# finding a long-lost friend **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 10, 2002, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-a-long-lost-friend/136097 "2002-11-10T04:40:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2002, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-a-long-lost-friend/136097/1 "2002-11-10T04:40:31Z")
Looks like you lost him again… ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2002, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-a-long-lost-friend/136097/2 "2002-11-10T08:08:41Z")
😃 [sup]I’m here. The only friend you’ve got.[/sup] ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2002, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-a-long-lost-friend/136097/3 "2002-11-10T08:35:53Z")
See the [Finding People](http://www.cyndislist.com/finding.htm) section of Cyndi’s List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet. Good luck! I do this professionally for a living. ---
**Author:** ![istara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e79b87/32.png) [@istara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/istara)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2002, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-a-long-lost-friend/136097/4 "2002-11-11T08:55:06Z")
Or in the UK - try [http://www.friendsreunited.co.uk](http://www.friendsreunited.co.uk) - it’s amazing for finding long lost people. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2002, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-a-long-lost-friend/136097/5 "2002-11-11T15:15:35Z")
I’ve had some incredible luck just punching people’s names into Google… Once, I got curious about what had happened to a Cuban guy I had known in Leningrad in 1989. (He’d been expelled and sent back to Cuba by the Cuban government…basically for not being a good enough communist.) I’d wondered for years where he’d ended up, but been reluctant to write to him for fear of getting him into a worse trouble. Somewhere in the back of my head I though, well, he’s a competitve swimmer, so he’s probably in Miami by now. I punched his name into Google one day, and lo and behold, there he was…a real estate agent in Miami. Photo and all; it was definitely him, albeit with a bit of male pattern baldness. I e-mailed him and he never responded, but at least I satisfied my curiosity… ---
**Author:** ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2002, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-a-long-lost-friend/136097/6 "2002-11-11T18:55:56Z")
If it’s somebody you knew in public school or a U.S. military training camp, you might have luck at [classmates.com](http://classmates.com) … That’s how my psycho ex-girlfriend found me. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2002, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-a-long-lost-friend/136097/7 "2002-11-11T21:19:01Z")
Are psycho exes really the clientele that those people finders are targeting? That’s what it seems like to me. ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2002, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-a-long-lost-friend/136097/8 "2002-11-11T21:24:25Z")
Are psycho exes really the clientele that those people finders are targeting? That’s what it seems like to me. ---
**Author:** ![EchoKitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@EchoKitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EchoKitty)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2002, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-a-long-lost-friend/136097/9 "2002-11-11T22:22:39Z")
I found a bunch of people in [Classmates.com](http://Classmates.com).