[AccessD] A Rose by any other name is still a rose;was (normalization question)

My first major Access program that I wrote was for our county's pistol
permit department, to track pistol permits. I was shocked to discover
that they tracked these things by name only. I thought I found a major
problem, when they gave me their original tables and I discovered
hundreds of missing SSNs. They told me that SSN was not required data. 

I told them that I had a problem with this, as a programmer and as a
private citizen. I told them about a personal situation of mine
involving confusion with names. My name is John W Clark. The name itself
sounds fake, with all three components being very common. My friends
used to say that it was a fake name. I first heard of another local guy
with the same name, including initial, about 14 years ago. I was in a
bar with a bunch of coworkers, and I was introduced to a guy who was a
friend of a friend. I don't drink much these days, but thank god that
when I did, I was a friendly drunk, because after speaking to my new
friend, I discovered that he thought I was someone else--someone who
used to beat him up quite a bit in high school, shared the same name as
me, and apparently also shares some of my physical characteristics. This
new friend had gone into the service upon graduation and got, according
to him, quite a bit larger than school days, and he was looking at a
little payback. He told me, that he thought I was someone else, and that
he and his brother-in-law, who looked like he had been recently paroled
from a penitentiary, were going to kick the hell out of me, when I left
the bar. Luckily though, he did speak to me, and discovered that I was
not his prey, and all ended well.

But, a few years later, something potentially much more worse happened.
I was still living at home with my folks--mostly just sleeping
there--but I was about 20 miles away at work, when some visitors arrived
at their house. Two detectives from the sheriffs department, showed up
at the house with a warrant for my arrest. Actually, they did want John
W Clark, but they were coming to get the wrong one. Again, this turned
out OK, but it was taken care of, while I was at work--had I been there,
they would have sorted it out, at the county jail--probably after
processing!

After coming to work for the county, I discovered that I would be doing
quite a bit of work for the District Attorney's office. I told them all
my stories so that they wouldn't think it was me, if the name came
across their desks. As it turns out, they are pretty familiar with this
guy, and they raz me about it quite often.

The pistol permit office send a "Mental Hygiene" check to Albany, and
it is simply a form letter with a name on it. How the hell do they know
exactly which John W Clark they are sending info on? If there are two in
this county, how many are in the state? There are several more people
with the name John Clark in my area without the initial.

I was also surprised to find out that each county does its own thing. I
believe there are 62 counties in NY, and they can all have their own
numbering, methods, etc.. All this organization must be why were paying
such high taxes here!

>>> artful at rogers.com 5/17/2004 1:17:26 AM >>>
As I pointed out in a previous msg on this thread, I know 5 John
Reids,
and all of them are in the software biz. Go figure. Them Irish, they
do
like to propagate! Check Chicago for example :) (Does anyone else LOVE
Miller's Crossing? My fave movie of all time.)

I googled my own name and then ran 411.com (a phone number database)
and
found a painter of the same name died early in the last century and no
less than 20 identical names in Canada alone.

In short, names alone don't cut it. Add something unique and you have
a
chance. Phone numbers are candidates, but it could happen that 2
Arthur
Fullers reside at the same address (unlikely I admit, but possible).
Even SSNs have been demonstrated to be non-unique (counterfeit IDs,
bad
coding, identity theft, etc.).