CLICK AND DOUBLE CLICK: SEARCH FOR LOST SCHOOL CHUMS AND RELATIVES WITH INTERNET

Are you looking for someone? The Internet is a great way to reunite with family, friends and lost acquaintances.

In fact, an entire cottage industry has developed on the World Wide Web from people's need to search for other people. Some of these services are free; others cost you money. This is one good place to read the fine print.

Sometimes searching for someone can be as simple as typing in their name in a search engine or telephone book site.

Try it just for fun. I'd suggest my favorite search engine: Google.

www.google.com

Type in your name with quotes around it. I found 35 matches for me. Hey, I discovered I'm listed on a Peer Consulting Directory through a national press association. Most the matches were me, but a few were other people with my name. Another "Joni Adams" received an award from the state of Texas for all her hard work. There's just something about that name.

There are dozens and dozens of sites that specialize in reunions of all sorts, from family get-togethers in Cyberspace to school reunions. Let's test the waters.

www.myfamily.com

This site bills itself as the easiest way to stay in touch with your family and friends on the Internet. They boast that in just three minutes, you can create a site and experience a virtual family reunion.

You do have to join, but there's no charge for memberships.

You can use such services as the calendar to remember birthdays, anniversaries and other family events. You can share news and photographs with family members.

This might be of interest to people: In their chat area, you can have safe private chats with close family members and distant relatives.

They stress the private nature of this Web site along with the fact it's free. Using the Internet to converse with relatives who live far away could also be cost effective, they suggest, as opposed to high telephone bills.

You can read testimonials from other users or see an example of some sites. One woman used the site to plan a 40th high school reunion. You can also see an example. It looks really easy to view family messages, upload photographs or schedule a family chat.

This site is related to two other really good genealogy sites that could help if you're searching for lost family members.

www.familyhistory.com

This site hosts more than 90,000 family history message boards devoted to surnames and other genealogy-related topics. You can search for names alphabetically. No doubt the Internet has been a real boon to genealogists.

This site gives you access to the World Tree, which is one of the largest free databases of lineage-linked genealogies online.

They are also hooked up with Ancestry.com, another well-used genealogy site. The Ancestry site does charge a nominal fee, but it offers more records. There are some free portions of the site, including a search of Social Security Death Index.

www.genealogy.com

This is another good site for finding members of the extended family tree. There's some good advice on how to start if you're a newbie to genealogy.

One new, and may I say rather unique, offering on this site is its Virtual Cemetery. It's a collection of tombstone photos and database. You can search for a tombstone or contribute your own photo.

There are lots of how-to articles and step-by-step guides. I enjoyed the article on family reunions. OK, you've found the family, now what do you do with them at the actual reunion?

Families aren't the only people who want to keep in touch. What about school alumni? There are plenty of sites that specialize in bringing old schoolmates together.

www.reuniontime.com

This site serves as a "reunion portal," a place where school reunion committee members and organizers can post announcements. In turn, alumni can search for reunion information.

It is a free service, but allows groups to keep a permanent archive of their events over the years. It's also a place they can exchange e-mail addresses and even view photographs from previous events.

You search by the state in which your school is (or was) located.

You can post information early even if the reunion is a year or two away. Now that is super planning.

The Reunion Registry helps people search for adoptees, birth parents, old friends or lost loves.

www.reunionregistry.com

It bills itself as the world's largest free Internet mutual consent registry online.

For adoptees, it asks that people submit as much information as possible including date of birth, city and state of birth, agency or attorney information, hospital name if known and any other information that can assist in a possible match.

You can search for someone through this site or find out if someone is searching for you. The site boasts of uniting thousands of people.

You must choose between two registries: Adoption or Open Registry. The adoption registry offers more options for confidentiality.

www.adoption.com/reunion

This is another site that offers registry for individuals searching for a lost birth relative.

You can search or browse the profile database, add yourself to the database or edit/delete your profile information. Adoptees can search by birth locations, birth dates or names.

You can also browse through the entries by adoptee, birth mother, birth father or other, although they do admit this is like searching for a needle in a haystack. There are hundreds and hundreds of entries.

There's also a lot of information on adoption in general at this site, including a library and places to talk with other families.

See you in Cyberspace.

Joni Adams is the managing editor of the Southeast Missourian. You can e-mail her at click@semissourian.com.