Need Info On A Person [resolved]

[sheepdog 10]

I have a god mother who lives in Oglesby Illinios. I haven't been in real close contact with her over the years, but did keep somewhat in touch, a few letters and phone calls every year, and Christmas cards, that sort of thing. I tried to call her today to wish her a happy Thanksgivingand her phone has been disconected. I fear the worst, she is quite elderly, I'm afraid she has most likely passed away, but how can I find out? I did google Oglesby but didn't find much, there was a face book page I would of liked to have posted on but I'm not a member of face book so that wouldn't work. I did find a number for the county clerk, but nothing for the police station or much else. I really don't know who I should call anyway. I would appreciate any input on this.

[k_nitin_r 8]

sheepdog,I would suggest you send a letter, an email, or perhaps even do a FaceBook search to find out about her. I found a lot of people on FaceBook but there is a good number of people who are not hooked onto social networks yet (they still hang on to their Hotmail email accounts and have not moved through the progression of the times from Hotmail to Yahoo and now to GMail).When performing a Google search, I would suggesting performing a search for her by her full name rather than for the city. There are many sites out there that try to grab as much information as they can about people from their email addresses, postal addresses, employee records, and students records to their credit history, postings on social networking websites, participation in open source projects, and forums and blogs that he or she has been active on. Autovita is one such software system that has been created as a research project by students from the International Institute of Information Technology in India, and the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. It simply searches through the results returned by the Google search engine but there are other websites out there like RapLeaf (RapLeaf started off as a website that would aggregate as much information as it could but later it seems to have changes its approach and I believe they now offer commercial services to perform background checks).You can sign up on FaceBook rather easily - it does not require you to provide your cell phone number so you will not get targeted for text messaging spam, even if you do have a text messaging plan. All you have to provide them with is your email address along with your name and a password. FaceBook is pretty efficient at mapping all of your relationships along a graph and if you knew somebody else who knew the person you are looking for, FaceBook will display a contact recommendation for you to review. You may even find people you went to high school without remembering their names because FaceBook does a really good of matching up people to figure out if they know each other or if they are complete strangers. Apparently, if newspaper reports are to be believed, FaceBook indicates that there is less than six degrees of separation between any two people in the world and the figure is more accuratly represented by a figure between four and five, according to FaceBook. With the number of people on FaceBook today and the amount of data that FaceBook collects about them, it could be true, but I find it hard to imagine that there exists less than five degrees of separation between someone at a shopping mall in Centurion, Africa, and somebody working on a ranch in Texas, in the United States. In my opinion, six degrees of separation would also be too few when considering people from different parts of the world.Right after the Christmas season, which is the busy time for your business, you might want to plan a vacation to Illinois to perhaps pay a visit. If your knock on the door is answered, you perhaps found a place to crash for the night and, if not, you can hear about what happened from the neighbours and check into a hotel and make the most of your stay there by heading to the hotel's fitness center, treating yourself to the rich chocolate cake they have at the restaurant within the hotel, and doing some shopping from whatever stores they have around the hotel. Whatever you do, I would avoid the hotel's gift store because they hike up the prices of everything they sell to the extent that it is a ripoff.

[sheepdog 10]

Thanks for the information. I just don't want to sign up for Facebook. Not sure why at this point, I just keep hearing about all the viruses and stuff you can get, and now you are warning me about text messages too, so I just think I will stay away from that pit. Since I don't even have a cell phone, I guess that's a crazy thing to worry about. The fact that Facebook was recently hacked is not helping to build my confidence very much either. I did google her name, and all I came up with was an obituary, not hers, where she was mentioned as a surving aunt to the lady that had passed away. I think what worries me more than the fact that she might have passed away is the fact that she hasn't, and may be stuck in a nursing home somewhere. I did a short stint in my long job history in a nursing home. All I can say is I hope like hell I die when I get old. I truely hated that job. The management was more concerned with keeping the place sparkling clean than the care and comfort of the elderly people that had to live there. I remember one old man who was always in a wheel chair. One day I saw him come walking up the hallway just lickity split, really shocked me. I found out later that they kept him TIED DOWN to the chair so he couldn't get up and walk because he "dribbled" and would mess up their shinny clean floors. What really frosted the cake was when I heard one of the nurses, who probably weighed in pretty close to 300lbs herself, talking about how he was getting fat! You have no idea how close I can to slaping the stuffing out of her and telling her she didn't have room to talk, and he wouldn't be fat if they'd turn him loose and let him get some exercise. Anyone who is stuck in one of those hell holes and doesn't have any friends or relatives that check in on them regularly get treated much the same as a carcuss hanging in a meat locker. You know, I bet that's pretty close to being right about how there is only six degrees of separation between people, at least in this country. There may be a few more if you look at the entire world. But here in the USA we do so much moving around and traveling and getting involved with people in our lines of occupation or just interests and hobbies, I'm sure we all know someone who knows someone who knows someone........I definatly do like your last idea of going up there, and the chocolate cake part!!! Not sure I could find her house, it's been probably 10 years or so since I was up there, I stopped by to see her after delivering some pups to Chicago. Or maybe I was coming home with some, been long enough I don't remember. That would of been back about the time I was having some dog imported in from Hungaria and Ohara was the closes international airport that had quarenteen facilities. Anyway, thanks for the input. I'm going to keep digging around. May call the County Clerk on Monday and see where that leads me. If anyone else has any ideas, I'm all ears!

[Cryptonite 0]

Well, that's sad to hear.

I think you should put more information's in your search instead of putting an information's that won't really be helping much.

Full name,Email,Facebook,Myspace,Birthday,locations and maybe some more personal information's that you know.

This isn't much help like what the other user above me gave.

[rpgsearcherz 5]

Resources I would go with are:whitepagesFacebook (if you can not find the person you are looking for, maybe you will find others that know her?)Other familyYou should also be able to do research by calling the local city courthouse to see if there is a death certificate or something like that filed, or maybe they can even help lead you in the right direction.Hope you find her!

[k_nitin_r 8]

FaceBook is more of a website on which personal information gets stolen but as long as you do not do anything out of the ordinary, you should be good when it comes to viruses, trojans, and other malware. FaceBook's search does not really help much because it only searches the name fields of the profile or the name field of FaceBook pages (similar to the concept of groups on other social networking websites). Orkut seems to do a better job of searching because you can enter the name, city, academic institutions, and work organizations of the people you are looking for and can narrow down the search results by quite a bit. FaceBook's advantage is in getting you contact suggestions based on the people you currently have on your contact list so it takes a little while before it 'learns' of the people that you are connected to. If you have watched Hackers 2, you are probably aware of the extent to which this information can be used to identify possible terrorist organization links. The baddies do tend to cover their tracks rather well but if they get tempted to get onto FaceBook, they're bound to get tracked by an intelligence agency somewhere across the world.

[sheepdog 10]

Ok, now I'm really staying off Face book! If the governement is going to track me as a terrorist I don't even want to go there!But seriously, my godmother is not going to be on any such social media. She was 80-90 years old. I did ask her several times if she was going to get a computer but she never did. I do keep in touch with my Aunt online, had always hoped my Godmother would get online so we could communicate more frequently.If I can find the number again, I'll call the county clerk's office on monday. Will let you all know what I find out.

[k_nitin_r 8]

There was a news article that I read today saying that the government of Thailand can sentence individuals to fifteen years of imprisonment, or at least three years of imprisonment, for simply clicking the Like button on a FaceBook post that criticizes the monarchy of Thailand, let alone making an actual post in criticism.

A couple of years ago, the folks at Skype figured that old folk would not want to use a computer to be able to talk to someone over Skype because they have telephones. Cell phones were a big leap enough and if I had to go from using computers to retina based displays and data processing implants it would be an advancement that I would skip on. Skype made Skype phones that are just like regular phones but they hook up to the Skype network instead of to a telephone line. If new technology were to be adapted to people who are accustomed to technology prevalent during their time, it would create a greater acceptance for the new technology. There are rumors of FaceBook going along the lines of a Skype phone but to hook up to the FaceBook network. FaceBook already includes video chat as a feature. Instead of a combo-keypad that most cellphones include, I would look for a keypad with dedicated keys for numbers and for alphabets.

[sheepdog 10]

Well, I made some calls today. Got the old proverbial run around. Tried the county clerk first, when I gave her the address the lady I talked to said she was out in the county and they wouldn't have any information. She told me to call the police. Well, I tried them, they said they had had no calls on her, (I almost giggled and told him I really didn't think a 90 year old would be out doing any drive by shootings or muggings) They told me to call the Sherriff. Anyway, they said they would check out her former residence and the did send an officer out there. There were toys and stuff around the house so I knew she was no longer there. I guess the deputy went back later and talked to the people that lived there now, they told him she had been moved to an assisted living complex. The Sherriff's department was really nice, and actually helpful. They were nice enough to give me the phone number which I called, but the the people there said they had to check with her first, they didn't know if she had a phone in her room or not, and I really didn't get a lot of info, but I do know she is alive at any rate. Just wish I could talk to her.

[k_nitin_r 8]

I can imagine what it must be like when you go through the legal system or through a government-run office and they direct you from one desk to another or from one person to another. In India, that is usually something that happens when there is a large bureaucratic structure or somebody wants to ask you for a bribe or perhaps even both. The utilities departments are quite different now because there are multiple agencies that you can go to for paying your bill. I cannot imagine a law enforcement office in India offering details that you were offered because they seem to remain tight-lipped unless you show up with a court order requesting for the information or you know somebody within the system who can help you out. In fact, if you do know somebody within the system, you also have the option of calling him or her up and avoiding a traffic fine while being in clear violation of the traffic rules. There is even a heavily publicized incident of a former high court judge who puts a red beacon on his vehicle and drives through a no-entry to save a couple of minutes every day. The police has a ribbon (those red-and-white things that usually tie together traffic cones when roads are under construction) put across two poles and this former judge drives close enough to the ribbon, opens his window, talks out a pair of scissors, cuts the ribbon, and drives through, all under the watchful eye of a policeman who feels bullied because of the contacts that the former high court judge has to work the system against him. The policemen feel bullied because he does not try to get his car under the ribbon - he literally cuts the ribbon so imagine they have to tie it up over and over again or get another ribbon while having a policeman stand there to block traffic. It's intentionally inconveniencing and disrespecting the policemen instead of minding his own business and getting his car under the ribbon, even if it is against traffic laws. There is an article and a photograph in a local Indian newspaper about the incident that occurs every morning and there is apparently nothing that anybody can do about it. Perhaps publicly criticizing such acts as bullying would seem appropriate in an attempt to change his behavior... or maybe instead sending across a bill for getting new ribbons every week so at least there's a fresh clean ribbon there instead of a dusty old one.Speaking of your god mother, I'm glad she is alive and well. An assisted living complex does not sound all that good. When I retire, I'm hoping to get to stay in a rather small house and getting one of those robotic vacuum cleaners that can clean up, with the hardest things to do being getting the dust bag emptied - unless I get a dust mask too to make the job more tolerable. BTW, the term "assisted living complex" seems like an euphemism. It did not sound like a very negative thing.

[iGuest 3]

Topic is resolved.Please PM any moderator to continue this discussion. Until then, this topic is closed.