Carroll High School
Classes of 1959 - 1962
Classmate Research
In finding our missing classmates, Jerry Gunter (Carolyn Dennis Gunter) spent hours searching and came up with about 185 pages of names. Many times, Jerry ended up with several possible spellings, locations, and other information concerning the classmates he was able to find some information about.
A sample of his findings and what you will get is shown below.
Adolfo Jaime Anzaldua 1959
ANZALDUA ADOLFO JAIME
married
YBANEZ ANITA
1960
Adolfo J Anzaldua
5708 Calmor Ave, Apt 2
San Jose, CA 95123-5736
(408) 224-3779
To begin with, our list has been sub-divided into five (5) page sections that will be assigned to each volunteer. As you finish a list, please request another until we have gone through our ‘missing document’. When you get a list, you should (as time permits) begin to search through the data using different tools [refer to the two documents that Sharon Watson King developed to begin our searching].As more tools are identified, they will be posted on our web site.
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Your instructions will be:
Thanks for volunteering. You are the only one with the attached names
on pages XX-XX ~ A______ through B_______ ~
PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU CAN OPEN THE ATTACHED WORD FILE
None of the names and corresponding information have been checked ~ this is the way we received them
Before going too far, please check each name against our MCHS names on our web site. This is to make sure they are not already in the system as several have joined us since this list was compiled.
When you find any mistakes in our MCHS information (our classmate names were manually entered to get started) please send an email with the corrections to let me know what needs to be corrected (please send all emails with MCHS in the Subject Line).
When you make contact with any classmates or come across any valid email addresses, you can contact our classmates directly and/or send them an invite from our HOME PAGE (right hand side under MISSING CLASSMATES).
Any suggestions you develop as you proceed in finding our classmates are welcome and your suggestions will be passed them along to others that volunteer. Several others have already volunteered including you.
These instructions will be modified as necessary.
Please let us know if you have any questions.
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Looking for CLassmates on the Internet
Sharon King
I have done a lot of people finding on the internet doing genealogic research, at work, and finding names etc as a volunteer for political campaigns. I sincerely hope I am not ’teaching my grandma to suck eggs’ with all these hints--many may not need them. Nevertheless, here are a few—more will follow unless you beat me over the head.
Google-Type Searches
Start with really restricted searches such as:
(Note quotation marks)
“Robert Carl Bess” tx
“Robert Carl Bess”
“Robert C. Bess”
“R C Bess” tx
“R. C. Bess” tx
“Robert Bess” tx
“Bess, Robert Carl”
“Bess, Robert C.”
“Bess Robert Carl”
“Bess Robert C.”
“Bess, RC”
“Bess, RC”
“Bess, R. C.”
“Bess RC”
With these searches you will usually get a hit only if the name appears exactly as in the quotation marks.
If you don’t get anything good from restricted searches, THEN go to more inclusive searches such as:
(Do not put quotation marks)
Robert Carl Bess
Robert C. Bess
Robert Bess tx
R. C. Bess tx
Bess, Robert Carl
Bess, Robert C.
Bess Robert Carl
Bess Robert C.
Bess, RC
Bess, RC
Bess, R. C.
Bess RC
With these searches you will get anyone named Bess, anyone named Robert etc. But Google will usually put the better, more complete, hits first.
With some searches (not necessarily always in Google), commas, spaces, and periods matter. Try a variety of ways to list the name. Follow this principle with databases other than Google searches especially.
With the more inclusive searches, you are going to have to sift through a lot of dross-Pages and pages of sites where you have to pay. Robert Bess’s in Kokomo --a “possible” but less likely than in Texas. R.C. Bess’s who appear to have gone on to become ballet-dancing astronauts, etc. etc. Google will also report on names that are spelled slightly differently—Robert C. Besse, etc.
My Data Capture Procedures so far
1) First check the profiles on the site, comparing your names from the Word file to what is actually ON there. I actually found 4 people listed in my Word file as ‘lost’ but who, since the last research was done, had gone on to sign up on the website and had filled out profiles.
2) Next create a separate Word file for each remaining person.
3) Then as you find leads, copy and paste from the internet what you have found into the person’s Word file
4) If you finally identify which one is the REAL Robert C. Bess, go back and eliminate the ones who were blind alleys in the person’s word file—or in case you are wrong, use format font to put strikethroughs on the ones who do not appear to be your person.
At least so far, report having found the real person and give their particulars to Abes’s home email address with MCHS and the person’s name and year in the subject line.
6) If you have a valid email address for the person, go to his or her name under profiles on the site and click on their non-existent profile and you will see a place to enter their email address. This invites them to come to the site to sign up.
Sharon King
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Other Useful Websites
From Sharon King
Texas County Appraisal Districts Online
This one has many county appraisal districts on line where you can search by name and get an address if you get a “hit”. If you note that a person has not only a homestead exemption, but also has an over- age 65 exemption, that makes it more likely that this is someone who could be one of our age-group peers.
US GenWeb Archives
AT&T Yellow and White Pages online
This is not as good as the white pages Abe gave us but may have different data in it
Social Security Death Index Interactive Search
Cemetery Records Online
Newmeat-Lists individual contributions to political parties and can give leads
Texas Ethics Committee Search Campaign Finance Reports
Sharon King
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