So what you might ask? Nothing much special about meeting a close relative is there? Well there is in thise case, because he is 62, I’m 58 and this was our first meeting. We didn’t even know each other existed until New Year’s Eve last.
He’s actually my half brother and we share the same father. The story is complicated, and is personal in any case, but my son and I had been researching our family for about 5 years and had put some of that information out onto the web when my brother decided to dig into what had happened to his dad, and came across us straight off. Within a couple of hours we were in touch and had verified beyond doubt that we were related by blood, and last night we met.
There are the usual things that you would expect to be the same or similar in siblings, physical features, mannerisms and characteristics, but we have also followed a parallel work line for the last few years and might easily have met through both being in the same industry; certainly we know, and have worked, with some of the same people.
And there are other coincidences; within our respective families, the choices of names for children and their children have also followed a remarkable parallel.
I have been writing elsewhere today about the power of technology these days. I have researched an incident from 1970 that I saw live because someone has put the TV recording of it on You Tube. It took me less that 30 seconds to type in four words and the top response was the film clip I was seeking to confirm my memory and I could write the piece that I wanted to in the safe knowledge that I had my facts right. The internet, together with various software products, enable me to find data and anaylse it in a couple of hours where, when I started work, it have taken so long to get even half way there as to render the exercise a waste of time.
There may be some evil stuff on the web, and it may enable some with evil intent to further their aims, but here the internet allowed someone to not just find that they had a whole new branch of their family, but also to find out about their father, and to come to know him a little more. Isn’t that just something?
The Voice of the Bloke at the Back 