How to Locate an Old Friend
Days of Old
Do you remember when locating an old friend meant looking their name up in your local phone directory at the last place you knew they lived? I sure do. We also had the option of calling 411 and ask the operator for their number. The odds of your particular interest still using the phone number or name you recall weren't that good. Especially if its been several years since you had contact. If only a couple of years had passed since you last had contact, then your chances were pretty good. If it had been five or ten years, your chance of the operator coming up with anything on the person were a little better than slim, but not much. And the 411 operator, if she (I always got a female voice) was indulgent she would offer you several options. After providing two or three possible cities she would start to get a little irritated with you.
How life has changed since those days of old! Locating the most distant relative in your family tree is a snap. That old grammar school chum you used to play with everyday is just a few keystrokes away.
The Internet. A fabulous plethora of information. There are literally hundreds of search engines available for you to seek out that special person. There's no reason to pay for this information either. There are so many available that are free, and provide the same information the pay sites provide, there's no reason to pay for the information.
Where I go to Locate Someone
There are five website's I use when I need to locate someone. In alphabetical order they are:
Every one of these sites is great for searching and they are free. Sometimes when a website claims that you can search for free its not. Their home screen will have the search box available but once you enter the information the website forwards you to Intellius.com who won't display the information without your credit card number.
What You Can Expect at Each Site
Click thumbnail to view full-size
What You Get
Facebook.com is such a gigantic hit on the Internet this should be one of your first stops with your search. If the person can be found then you can request a friendship if you like. You won't get phone numbers or address's, but you may get an idea of what state or country they live in and that's a good start.
Google.com being the search giant they are consider your quest fulfilled here. If the person lives and breathes on this earth Google will have something on them to offer you. Even if the person isn't internet savvy or own a computer, it doesn't matter, Google will have s-o-m-e-t-h-i-n-g on them.
https://www.whitepages.com/neighbors is really good for those times you don't know the name of who exactly you're looking for. If you're interested in having a block party and you want to invite the reclusive neighbor down the street, but can't remember his/her name, Neighbors is the site for you. You can see in the thumbnail photo the information Neighbors supplies just by entering your own address; names, phone numbers, address's, names of all the people in the house! Everything!
Peoplesearch.com here you'll also find the names of the relatives to whom you are searching. You can click on their name in the search results and it will go to their profile and provide more relatives you can click on. How they know who's related to whom I don't know, but it's accuracy scares me!
Pipl.com claims it searches the deep web. Then it offers every instance of the name you requested a search on, their arrest record, public arrest records and personal information. Beware here that much of the information is offered by intellius.com, so if you click on something it may very well divert you to the intellius.com website and demand payment for the information.
