Ancestry Magazine

Jim Killeen was satisfying his curiosity when he Googled his own name and found 24 other Jim Killeens. With little more than that name and sometimes an occupation, Jim contacted as many of them as he could track down.

Most of the Jim Killeens were skeptical, but seven eventually agreed to talk. Six, ranging in age from 35 to 60 and spanning the globe, agreed to appear in the film Killeen made documenting his search, Google Me: The Movie. Killeen, who was hoping to find a namesake in the batch, found that ancestors of most of the six Jims came from Ireland and that his own family tree reaches back to an Irish town where one of the Jim Killeens lives today.

Besides a film, what did Killeen get for his trouble? A better sense of humanity. “There are all these other people walking around with the same label as me,” says Killeen. “I was interested in what we shared as human beings. People are much more alike than different; everyone’s purpose is to help other people.”

Catch a preview of Jim Killeen’s film at <www.googlemethemovie.com>.