How To Find Long Lost Family Or Friends
Want to know how to find long lost family or friends?
Have you tried in the past- several times- and failed?
Don’t give up just yet.
I’ll reveal some ways that have worked for me to find people with whom you have lost touch.
Just prepare yourself with a good reason that they’ll be comfortable with when you do find and reach out to them.
You want things to go well, right?
Give yourself the best chance for that to happen.
(Header Photo Credit: seb_ra Getty Images Pro via Canva.com)
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Give them a good reason to want to talk with you.
Here are some ways to increase the odds to engage in conversation again:
- Congratulate them on an accomplishment
- Share good or bad news that might matter to them
- Offer to give back a possession of theirs
- Share a business contact that could help them
- Offer a gift they may want
- Give them info on someone they may want to contact
- Come in peace, offer to re-connect.
If nothing else, this last list item may be your only option.
State your intentions to reconnect.
Tell them you miss them.
Whatever your reasons to reach out to long lost family and friends the best way to earn trust is to get direct.
Tell them your honest intentions.
Do NOT trick them or you could lose them forever.
NO Stalking Please!
If your long lost family member or friend absolutely does NOT want to talk to you then I HIGHLY suggest moving on.
Do NOT use this info here to stalk them.
Prevent major disappointment, fights, property damage, or possible legal trouble.
Just move on.
However, if you’re intentions are good or you believe that your long lost family member or friend wants to hear from you, then please keep reading.
List of Important Information to Help You Identify Person
Regardless of the methods, you employ to find someone, you will need some key information to help you.
Some of this will be obvious, but it’s the simple data that could help you locate them.
- Full name and any known last names (including middle name or initial)
- Parents, siblings, relatives, spouse names (even divorced)
- Anyone who possibly knows them (business partners, co-workers)
- Their best friends
- Any known addresses
- Any known places of residence
- Birth place
- Type of career
- Previous work locations
- Schools where studied (all levels)
- Hobbies and Passions
- Approximate age
- Graduation Years
Now let’s look at how you can use this information to help you find the person you’re looking for.
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20+ Ways to Find Estranged or Long Lost Family and Friends
1. Ask People Who Know Them
One of the most effective and fastest ways to find long lost family or friends is to ask the people who know them. Of course, they’ll be more likely to help if they know and trust you.
Possible Information to Ask For
Gather as much information that will help you identify their latest whereabouts. Any bit of information could be one or two steps away to help you achieve this.
- Last known jobs
- Recent relationship partners
- Cities they’ve lived in
- Groups or organizations they’re associated with
- New friends
2. Reverse Old Address Lookup
Got an old address of theirs? Plug it into TruthFinder to find out what other addresses come up.
I plugged my name and an old address in and it told me what state I live in now. For an accurate full address, you will have to pay for it.
3. Reverse Email or Old Phone Number Lookup
The same thing works for emails and phone numbers. Run them through TruthFinder.
Speaking of TruthFinder…
4. TruthFinder Report
…you can certainly take the time to do all the research and investigating yourself.
However, if you wish to have much of the work done for you, TruthFinder gathers whatever public records are available on your long lost family or friend.
Results vary by person depending on what info currently exists on them.
And in some cases it may take weeks or months for new info to pop up, meaning you should run several TruthfinderFinder reports to find who you’re looking for.
Click here to search for someone with TruthFinder.
5. Online Photo Search
Here is another way to find long lost family or friends that have worked for me.
Drag a photo of theirs into the search bar of your favorite search engine.
It will automatically place it in another tab.
Then RIGHT CLICK it and select “search in (name of search engine)”.
You might get lucky and find a photo of them from a social network or blog.
Try TruthFinder if you don’t have any luck doing this yourself. It will pull any possible photos from all online sources in one report including dating profile sites.
6. Online Friend’s and Family Pics
Here is another reason to find the names of friends or family that the person you’re searching for is tagged with.
I have found online pics of long lost family and friends on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) of other people’s profiles.
Many people do not delete old photos.
Keep searching until you find something useful and gather names of possible acquaintances along the way.
7. Dating Apps
Check all dating apps you believe they might use. Even if they’re not currently using them their profile might be visible.
Many people never get around to deleting their profiles.
Try aliases they may use too.
This might give you insight into where they live and possibly even a way to contact your friend or a long lost family member.
TruthFinder can find long lost family or friends on dating apps via emails used as user names or online profile pics.
8. Search for Job Contact Info
If they work in some kind of professional career then their name and contact info may appear on a company website.
Just run an online search.
I found an old friend this way.
He was working as a county park ranger. His name popped up on their site.
If you can find an online photo they’re tagged in on social media then you could reach out to the other people in the photo.
They might be willing to tell you where they work.
9. They Block You on Social Media? Try this…
I am not endorsing stalking. So, I am assuming that your attentions are good.
Maybe you have important news to tell them or perhaps if you ended things on bad terms, maybe you’re on good ones now.
And they just haven’t gotten around to unblock you.
Use a secondary profile of yours or create a new one using an alias.
You could possibly find the info you need in photos or profile descriptions to locate your lost family or friends.
Even if they went off-grid in the past to take a break from the world and changed their profiles’ names, they might have changed them back to their actual name.
This, of course, will make it easier to find them.
10. Genealogy Sites
If you want to find long-lost family or friends that it could benefit for you to find relatives of theirs who may know their whereabouts.
If you’re searching for a lost family member then you might even find relatives of yours that you didn’t know existed.
In many cases, when someone is trying to get back on their feet they will stay with family members.
A relative who trusts you and wants to help you could inform you of a cousin or uncle they are staying with or have stayed with recently.
Prepare Yourself for a Negative Reaction
Regardless of what you hope or think might happen, prepare yourself for disappointment.
Particularly, get ready for a negative and less-than-welcoming reaction if you do locate and contact your lost family or friend.
The good news: at least you gave it a shot and don’t have to live with the regret of not trying.
11. LinkedIn
Even without a paid-for LinkedIn account, you can find info of people you wish to find and/or contact.
Unless you’re already “friends” on the platform you will not be able to message them, however.
Either way, you can find a lot of info on LinkedIn that could help you find lost family and friends.
Perhaps, you connected in the past, and you just forgot.
Then you could message them.
I just tried it now and discovered I had made connections with many lost family and friends here.
12. Find Address with County Property Appraisal Sites
I used this one to find an old friend too.
As long as you know the state and county where they currently live, this could be the fastest and easiest way to find their address.
Not sure where which county they live in?
Try out TruthFinder to find their address.
13. Old Emails
Most people have numerous email addresses.
You might have forgotten about some of the old ones your friend or a family member has used to contact you or vice versa.
Sign into each of your email accounts and run a search for their name.
If their name appears in the body of the email, address or subject bar the search will find them.
If nothing comes up try any name, word, or subject you may have used in an email to contact them in the past.
Search archived emails or emails in the “trash bin”.
14. Shared a Computer, Tablet or Phone in the Past?
If you auto-save your passwords for sites and apps, then it’s likely there is a website they used in the past that you can still sign into, provided their password is current.
YES, this could be considered stalking, so PROCEED with caution.
They might even receive a notification that you tried to log in.
Additional Ways to Find Your Long Lost Friends or Family
This strategy also will work to find old search terms they’ve used online that could lead you to find them. Maybe they are part of a group or attend events regularly.
If they’ve searched for info on these groups or events then maybe you could find more details on them that way.
Also, look for any documents or photos they might have saved on your shared device that they forgot to erase.
AGAIN, this could be considered stalking depending on the sensitivity of the info and possibly even illegal to access.
15. Online Newspaper Stories
You’d be surprised what you’ll find.
Maybe they were interviewed for a story.
Or search for their closest friends or family members.
16. Obituaries to Find Their Relatives
How can obituaries find lost family or friends of yours?
Because their name could appear as a surviving family member or one of their relatives could.
17. Pics of Exes- Ask Them
Here’s another strategic way to find long-lost family or friends.
Think about it.
Who’ likely to want to help you?
A disgruntled ex, that’s who.
I reached out to one of my ex-girlfriend’s exes’, who gave me info no problem.
She left a lot of her things with me and I wanted to ask her if she wanted any of them.
18. YouTube Videos
Many people these days upload at least one selfie video of them ranting or offering their opinion on something.
Search for their name on YouTube or likely alias name they’ve used in the past online.
You might find clues in the video, description, comments, or profile description.
19. Blog
The same strategy can work for finding their name on an About blog page.
Find your long lost family and friends if they run their own blog.
You can send them a message straight through their blog’s “Contact Me” page.
20. Interest Groups: Church, Hobbies, Professional Groups
Do you know of any interest groups they post about online or are involved in personally?
If not, can you find out?
Gaining access to the ability to message them or meet up with them may involve you joining the same group.
If you’re on good terms with your family member or friend then this would be a good strategy to try.
21. “Friend” One of Their Friends on Social Media
Well, this is sneaky, but it works.
If you’re friends on any social media account with any of their friends then eventually pics will pop up on their feeds.
Plus, you can search through photos.
Summary of How to Find Long Lost Family or Friends
In case you didn’t pick up on the main lesson here, look for any piece of information identifiable to them or someone they know (who will want to help you).
Make sure your intentions are good to avoid embarrassment or problems.
And come with a good reason that will convince them to engage with you.
TruthFinder could possibly find this info for you too.
Check Out How TruthFinder Can Help You Find Lost Family or Friends
See what others say about TruthFinder.
Just know that results vary for each person.
You might find nothing right now and have to run several searches over time to unearth useful info on your lost friends or family member.
Or you might never get what you need.
Either way, you won’t know without giving a shot.
Find Long Lost Family and Friends with TruthFinder
You Have Nothing to Lose … Give It a Try