Hey everyone (Great board by the way…this is my first post:)
I was curious if anyone had any ideas on how to find an old
friend. Well, not THAT old. It’s a friend from high school that
I lost contact with, and I’m sure they have moved since then.
I’ve did the internet (white pages) searches, but always come
up dry. Some of them even offer their services for a fee, but
I’d rather not do that. I’m just trying to get an email address
or something to contact them.
Any ideas? Thanks!
You can sometimes get a lead by doing a search for their name - it may be on a list somewhere, and have some other kind of identification tied to it.
To elaborate on Badtz Maru’s idea, just hit Google or similar web-searching sites, and plug in their name. If it’s really common you might get a ton of hits, so then try thinking of one word that might describe some sort of interest that this person might still have, and search with that included.
In the Uk there’s a site called Friends Reunited (just type that into Google and you’ll get there)…very good if you know what school/university your friend went to - even if they are not registered, there may be someone from their year who’s in touch. Maybe the US has something similar?
put quotes around their name first before putting in a search engine…
classmates.com might have something. Also, 411.
I have tracked down several people I used to know this way, and all of the above are good suggestions. As handy says, make sure you put their name in quotes before you search on it. Also, do any common variations. For instance, if your friend’s name is Robert Jones, you should also try “Rob Jones”, “Bob Jones”, and maybe even “Jones, Robert”, etc.
If the name is very common you are probably going to have to add something else, for instance if you know he liked to play softball, try “Robert Jones” +softball.
Also, if it is a very common name and you get a ton of hits back on Google, try searching for a picture instead. This cuts down on the number of hits, and it is easy to see if the person in the picture is the one you knew.
If your friend happens to share his name with someone who has been in the news a lot over the last few years (Bill Clinton, George Bush), none of these methods will probably help! Someone named Vladimir O’Brien would be a lot easier to find.
One of the people search sites, I think it is the one that is affiliated with Yahoo!, has a free section where you put in a person’s name, state you want to search and approximate age and it comes back with matches. Then if you want more info it costs money, but it could provide a start. I have tried it with myself and family members and it is spooky to see yourself up there! I will try to find the site I mean.
Remember also that some states in America contain way more people than others. Not knowing anything else about where your friend might be it would help to concentrate on California, New York, Texas, Florida, etc.
The site I was thinking of is www.ussearch.com
You only need the person’s last name and approximate age (although you can fill in as much info as you have including first name, state, etc), and at no cost it will come back with matches. Then if you want more info it costs money, but it might help you get some leads.
Is there anything similar for the UK? I’d like to get back in touch with a number of friends I made when I studied there, but the info I have on them (mostly phone numbers, some addresses) are all about 5 years old.
Sorry, Kaio , I don’t know of one. In my limited experience with people-searching in another country (Australia) I have found that there doesn’t seem to be as many options as there are here in the U.S.