The ever-expanding scope and popularity of the Internet, together with Call Signs’ success rate of bringing together people who have lost touch over time, was reinforced recently when two DaC subscribers, twins Kurt (B80) and Herbert (C83) Goldschmidt were ‘found’ after a 50 year search by relatives from the USA and Argentina.
   The half-century investigation, initiated by relatives of the twins in Argentina and New Jersey, was happily concluded through Call Signs’ on-line library and the able assistance of Nuala Glavin in  DaC’s Driver Services department,

FAMILIES REUNITED THANKS TO CALL SIGN!

who brought all the parties together
by acting as the connecting hub for all the information passing to and fro.
   The Call Sign on-line library’ includes the names of all those featured in our in-house magazine and can be accessed by other interested parties. This fact proved a vital and powerful tool in the American search that had lasted so many decades.
   Stateside, the twins’ cousin Dan Mayer in New Jersey knew he had relatives somewhere in the world, but did not know where, or if they were still around. So he entered their names on the ‘net, sat back and waited…and waited…and waited. Even with the USA using the Internet as an everyday tool for far longer than the UK, nothing materialised. At least not until the December 2004 issue of Call Sign…
   Call Sign had conducted a survey regarding our drivers’ views on passengers smoking in their taxis. Fate then intervened in that two of the drivers interviewed were the twins Kurt and Bert Goldschmidt whose names then went into the ‘Library’ on-line archives…
   Bingo! The power of the Internet search engines picked up on the Call Sign entries and it wasn’t too long before an excited - no, overwhelmed Dan Mayer -

was in contact with Nuala at Brunswick House. Even though he
knew the twins names as Kurt and Herb, he realised that in the UK, Herb might be Bert.
   “I thought I had an aunt somewhere in the Americas and believed that she had children, but Kurt and I were very young - we’re talking 60 years ago - so where to start looking?” Bert said when Call Sign spoke to him.
   Kurt continued by telling Call Sign: “It’s funny, in 1965 I was in Israel for the Maccabi Games and we’ve since learned that our aunt was there at the same time! Isn’t it spooky that we should both be in a small country for the same event and not know each other? Maybe we even passed each other on the street!”
   There are now regular emails between London, north and south America and reunion trips are being planned for the future.
   Call Sign and our archive on-line library, in harnessing the power of the Internet, are delighted to have facilitated the re-uniting of the twins with their extended families. For their part, the twins and Dan Mayer thank Nuala for her considerable input in bringing this 50-year search to a happy conclusion.

© Call Sign Magazine 2005☺