The Quest to Find Classmates

Finding classmates is not a simple task. It has, after all been 39 years since we were in High School. What has happened in 39 years? People have moved, many multiple times. Families have moved. Names have changed. Some parents and classmates have passed away.

When we were in high school the internet wasn't the tool it is today -- in fact the internet wasn't!

So how do we now make up for lost time and get a complete list of classmates? It would appear that there are a number of tools out there. And there are, but they are not all that they appear to be.

hooverhs.org

Your old high school's website, in our case, hooverhs.org. I have found that very few people have registered their current address here but you can find your way through to the alumni info and find the announcement for the reunion and contact information.

www.classmates.com

This site is popular with many. It is free to sign up but unless you pay to become a "Gold Member" you really don't benefit from the site. Unfortunately this makes some people think they have contacted their class but unless they put in contact information other than being contacted through the site they will get very little information.

http://www.alumniclass.com/hooverhs

A site that looks like it could be your alumni site. It is however another commercial website and in order to get connected to your former classmates you need to pay for a subscription to get access to their information.

www.reunionannouncements.com

They let you submit your reunion but I have yet to find the information submitted.

www.classreport.org/usa/ca/glendale/hhs/1970/

This site is run off donations. It offers you a forum for a wide range of information.

Social networking is another avenue. We are using both FaceBook and MySpace to see who we can find.

There is no substitution, however, for people. For each person you find you have the opportunity to find everyone they have maintained contact with. If you have any suggestion on how to find people you haven't seen in 20+ years -- PLEASE let us know.


I would also like to acknowledge the efforts that have already been made:

• Judge Butler got the ball rolling with an email that went out.
  
• Joe Scavo who did the initial mailing
• Donna Jones Gregory who found a big chunk of people and passed them on to Ken and Joe. She also created the MySpace presence for our class.
• Rosemary who has taken over the list maintaining and continuing to update it..