Let me start by explaining that my wife was adopted when she was several months old, and was raised as an only child. She has very celtic features, including the fair skin, freckles, and blue eyes. That, and a fondness for dark and mortal beers has convinced most of us who know her that she must have a strong dose of either Irish or Scottish DNA in her make up. But she is not convinced herself, and as we know almost nothing about her birth mother, she remains curious.

So tonight, she was researching celtic characteristics online when her research took her to a website that had a link to ancestry.com. She clicks on it and goes to their page where she is invited to type in her birth mother’s name for a free demonstration of their service. My wife types in her birth mother’s name - Rosemary Fathers - and lo and behold, the website finds her name listed at 4 different websites that track immigration, births, deaths, and social security records. So then she types in her own birth name - and lo and behold, her name also turns up in websites that track immigration, births, deaths, and social security records. Now my wife has become suspicious of ancestry.com’s claims, so she enters the name “Joe Shmo.” Lo and behold, Joe Shmo was also found on those websites. Apparently Joe Shmo was born, emmigrated to the United States, obtained a social security number, and died.

At long last Joe has been found. The prodigal ancestor is lost no more. Now if we can just find out where he’s buried, we can go put flowers on his grave.