How I Tracked Down an Old Friend
Introduction
I am recently retired and have some time on my hands. I started to go over some of my old photo albums trying to digitize them and downsize my shelf space. Over the years, I have assembled ove 30 albums. I came across some old photos of my fencing days in college. I lost track of some teammates.
- Jan. 2017
How to Track Down an Old Friend
With modern technology and social media, I thought it would be easy. It took me over 2 weeks but I succeeded. Here is how I did it.
First, I did a search on Google on the name. It was not very helpful because there were too many people with the same name. Then I narrow the search because I have an old address. It found an address but no phone number or email.
I decided to write a letter and send it to the address. I waited a week but no luck. This had worked for another of my teammates.
Next, I tried Linkedin but no luck. I guess my friend had retired.
Next, I tried facebook social media and again no luck here.
I got an idea to try search his daughter. I had received Christmas photos of his kids a while back. I knew her first name. I did a search on her name and no luck. I did find her name with a different last name on WhitePages. I guess she got married.
Next, I did a search on her married name and bingo, I found a hit at her work place. I tried contacting her company but were told she no longer worked there and no forwarding address.
I went back to facebook and this time I got a hit. She showed up on my connection as 3rd level. It turned out she is friend with someone who is friend with my son. I asked my son to introduce us.
I got connected to her and sent her a message and within a day, I received a message back with my friends cell number. Success at last.
Summary
The moral of the story. Persistance pays off. With modern technology and social media, it is possible to find someone even if he or she is not connected. People of my generation tends to avoid social media. I am not a fan of sicial media in general, but in this particular case, I am glad I tried. I am looking forward to reconnect with my old teammates. We have a lot to catch up. Thank you Facebook.
