If the Internet doesn't turn anything up, you can find a long-lost friend by hiring a private investigator or using traditional investigative methods yourself. Keep in mind that it's perfectly normal for people to lose touch with each other as the years go by. In fact, the number of friends in a person's life tends to peak at about the age of So a lot of adults maintain fewer friendships than they did when they were younger because they simply have less time and energy to nurture them.
But as an older adult, you may have more time to restore important friendships and even cultivate new ones, especially if you're retired. When you find long-lost friends, the good feeling is often hard to describe. And if you're able to catch up and renew those friendships, it feels even better.
Of course, not everyone wants to be found. An old friend may not be interested in reconnecting. But you'll never know unless you try. In this article, you'll discover plenty of practical tips about how to track someone down by name or by other types of information.
SchoolMates | Find your old school friends, college, academy and university class mates.
You'll also learn how to make completely new friends. Here's the best process to follow:. Before you begin your search for old friends, it's a good idea to plan how you will organize and keep track of the information you gather. Some people are super easy to find. But the more challenging it becomes to find old friends, the more bits and pieces of information you'll have to sift through. Simply put, you find an old friend by being methodical and disciplined in your organizational habits. The first thing you should decide is whether to organize everything electronically or on paper.
Some people like to do both. Think about how tech-savvy you are. Do you regularly use software on your computer or apps on your mobile devices to take notes, save documents, and organize the information in your life?
Popular Topics
Or are you more comfortable with printing things out, writing stuff down, and putting everything in physical folders or notebooks? Whichever method you choose, start thinking ahead about the types of information you may find. That way, you can create separate categories for them and you'll have an easier time finding specific details as your search goes on. Having separate categories will also make it easier to quickly organize information as you go, identify conflicting info, compare sources, and move forward in your search without repeating something you've already done. You can also divide things up by information related to your old friend's locations, employers, potential contact information, and known and possible relatives and associates.
If you choose to organize information digitally, consider using a popular app like Evernote. This step is closely linked to the previous one.
Essentially, you need to gather and organize all of the information you already have. You simply can't figure out how to find a long-lost friend unless you make notes about what you remember or know to be true. After all, in order to find someone online or even through more traditional methods , you always have to start with at least one solid piece of information. It's like solving a puzzle: The more pieces you have in place already, the easier it is to figure out the blank areas.
Great! You're almost finished.
Try to remember and collect as many personal details as you can about your old buddy or gal pal. And if you have current contact information for other people who knew your friend, get in touch with them and ask what they know or remember. For example, it's good to have information such as your long-lost friend's:. Photos can also be useful since they may spark your memory or help other people remember.
Of course, it's unlikely you'll have all of that information. But whatever you do happen to know is what you can start building your search around. Knowing how to find someone for free on the Internet is a great skill to have. It's a particularly useful skill for finding old friends. And it all starts with search engines. You probably already know about Google , the world's most popular search engine. But did you know that you can sometimes get different results by using less-popular search engines such as Bing and DuckDuckGo?
Start with Google. Then, if you don't find your old friend or you feel you've done as much searching as you can on Google, try doing the same searches on at least two other search engines. That way, you'll maximize your chances of finding information that leads to your old friend.
Begin by searching for the name of your long-lost friend. For example, let's say you knew your friend as Isabella Smith. Simply type that name into the search bar and hit return. If your friend has a very common name, you'll get a lot of results for people who aren't the person you're looking for. But if your friend has an unusual name, you may get lucky and see relevant results right away. In any case, browse through at least the first five pages of results, carefully reading all the text to see if anything seems to apply to your old friend.
If any of the results look promising, right-click on those links and open the linked web pages into new browser windows or tabs.
Leave a Comment!
Always work this way instead of just clicking on links and hitting the back button. That way, you can more easily return to where you were and not have to worry about pages reloading or trying to find your place again. Just be careful not to accidentally close an entire browser window of open tabs. To get better results, try many additional searches that include extra bits of information based on what you already know about your old friend.
If you know his or her first and last name, do some searches with the full name in quotation marks followed by extra bits of info.
Or if you also know his or her middle name, middle initial, or nickname, try including those as well. For instance, here are some example searches you would try if you knew that your friend Isabella used to live in Denver, wanted to pursue a career in art, attended the University of Colorado, has a middle name starting with D, and may go by a nickname like Izzy or Bella:. Try several different combinations. If you think your old friend might have married someone, include terms like "wedding" or "married" in your searches in case any marriage announcements have been archived online that may provide you with a past or current married name.
Of course, you may not actually remember your long-lost friend's original last name. In that case, it's useful to know how to find someone online with just a first name. When using a search engine, the best method is usually to type in all the information you know. So, for example, your searches might look like this:. In this example, it would also be worth doing some searches that include the word "designer. Often, they pursue careers in more commercial fields that still utilize their talents. So it's smart to think more broadly and do some searches based on educated guesses about what your friend may have become.
Also, don't forget to look at the image results for each search in Google. You may get lucky and spot a picture of your old friend that links to a website with information you didn't have before. You can also use a photo you already have of your friend and perform a reverse image search on Google or TinEye. That way, you can find any places on the Web that include that particular image or maybe even other images that are very similar to it.
As you collect useful information, be sure to organize it by putting it under the appropriate category and making note of exactly where it came from. Copy the link to the exact Web page if you can. In some cases, the information included in a Google search result may be difficult to find on the actual source website. In that situation, just make note of the specific information and the website it should be on so that you can take a more thorough look at it later.
When you've gathered what you believe to be solid clues, start incorporating that information into additional searches. For example, maybe you find clues that your friend Isabella moved to Seattle and married a guy with the last name Brown.
- british touring car championship history.
- 4 Sites For Finding Old Friends For Free!
- How to find old friends online?
- birth records in akron ohio.
- Looking to find an old school friend or a long-lost relative? The internet could be the key….
- Free Search for Old Classmates.
Do several new searches like the following examples and be sure to include the maiden name in some of them :. As you acquire more clues, keep repeating the process. Some of the information you find may not be accurate, or it may apply to a different person than the one you're looking for. So you will probably follow some clues that lead to dead ends. That's OK; it's all part of the process. Any clues that you can eliminate will ultimately help you hone in on the ones that are accurate and useful.
And don't overlook this powerful tip: Do the same kinds of searches for anyone who continues to come up as a possible relative or associate of your old friend. Note their locations and the people associated with them. It's often the indirect path that finally leads to the person you want to find.
Did you know that 68 percent of American adults use Facebook? It's true. Even a lot of older adults use the world's most popular social networking platform. In fact, 65 percent of U. There's no guarantee that you'll find your old friend this way, but the odds are pretty good that you'll at least glean some new information. You search for someone on Facebook by logging into your account and using the search bar at the top of the page.
To begin with, you can simply type in your old friend's name and hit enter to see who comes up. Then, right under the search bar, click on "People. Unless the name is fairly uncommon, you'll likely get many results. If you recognize your friend in any of the photos, then—congratulations—you've probably found him or her. If not, click on each of the individual results to check out the personal profiles and see whether anyone seems to fit your friend's description.
While doing that, make sure you click the "About" tab underneath the profile photo, since that's where you'll usually find the best identifying information as long as the person's profile isn't private. Failing that, try some additional searches.