How can I find an old friend for free??

Question

The telephone number that I have is not in service anymore, I've tried yahoo search, myspace, hi5...

Answer 1

dont know abt old..........but can tell u abt a newone.........mail me.........

Answer 2

It can be easy to find the person you are looking for, if they have their name in the phonebook (even if you don't currently know the phone number) and you know their hometown.  Then you can use a website like http://www.squidoo.com/people_search (top 10 free people searches on one site), whitepages.com or zabasearch to find them. However, if you are looking for someone that is unlisted, with a phone that isn't in service anymore and perhaps a new unlisted number, you will need to dig further.  This can be time-consuming, but here are some tips.

Sometimes you have to get creative in your searching techniques, especially when you want to do a free search!

The more information you have on the person before you begin searching, the greater the chances are you will find the person.  So, start with making a list of everything you know.  List all known addresses for them, even if they are old.  Do you know their birthday?  Their approximate age?  Their first, last, and middle name? What high school or college they attended?  Their hometown?  Other useful facts are hobbies, name of business, employer, friends, email address, online nickname, old telephone numbers, and Social Security number.

You'd be surprised at how difficult it can be to find people.  Sometimes it's easy; sometimes it's not. So I have listed a lot of resources!

I have listed many free links to public records from property taxes, court house records, military, marriage, divorce, obituary, prison, and many other free records. What I suggest is to use services that aren't free to pull as much information as you can, and then combine them with free public records sites and googling, which can be a wealth of information when looking for someone.

Not all links will be applicable to you.  Pick and choose the ones you feel will help you in your search!

On many "paid" sites, you can get a lot of information without paying anything! You'd be surprised just how much you can find out without agreeing to pay them one dime! Try it!

A couple of sites that are not free, but that can help you piece together information, are

Intellius People Search

http://www.intelius.com/people-search.ht...

and this one, Melissa Data People Finder, gives a lot of information before having to pay.

http://www.melissadata.com/cgi-bin/peopl...

You can take sites like those, along with WhitePages.com and www.zabasearch.com (which allows you to leave free messages for people you are searching for) and google for any information you might have, such as an email address.

So, first start with the "free" side of paid sites (don't pay them a dime; just glean from their free portion of services!) to glean what information you can, then go after the free public sites with gusto, and combine the "free" paid and "completely free" sites together to find the information you need. Sometimes you'll have to switch back and forth between the two in order to piece together your information, but the extra bit of time is worth it!

Try free public records searches, such as county clerk records and property tax records. Narrow it down first by state, then by county or city.

Top Ten Links for free public records searches, such as property tax, court records, and obituaries:

http://websearch.about.com/od/effectives...

Contains free birth, death and marriage records, including U.S. territories. United States Vital Records Information:

http://www.vitalrec.com/

Free state property tax searches:

http://publicrecords.netronline.com/

Search state and county clerks' offices public records by state, most are free. Many links per state! A wealth of info.  

http://www.publicrecordfinder.com/

Court records, criminal records, and property records:

http://www.pretrieve.com/

For free military records, use Military.com Buddy Finder:

http://www.military.com/Military/Locator...  - Search over 20 million records for military buddies.

Many links and resources for military records:

http://websearch.about.com/od/peoplesear...

Those include The Unofficial Air Force Email Locator, Navy WorldWide Locator, Shipmate Search, The Citadel People Search, and USMC Military Reunions.

If you are looking for prison records, try here:

http://www.thepamperedprisoner.com/inmat... - State prison records for every state, alphabetized.

http://www.corrections.com/ - Go under the Resources tab and click on "Inmate Locator." They have most states listed.

For federal prisons:

http://www.bop.gov/ - Has an inmate locator and a facilites locator.

http://www.vinelink.com/index.jsp - Prison inmate locator by state.

Obituaries 101 - Features every American state major newspaper with links to obituary sections

http://www.big101.com/OBITUARIES101.htm

If you absolutely decide you must pay, here are a couple of highly rated investigative services. They have unlimited search fees from $29 to $34.95.

Net Detective http://www.netdetective.com/

Reverse Records http://www.reverserecords.org/

These resources should greatly assist in your search.