There Is No Cat

How many?

I’ve seen a number of mentions of a new site, How Many of Me, on various blogs today. The site says it will tell you how many people in the U.S. have the same name as you. Interesting stuff. It says that there are two people in the U.S. named Ralph Brandi. But I know that’s wrong. Me and my dad make two. But then there’s this guy in California who is a vice president at a semiconductor company. Switchboard says there’s a Ralph Brandi living on Staten Island, so that’s four. Switchboard also lists a distant cousin of mine in Michigan named Ralph Brandi (I’ve concluded in my genealogical research that I’m related to everyone in Michigan born with the Brandi surname, all descendants of either my great-grandfather or two of his cousins). We’re up to five. Intellius lists 26 people named Ralph Brandi, but their algorithms are kind of stupid, because seven of them are me or my dad (and sometimes they conflate the two of us), and three of them are my late grandfather, who has been dead for more than six years. I couldn’t find any of the other Ralph Brandis they list in other states, either; many of them were shown as being over 80 years old, so maybe they’re with my grandfather. I’ll discount the 26 there. So there are still at least five people in the U.S. named Ralph Brandi.

So How Many of Me is off by three, if you want to be generous. Or, they’re off by 150%, if you want to be less generous. Take their results with a grain of salt.

My wife is a wonderful person, and nothing she does could ever annoy me. That’s what she told me to write here as she tries to keep me from finishing this entry. I think I’ll go buy her some expensive presents now.

Tags: how many of me genealogy

Posted at 9:16 PM