# Can you find out if a specific person was in your high school class, and how? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 6, 2017, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-find-out-if-a-specific-person-was-in-your-high-school-class-and-how/776436 "2017-01-06T01:13:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Anise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anise/32/21721_2.png) [@Anise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anise)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-find-out-if-a-specific-person-was-in-your-high-school-class-and-how/776436/1 "2017-01-06T01:13:47Z")
Hey all. So I’m trying to find out if a specific person (let’s say “Jennifer O.”) was in my high school class. (This was not exactly a recent class, btw, if that makes any difference as far as advice… 😉 I don’t really talk to anyone who was in that class and haven’t for several years, so that is not an option. From what I remember, J.O. wasn’t someone that my friends would probably have known well anyway. Classmates. com isn’t being too helpful-- there are a bunch of names, but I could immediately spot that at least 10 people were missing, maybe more. (I also checked the class name list of every other class that would have been at the school when I was there.) So is there a way to find out for sure if she was in that class? Is that the kind of information I could get from contacting the school directly, or is that not something that could be given out? Are there official high school full class lists anywhere (not like classmates .com, where many people are missing?) It’s a long story as to why this is important, but it is!! Any ideas? 🙂 Thanks in advance to all the smart people here! ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-find-out-if-a-specific-person-was-in-your-high-school-class-and-how/776436/2 "2017-01-06T01:19:54Z")
Did you check her entry in Facebook? Do a Google search with her and the name of the high school? Why not simply ask her? ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-find-out-if-a-specific-person-was-in-your-high-school-class-and-how/776436/3 "2017-01-06T01:20:41Z")
Pretty sure for jobs schools will verify if someone graduated with a diploma. Same is true for colleges. But that might not go very far back. You probably need to call the school district rather than the school. ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-find-out-if-a-specific-person-was-in-your-high-school-class-and-how/776436/4 "2017-01-06T01:26:03Z")
A lot of schools archive their yearbooks online (or the local library would have em). ---
**Author:** ![Pai325](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-find-out-if-a-specific-person-was-in-your-high-school-class-and-how/776436/5 "2017-01-06T01:36:12Z")
Do you or any of your friends have a yearbook? I know not everyone was in the yearbook, but if you’ve got all four there’s a chance she will be in one of them. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-find-out-if-a-specific-person-was-in-your-high-school-class-and-how/776436/6 "2017-01-06T01:37:37Z")
Obligatory quote from There’s Something About Mary: HEALY Do you really expect me to believe this is a straight stalker case? TED I’m not a stalker ! She’s a friend of mine. HEALY Sure she is. That’s why she got an unlisted number and you haven’t heard squat from her in a dozen years. Oh you’re good, Ted. You’re a real piece of work. I am just kidding. It isn’t that hard to find out rough details for anyone as long as you are willing to pay a small amount of money for it. A good start is a search engine like [www.spokeo.com](http://www.spokeo.com) They offer some limited free searching but you have to pay for more detailed results. That probably won’t tell you specific educational records but it will give an age and residences. That may be enough to be reasonably sure in many cases. It will also likely tell you where the person is now and give you enough details to figure out how to contact them. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-find-out-if-a-specific-person-was-in-your-high-school-class-and-how/776436/7 "2017-01-06T01:45:19Z")
you probably will want to use other resources first, but… [spoiler] > **[Reconnect with friends from high school, find reunions, view yearbook photos...](https://www.classmates.com)** > > Reconnect with friends from high school, find reunions, view yearbook photos and more. > **[Find High School Alumni, Classmates, Class Reunions, and Yearbooks](https://www.alumniclass.com/)** > > Find High School Alumni, Reunions, Yearbooks and Photos, & Reconnect with Classmates! > **[High School Class Reunion Websites - Classreport.org](https://www.classreport.org/)** > > Classreport.org provides free Class Reunion Websites for every graduating class of every high school, with free access for all class members. I’m not sure if this one works though [Imafookinstalkercomearrestmepigs.com](http://Imafookinstalkercomearrestmepigs.com) [/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Anise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anise/32/21721_2.png) [@Anise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anise)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-find-out-if-a-specific-person-was-in-your-high-school-class-and-how/776436/8 "2017-01-06T02:40:16Z")
thanks for all the responses! Okay, trying to go through it one by one… Nobody matching this J.O. is on FB (it’s an unusual name, and the few who are there are wrong age, wrong area, etc.) I’ve tried some of the free searches (probably should have said that, too.) There’s a possibility that she MIGHT have lived in the same city, but I need to know if she went to the same high school. Google doesn’t turn up anything specific. I’m not even sure if I ever knew her, so I don’t think asking her is going to work too well! 😉 I don’t have any of the yearbooks, but the high school might have actual physical copies… it would have to wait until the next time I go to Minnesota, though (from Oregon.) Classmates. com does not have her name, but there are many other people missing from the list anyway (I’m not sure how they come up with those lists of names-- maybe people had to actually join the site?) They have a very few random yearbooks online from the school, but unfortunately, not that year. Classreport relies on somebody from the school having started a class reunion page, and our year was apparently made up of slackers, so nobody ever did. The other site doesn’t seem to have parochial schools (it was a Catholic high school.) So what this all adds up to is that I think… the best way to go seems to be to call the school, and possibly have to wait until the summer trip to Minnesota and then actually go to the school?? And no, the reason isn’t stalker-y, but it’s very complicated and involves a head injury a few months after high school graduation, permanently having no memory of most of the last two years, and finding an old notebook with her name in it… believe me, it’s all just too hard to explain. ---
**Author:** ![Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tired_and_Cranky)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-find-out-if-a-specific-person-was-in-your-high-school-class-and-how/776436/9 "2017-01-06T15:33:13Z")
I’m not aware of any “official” high school class lists. The stuff you see online is just made up of people registering online or being added by other classmates. I registered for [classmates.com](http://classmates.com) under a fake name so I could see what they offered and decide if I wanted them to get my real information. I never signed up with my real name. Call the high school librarian and ask them to look in the yearbook for you. You will need to make them want to help you or they will just say no. Tell them you graduated from there. Be prepared to more fully answer why you are asking than you have told us and to convince them that you are a good person with a good motive. They can find your picture in the yearbook too so they will have some comfort that if you are a crazy stalker, at least you’ve waited this long to kill your prey. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-find-out-if-a-specific-person-was-in-your-high-school-class-and-how/776436/10 "2017-01-06T15:39:41Z")
Phone the school and ask them to put you in touch with the reunion committee for that particular year. Then follow from that contact. ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-find-out-if-a-specific-person-was-in-your-high-school-class-and-how/776436/11 "2017-01-06T15:56:02Z")
Classmates has many high school yearbooks online: www.classmates.com/yearbooks/. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-find-out-if-a-specific-person-was-in-your-high-school-class-and-how/776436/12 "2017-01-06T16:00:16Z")
> [@Anise](#): > > And no, the reason isn’t stalker-y, but it’s very complicated and involves a head injury a few months after high school graduation, permanently having no memory of most of the last two years, and finding an old notebook with her name in it… believe me, it’s all just too hard to explain. Best of luck with the quest, but it seems to me that this partial explanation doesn’t make the matter sound _less_ stalkerish. :dubious:😛 ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-find-out-if-a-specific-person-was-in-your-high-school-class-and-how/776436/13 "2017-01-06T17:11:00Z")
As others have said the yearbook is really where you need to be focusing. Many people have their yearbooks even after several decades (I’m 57 and I have mine). Don’t you have \*someone \*you knew in high school you could reach out to for access to the yearbook or at least have them scan the list of graduates for you? If (as you indicate) you have the person’s name this should be a minute’s work. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-find-out-if-a-specific-person-was-in-your-high-school-class-and-how/776436/14 "2017-01-06T17:28:41Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > Classmates has many high school yearbooks online: [www.classmates.com/yearbooks/](http://www.classmates.com/yearbooks/). Well, I’m impressed they had my small town’s high school yearbook. They had all the years from the 1950’s forward. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-find-out-if-a-specific-person-was-in-your-high-school-class-and-how/776436/15 "2017-01-06T19:00:32Z")
If you want a yearbook you can check eBay, Amazon, Abebooks for one to purchase. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-find-out-if-a-specific-person-was-in-your-high-school-class-and-how/776436/16 "2017-01-06T19:54:25Z")
Keep in mind that it’s possible that this person was in the class for a couple of years but moved away before senior year. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-find-out-if-a-specific-person-was-in-your-high-school-class-and-how/776436/17 "2017-01-06T20:03:32Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Well, I’m impressed they had my small town’s high school yearbook. They had all the years from the 1950’s forward. Oddly, my fairly prominent high school’s yearbooks are only archived sporadically until 1991, and not at all thereafter. ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-find-out-if-a-specific-person-was-in-your-high-school-class-and-how/776436/18 "2017-01-06T20:09:46Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Oddly, my fairly prominent high school’s yearbooks are only archived sporadically until 1991, and not at all thereafter. I think because of the 25 year copyright duration, they’ll only have online yearbooks which are from more than 25 years ago. This way they can avoid any issues of copyright violation from the school. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-find-out-if-a-specific-person-was-in-your-high-school-class-and-how/776436/19 "2017-01-06T20:53:19Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > I think because of the 25 year copyright duration, they’ll only have online yearbooks which are from more than 25 years ago. This way they can avoid any issues of copyright violation from the school. Books without an identifiable author (presumably including yearbooks) published after 1977 are under copyright for 95 years. There was formerly a requirement to renew a copyright 28 years after publication to keep in in copyright, but that hasn’t been required for many years. > **[LibGuides: Copyright Services: Copyright Support](https://guides.library.cornell.edu/copyright)** > > LibGuides: Copyright Services: Copyright Support ---
**Author:** ![Cartoonacy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/848f3c/32.png) [@Cartoonacy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartoonacy)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-find-out-if-a-specific-person-was-in-your-high-school-class-and-how/776436/20 "2017-01-06T23:12:35Z")
Have you tried [LinkedIn.com](http://LinkedIn.com)? Members post their employment and education histories, which usually includes high school. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-find-out-if-a-specific-person-was-in-your-high-school-class-and-how/776436.md?page=2)