Alright, let’s talk about that little project tracking down Robert and Stephanie Dobbs. It wasn’t a walk in the park, took some real digging, you know? Here’s how I went about it, step by step.
Getting Started
First off, I just did the obvious thing. Jumped online and started searching their names. Robert Dobbs and Stephanie Dobbs. Tried it together, tried ’em separate. You get a lot of junk that way, tons of people with those names, but nothing solid connecting the two in the way I needed. It was just noise, mostly.
Narrowing It Down
I realized pretty quick I needed more details. Just names weren’t cutting it. I wracked my brain trying to remember where I’d heard the names linked. Ah, right, that old community newsletter from maybe… the late 80s? And it was something about that project down in Fairview. So, I tried adding that.
- “Robert Dobbs Stephanie Dobbs Fairview”
- “Robert Stephanie Dobbs community project 1980s”
- “Dobbs Fairview newsletter volunteer”
Still kinda swimming in results. Found a Robert Dobbs mentioned in some town meeting minutes, but no Stephanie linked with him there. It felt like finding needles in a haystack.
Changing Tactics
Okay, the usual web search wasn’t the magic bullet. Time to switch gears. I started poking around some specific places.
Checked old newspaper archives online. Specifically looked for the local Fairview paper around ’87 to ’89. Spent a good chunk of time just scrolling through digital copies. Found mentions of events, local folks, but not the pair together.
Thought about public records. Property records, maybe? But I didn’t have an address, so that was a dead end unless I got lucky.
Then I thought, maybe someone I know remembers them? Didn’t want to just blast it out there, you know, keep things low-key. So, I sent a few quiet messages to folks I knew who were involved in that Fairview community stuff back then. Just a casual, “Hey, name Robert or Stephanie Dobbs ring any bells from the old days?”
The Breakthrough
And guess what? One of my old contacts replied! Didn’t know them super well, but remembered a Stephanie Dobbs coordinating the volunteer schedules for the summer fair one year. And she mentioned her husband, Robert, helped set up the tents. Boom! That was the connection. Finally got them linked together, in the right place, around the right time.
It wasn’t in any official record I found, just someone’s memory jogging loose. That contact even remembered Stephanie worked part-time at the town library for a bit.
Wrapping Up
So, with that confirmation, I had what I needed for my purpose, which was just placing them within that specific community project. Didn’t need their whole life story, just that piece. If I’d needed more, like tracking them down today, that library connection or the specific event year would have been my next step for deeper digging in official records or maybe even genealogy sites.
Point is, it took more than just typing into a search box. It was about layering information, trying different kinds of resources – online databases, archives, even just reaching out to people carefully. Persistence, really. You gotta keep poking around. That’s how this stuff usually works.
