Finding old friends or long lost family members may have once required a phone book, or a daylong trip to the library. Today, chances are you can find someone from your past in just a few hours. Even older folks who are still using a telephone landline--in 2007, only 22 percent of American homes were relying solely on landlines--can now be found on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook.
Step 1
Call her. Now that you can keep your cell phone number even if you switch your cell phone service provider, people hang on to the same number for years. Try giving her a call.
Step 2
Search on a popular search engine like Bing, Google and Yahoo. If your relative or friend belongs to a social networking site, his profile will appear there. Looking on a search engine will yield newspaper articles that mention notable events like high school graduations, births and deaths. His name will come up if he's ever been published. Hundreds of thousands of people are earning an income these days writing for websites.
Type in the person's name in different combinations including possible misspellings. Use a person's maiden name as well as her married name. Type in different ways of spelling the same name: Teresa and Theresa, for example.
Step 3
Look for mutual friends. You might find that other family members have already connected on social networking sites. Look through your friends' and family members' Facebook friend lists. Names are listed in alphabetical order, by first name.
Step 4
Use a more specialized search site. Pandia.com searches for email addresses. Government-Records.com looks through public information including death, marriage and criminal records. Since people still do have landlines, you can try Switchboard.com.
Step 5
Search at a professional networking site. LinkedIn has more than 75 million members around the world.
References
- PC Magazine: Exodus from Landlines to Cell Phones Continues
- PBS: Writers Explain What It's Like Toiling on the Content Farm
- Privacy Rights: Are You Being Stalked
- Inside Facebook: December Data on Facebook's US Growth by Age and Gender
- FCC: Keeping Your Telephone Number When You Change Your Service Provider
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