Locating long-lost friends and family used to be a challenge even for experienced private investigators. These days anyone can track people down in just minutes with the help of the Internet—but you need to know where to look online and some tricks for how best to use various websites. In fact, some of these same online resources can be useful if your goal is not to find someone you’ve lost track of but to check the background of someone you’ve met, such as a prospective tenant or employee…your child’s new boyfriend or girlfriend…or your own new beau.
You probably can guess where to start these searches. Enter the name into popular social-media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter…and into search engines such as Google and Yahoo. There’s a good chance you’ll find the person you’re looking for. Enclose his/her name in quotation marks when using search engines, as in “Harold Greene.” Try nicknames if searching the proper name fails, such as “Harry Greene.”
If these initial searches come up empty, here are some lesser known websites worth trying…
People-Search Websites
Enter a name into AnyWho.com…Intelius.com…and/or WhitePages.com, and these sites will provide lists of potential matches from across the US. Often many people share the same name, so these sites also supply details to help identify the right individual, perhaps including age…prior hometowns…names of relatives…colleges attended…and/or employers.
While these sites are free to use at a basic level, they charge for providing certain details. Contact information such as phone numbers and e-mail addresses usually are among the facts hidden behind the paywall. Exception: WhitePages sometimes provides home phone numbers for free.
Their prices vary dramatically based on the site and the amount of info provided—anywhere from $1 for a few details to $40 or more for a monthly subscription that allows you to conduct criminal background checks.
If all you want is someone’s contact info, there’s usually no need to pay—the free information supplied by these sites often is sufficient to track someone down with just a little more online digging. Each of these people-search sites provides slightly different information for free, but they sometimes supply out-of-date or inaccurate info, so it’s worth using all three.
Here’s how to put their free information to use…
Using Extra Info in Your Search
Don’t give up on search engines such as Google.com or Yahoo.com if just entering a name doesn’t work. Try combining this name (in quotation marks) with other details you have about this individual. That could be information gleaned from people-search sites, as explained above, or it could be this person’s hometown/high school…profession…his/her spouse’s name…his college…or an activity that he was passionate about, such as “marathon” or “quilt.” Example: Searching “Jane Doe” and “stained glass” might turn up workshops that your old friend Jane taught about making stained glass…or a website where she displays or sells examples of her stained glass.
Niche People-Finding Sites
These sites can be useful if you have a few specific details about the person you’re looking for…
The alumni site Classmates.com can be helpful if you know where the person went to high school. This site has contact info only for people who have registered with it—but even if your friend hasn’t registered, it could provide contact info for another classmate who remains in touch with your friend.
Although you can register with Classmates.com for free, a “Classmates+” membership is required for certain searches and if you want to send e-mails through the site to other members. The introductory price of Classmates+ is $9 for three months.
Similar: If you and your friend attended the same college or you know which college he/she attended, look for an alumni directory on that school’s website or enter the name of that college and the phrase “alumni directory” into a search engine. You might be able to access your friend’s contact info by completing an online registration. Or try calling or e-mailing the alumni-relations department and ask it to pass on your contact info to your friend. Some high schools have alumni associations, too.
Databases that list members of a particular profession are a good resource if you know what the person does for a living. Enter the profession and “association” into a search engine to locate relevant databases.
If the profession is one that requires a license and you know or suspect which state this person might live in, also search the name of the profession together with the state. Look in the results for a webpage with a “.gov” ending…then look on that page for a licensee search tool.
Example: Searching the terms “barber,” “license” and “Maine” turns up the State of Maine Barbering and Cosmetology Licensing page, which has the option “Find a licensee or a list of licensees” in its menu.
County public records are worth searching if you know or suspect which county the person might live in. If he owns property, the deed and mortgage should be in that county’s public records and likely will include a mailing address. Many counties now make these records available for free online. Enter the county, state and phrase “public records” into a search engine to find these.
Obituary databases such as Tributes.com and Legacy.com’s newspaper obituary search tool (Legacy.com/ns/about/newspapers) are worth searching if you can recall the names and hometowns of your friend’s parents or siblings, especially if these relatives would be old enough that there’s a good chance they have died. Entering the names of family members along with their hometowns and the word “obituary” into a search engine also might steer you directly to the obit. If you can find the obituary of a family member, it often list the names and current hometowns of surviving relatives.
Helpful: If you locate a death listing for your friend’s parent or sibling but it doesn’t include details about surviving relatives, make note of the date of death. Check the obituary section of local newspapers for the days following that date in search of a more detailed obituary.
Common-Name Challenges
Two situations when online people searches are especially likely to fail…
