I am surprised when people tell me they have never done a Google search on themselves. It is truly incredible what information is available on the internet. It is rather daunting what a complete stranger can find out about you.

For example, if someone's name appeared in Northern Life in the past decade, it could pop up on a Google search. If a family name ever appeared in The Inco Triangle, that too would come up in a search. Organizations often list their members' names and contact information. Google Maps give fairly detailed information about neighbourhoods. Type a name in Canada 411 and see what comes up. Facebook or Twitter accounts can also be searched on Google.

Gilhula was the first name I put into a search engine years ago. Even then I was surprised at the number of references that showed up. Now there more than 3,000 results. My last name is a revised version of Gilhuly, so I know there are less than 200 people in the world who have the same name, and all of them can claim a relationship to James Gilhula of Buxton, Ont. My grandfather's grandfather and a few of his siblings changed the spelling of Gilhuly.

Google is how I found my great-great-grandmother Elizabeth Gilhula. There she was on my computer screen, thanks to Gillandra's Blog about unusual advertising claims. Apparently, Elizabeth wrote a letter to the Burdock Blood Bitters Company in March 1897 about how the tonic cured her stomach cancer. Her letter was used in an advertisement for Burdock that appeared in the April 16, 1898 edition of The Montreal Daily Star. I got a kick out of finding Elizabeth on the internet.

(This originally appeared as an Editor's Note in the Winter 2010 edition of Sudbury Living.)