God love him, he does it with charm!

Finally there is a Gemma Richards who is a research technician in Veterinary Science at Bristol Uni, a model and a hollywood actress. There are LOADS of Gemma Harris', we're dead common! On Linked In there are 16 at least including my own profile from when I was at Leukaemia CARE. There is also a web designer in Nottingham, a lawyer in Cambridge. and apparently a keen slalom skiier. Lots of my press releases and networking profiles from the last few years are online too.

Googlegangers. It's a fascinating business. Sometimes you learn things that someone has tried to tell you but you've been too busy to hear. Sometimes it's just a giggle.