growing up, and even once grown up, there were no wodtkes. I remember once driving around on an island in wisconsin seeing the wodtke name on a tree, and being amazed. The only wodtkes I knew were my grandparents. When I travelled to Europe, I never met wodtkes and when I asked Germans if they knew my name, they never did... and often suggested maybe it was polish. Moving to california produced no more wodtkes, not even in the san francisco white pages.

But the web changed that-- we knew our family was German, and the appearance of wodtke.com was the first instance of wodtkes appearing that weren't definately us. Next Christina M. Wodtke emailed me, wanting to know why I was impersonating her (it is a rare name).

Now Mark Von Wodtke chimes in, commenting on "small world 2" he says "Maybe there are connections between ideas and DNA." He's not only a Wodtke, but a wodtke very much interested in the things I am passionate about. Perhaps he's right.

To test the idea, I explored Amazon and discovered Amazon makes being a Wodtke seem common as dirt. And I kinda like it. I always wanted an ordinary name.

Now I'm cruising their wishlists, capturing snapshots of who they are-- Francesca Wodtke likes gardening and cooking, Dirk Wodtke has a porche 9-11, and likes scooters too; Katie Wodtke likes scupture and is politically active, and Kirsten Wodtke is expecting....

I wanted to know if our possible DNA also connected in ideas, interests. And exploring that, the wishlists became humans, and I suddenly started considering them cousins. People I wanted to write to, buy gifts for, invite to dinner.

What an odd new use for Amazon-- inventing new family.

I always wanted to ask You if Mark von Wodtke was a relative.

What I like about the name "Wodtke" is that it reminds me of latkes. Mmmm. Happy Hanukah (and other holidays) everyone!

check these out, touching heart.

wodtke

»I always wanted an ordinary name.«

You didn't. Believe me. :)

"Maybe there are connections between ideas and DNA."

I've wondered exactly the same thing. The number of Matt Goddard's I've found who work in the software industry is unbelievable. Maybe the Wodtke fraternity have identified a new avenue for scientific research!

Something along the same line as Matt's comment happened to Jeff a few years ago. A Jeff Chan, software engineer in Mountain View startup, was interviewed for a foodie article of a restaurant that we frequent. It totally freaked Jeff out when his co-workers shared the foodie article with them(obviously it wasn't my Jeff). And not so long ago a Lisa Chan was arrested in the East Bay for piracy of Microsoft products. A few of my relatives got worried about me...

i to thought we were the only Wodtkes around.right out of highschool i traveled the country with a constrution company, and every time i got to a new city i would look the name up in the phonebook but no luck.nice to read about other Wodtkes.

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