High School Yearbook ~ I Did In Fact Stay Cool

Recently I saw this quote on social media and laughed harder than really was appropriate. I then started thinking about past me, old friends, and fun times. I would never go back and do it again, but remembering the fun times is nice.

Whenever yearbook photo hints show up on Ancestry I always look at them suspiciously. As is true with all hints on Ancestry each record must be carefully considered. I ask myself is that really the person I am searching.

Launching off from my own profile on Ancestry I did a search for Yearbook photos for me. The results - 1000s of photos with links to the yearbook with exactly the same name as mine. When I narrowed it to Canada there was still more than a hundred. Not one of those entries was actually me. 

Many years ago I went for my first criminal record check required for my field of work. Since it was my first time I didn't realize they don't normally put you in a locked room & finger print you before saying 'you are free to go'. The tone they used was cold & distant. On the one hand I thought it was normal since I had no other experience to compare it to, but 19 year old small town me was super scared. It was also my first time in downtown Vancouver which even then was already known as the Downtown Eastside (DTES) . 

Several months later I had to do another criminal record search in the small town I grew up. When nothing more than taking my paperwork happened I asked the officer why it was different. He held up about 30 feet of connected computer paper telling me the officers in Vancouver thought they had this person. Since the town was small & my family known the officer knew I wasn't that person. He explained that the name was the same, the birth-month one off, and the birth province one over. Apparently these are typical switches in trying to allude identification. 

This was honestly the first time I realized names are very common, and maybe mine was more common than most.

In the years since I have often wondered why I am always 'randomly' selected for extra screening including being SSS'd on a few trips. Every time it happens I think 'random my ass'. BUT there is nothing I can do to eliminate the criminal history of someone I share a name with. Maybe I should get a NEXUS card? In the meantime I choose my clothing & footwear for travel days carefully knowing I will be searched.

BUT it is important not to write off all photos that appear in the yearbook searches. I found these of my father-in-law long before he was a father.

Ron in the back row - red arrow
Glendale Highschool Football team
1961

Ron - 2nd row third from the left
Grade 5 & 6 class
Rolph Street Public School
1958

I wonder how long before one of the records that appears for my own search are actually me.

Finding your relatives in old school records!!!

This is why I search - 

Cause ... 

You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family you know!

***Any errors are my own. Please send me any updates or corrections via the comments at the bottom of this blog post***

Links:

Amy Johnson Crow, 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge
https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/52-ancestors-in-52-weeks/

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