Saturday Night Genealogy Fun...

Another great challenge from Randy over at Genea-Musings.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1) Go to Spokeo - www.spokeo.com and put in your name (or any name).

2) See what Spokeo says about you. Is it accurate?

3) Share what you want to share with us in a blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a status or comment on Facebook, or in a Stream post on Google Plus.
What a fun!!!

So I went to Spokeo  and I typed in my married name, Cynthia Henry, along with the city where I live.

I was surprised to see some of the info was so off-base! Especially since my life has pretty much become an open book since writing numerous blogs over the past few years!

While I'm tech savvy like Randy, and haven't been able to capture the web page of results, I'll do my best to recap them here.

In the top section, it does spell my name correctly. States I am female, and in my early 50's. All correct. It lists the area code and prefix of a phone number for me. The area code is correct, but the prefix is not a number I have ever had in my life! [Since I am listed in the phone directory, who knows how they got this odd prefix?] It does list my city as correct, and the carrier for my email address as correct.

In the next section, we have:
Female
Early 50's
Married
House [incorrect]
Income listed as $201k [Oh my goodness! My income is about a tenth of that amount! LOL]
Enjoys travel and cooking
Am caucasian
A Scorpio
Politics [blank]
Protestant
College Degree
Nurse

[Except for the fact that I live in a mobile home, and haven't but a tenth of the income listed, the rest is pretty much correct!]

In the next section:
A map giving the general location of our home, and it is correct. The rest of that section [fully describing the home] is blank, presumably filled in when you pay for the service.

In the next section:
States I have lived in this town 2 years [been here 4 actually], and there are 3 persons in our household. That is correct, however, it lists me twice and my spouse. [The third is actually is our single daughter, who is 27.] It does have both hubby and my ages correct.

Next section:
Has us middle income. [I don't think so... especially since it states we make over $200k a year!] I'd like to know where they got that info! LOL

Next section is Lifestyle and Interests, and is fairly spot on accurate! It lists my activities and interests as:
Plays sports
Enjoys the Outdoors
Likes music
Reads fiction books
Cares about healthy living
Owns pets
Likes cars
Is a collector
Enjoys hiking and camping
Likes to travel
Loves reading
Has young grandchildren
Enjoys gardening
Owns dogs
Enjoys home study courses
Collects coins [the only thing wrong here! I've NEVER collected coins!]

Next section:
I am a Scorpio and Born in the Year of the Pig

And the last sections are relocated to paying customers [which I did not pay for! LOL]

It is interesting to see a different site, and how it lists me!

I later put in my hubby, and there were numerous erros there, and lastly my maiden name, and again, numerous errors.

So... the fact is simply this: if you are going to utilize the Internet for genealogical research, make sure you also back it up with documentation and proof! Otherwise, you might simply be writing a fairy tale.