Haven’t seen your grade school friends in many years and are trying to look them up? Or maybe you had that one special friend as a child and for various reasons you have lost contact and would like to reunite. But, how does one begin to find long-lost friends? What are the easiest ways to go about this?
Here are a few great resources and tips for finding someone you might be looking for:
1 – Major Search Engines- this is done by doing a search on the search engines such as Google and Yahoo and typing in the name of the person you are looking for. Just a bit of a warning here though. If your friend has a very common name such as Mike Smith it may not render great results. Or, if your friend has the same name of a well-known actor or actress it may be impossible to find your friend.
2 – Websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Classmates can be powerful. By going to these sites and typing in your friends name and seeing what comes up you may just find whom you are searching for. These websites allow the users to upload photos of themselves. Even though you may not have seen your friend or friends in twenty years they may still have some of the physical characters you remember.
3 – Think you may know where your friend lives or works? Do a search in these areas too. If you think your friend may have written something on or off of the Internet then search for that also.
4 – Beware of paid search sites. Although many are tempted to use the websites that promise to pull up information on an individual many are disappointed with the results. More so than not a person can find just as much if not more information by performing their own search.
5 – Look on websites that list criminal and traffic violations for no fee. Although this doesn’t sound like the best way to find that long-lost friend it actually works very well. Your friend does not have to be a hardened criminal to be listed here. Simple traffic violations such as speeding tickets will be posted. This not only gives this type of violation but the year and where the person lives. This type of website can prove to be a virtual goldmine.
6 – If you have searched and searched and are still coming up with nothing there may be another reason. Go to the social security website and search the name. As bad as it may sound your friend may have passed away without you realizing it.
7 – Search for relatives that you may remember. If you are not having luck on the friends name there are two things to remember. While scouring the list of names be sure to keep your eyes open for names that may be related to your friend/friends. If you recognize a sibling or anyone related try to make contact. With luck you will be given your friends address and number.
8 – Visit the last location of where your friend or friends lived. If you know the person lived somewhere recently and it is close by to you then go and ask neighbors. You can explain that you are an old friend. Worst-case scenario is that they are not comfortable giving out information.
9 – Try using these people search sites for finding people even faster.
The above tips for finding long-lost friends are just the beginning. The thing to keep in mind is that it will take time and patience. For some the search may take a couple of weeks but for others it may take a year or more.
Remember that once you locate the friend/friends and make contact it is up to them to decide of they want to keep the communication going. Some are very happy to have old acquaintances in their lives. For others it is a different story. Their lives have changed over time just as their personality and looks. There are some that are just not comfortable rekindling old relationships. There really is not much that you can do but respect their wishes.