Back in high school, I had a friend with whom I used to exchange birthday cards. It continued on for a couple years after we graduated, until I forgot one year and the “chain” was broken.
I’ve always felt quite crappy about having forgotten, as we never really spoke again afterward. The last several years have been extremely hectic and I have moved about ten times, thus ensuring that I forgot the event every subsequent year… until this one.
Her birthday is in the second week of July and I’ve spent the last month or so trying to figure out where she might be. A Googling of her name returns nothing (assuming she’s not married), services like Canada411.com are too vague to be helpful, and none of the old friends I can still locate have any idea where she might be.
So, I turn to you, the Dopers, for advice. Is there any reasonable way of finding someone within Canada with the following sparse bits of information?
Full name (again, assuming she isn’t married. She wasn’t as of two years ago).
DOB (obviously).
Address until 1994.
High school and graduation year.
University attended and the faculty in which she studied (not sure of her grad year but I can guess +/- a year).
City of residence as of 1996 or 1997.
I am not entirely averse to paying for information, as long as it’s a reasonable price and offers a certainty.
So? Any ideas? I thought it might be a nice gesture to show that her friendship mattered to me, despite my sieve-like memory. I appreciate any help.
hmmm. I’d check with your high school, sometimes they keep track of where graduates end up, especially if it was private. ditto for her university’s alumni office, although I don’t know if they’d give that information away, they might be able to tell you SOMETHING that would help.
I assume you’ve tried her last address? It’s always possible that whoever’s there now has a forwarding addresss. (Or, where are you? Don’t the post office sometimes keep track.)
Also, is there anyone else you know she might have kept in touch with?
If you knew her in high school, would her parents remember you? Several out-of-touch friends have found me this way.
Once I contacted a university alumni office in search of a lost friend. They wouldn’t give me her contact information but promised to forward her a message with my contact information.
I think that some US states are, or used to be, fairly open about registered drivers. Not sure about Canada.
I’ve also managed to track people as far as their cities by using people.yahoo.com.
I tried classmates.com on Q.E.D’s advice, and, ironically, she’s one of maybe ten of my graduating class without any information. She was conscientiously disinterested in technology, so I can’t say it’s entirely surprising that she’s apparently not been to that site.
Actually, Shade, the last KNOWN address I have of hers is her parents’ house in our mutual home town, and I’ve not tried that yet. They met me MAYBE twice twelve years ago, and I’ve thought it would seem kind of creepy to suddenly call them up looking for information on their daughter. Since E. Thorp has had this happen and apparently didn’t find it weird, it’s suddenly looking like a good idea. They will almost certainly not be able to place my name, and I wonder if they’ll be willing to give her address to an apparent stranger.
I’ve found that the university she attended does indeed have a service by which they will forward messages to alumni, but I was hoping to make my birthday wish a surprise. If all else fails, this is probably my best bet.
I’ve contacted a total of four people that I know kept up with her after high school and none still do. It seems like she just dropped off the collective radar in about 2001, which makes me wonder if she didn’t move abroad or something. I never heard her talk about going overseas or anything, but that certainly doesn’t mean it’s impossible.
So, I guess I’ll be calling her parents this week (which makes me nervous for some reason), and contacting the university if that fails.
E. Thorp and The Devil’s Grandmother: That’s a killer idea! Obviously, I don’t know about the present, but she WAS close enough to her family where what you suggest will probably work. As long as that hasn’t changed (and, being the type of person she was, I doubt it has), I think I’m in like Flynn.
Perhaps Fish Vacuum is too young to have heard of Errol Flynn? Not surprising seeing he died so long ago.
If you want to make the effort you can always track anyone -unless they are on a witness protection program or similar- through things such as driving licence records, welfare, health care. People always leave a record.
