Sadly I'm beginning to think that I have them on the phone memory only. The fact is that I am using the old SIM in the new phone. It took me a while to remember what happened. The store clerk said that if I "set up" the new phone then I would have no access to the old one, as it would be "bricked". So I wondered if the SIM chip would work in the new phone and it did. Over the months though, I forgot what we did and thus the confusion. I'm slowly beginning to get up to speed. I think that I didn't change the setting for where to store my data or didn't have the option.
I have a used phone that has a good touchscreen coming, but of course I don't know if that's the solution. For all I know a touchscreen is the name of the device I call a battery and the thing you pound your finger on is actually the battery. Just kidding. I get so many different explanations I can't keep up. Know, your talking about the SIM card, so what is the SD card and what is it good for/what does it do. I though that the SD card was the chip that ran the phone and the SIM was for storage only. Now I know that the SIM runs the phone and apparently stores stuff as well. Something else to research.
So, I think that you nailed it, and no I don't have them in my email contacts, but that is a great idea. I started this with the idea that there was a program that could read the phones memory and upload my contacts to another storage device ( my computer ). Why no such program exist is a mystery to me. I'd be more concerned about photos and text messages than numbers that are listed in the phone book and accessible to anyone. Thanks