FINDING CONTACT INFORMATION FOR LIVING PEOPLE

©2022 Donald R. Snow -- Page last updated 2022-04-24

Return to the  Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group Home Page  or  Don's Class Listings Page .
ABSTRACT:  Finding contact information for living people may be very difficult when you want to find descendants of your ancestors (your cousins) or old acquaintances, for example. Telphone books now only include land phones and not cell phones and online websites may charge you for information. This class will give you some ideas to find contact information of living people primarily in the United States and will start with some questions to give you some ideas of where to look. One question is whether they ae still alive or not. The notes for this class and related articles, all with active internet links, are on my website  http://uvtagg.org/classes/dons/dons-classes.html .

    WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION TO CLASS

  1. Instructor is Donald R. Snow ( snowd@math.byu.edu ) of Provo and St. George, Utah.
  2. These notes, with active internet links and other related articles, are posted on Don's website  http://uvtagg.org/classes/dons/dons-classes.html .
  3. Tips:  (1)  Easy to put an icon on your desktop for the URL for these notes, or any website, by dragging the icon from in front of the address in your browser onto your desktop.  (2)  To open a link from here in another tab, so you keep your place in these notes, hold down the Control key while clicking the link.
  4. Problem:  How to find contact information for living people.

    5. QUESTIONS TO GIVE YOU CLUES

  5. What is their full name and nicknames?
  6. If you knew them, where and when was that?
  7. What old contact information do you have, e.g. phone number, address, email address,letters from them,etc.?
  8.  Do you have, on old church directory, phone book, business directory, etc. that they would be in.?
  9. Do you know someone who would know their information?
  10. Were they a member of some organization, e.g. a church, school, Chamber of Commerce, trade union, etc.?
  11. Do you think they would still be alive?

    12. KNOWING FULL NAME AND NICKNAMES

  12. Try typing various combinations of their names into Google.
  13. Use various  name combinations in quotation marks to narrow the search. 
  14. Use the Proximity search in Google, e.g. [given name] AROUND(4) [surname] -- finds the names within 4 words of each other and in either order
  15. Try using the Proximity search with their name and city or state where they lived.

    16. SOCIAL SECURITY DEATH INDEX (SSDI)

  16. If it's been a long time since you've been in touch, check the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) so see if they might be deceased now.
  17. There are several versions of the SSDI online; a helpful and free one is -- https://www.mytrees.com/yao/SSDISearch.html -- but it only goes to May 2012; the version on FamilySearch goes to Feb 2014 -- https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1202535  

    18. USING OLD INFORMATION ABOUT THEM

  18. Old email addresses - type the old email address into Google and you may find that it is still alive or get an updated version; this works for old URLs too  
  19. In search engines try variations of name and use the AROUND(n) command or NEAR command (NEAR is like AROUND(n), but you don't specify the maximum number of words between
  20. May be able to find articles or social media items posted by the person
  21. Call or email someone who lives near where they did or who knows them 
  22. Send a postcard to where they used to live with your phone and email address
  23. Keep in mind that they may not want you to contact them for several reasons, e.g., bill collectors 

    24. TELEPHONE DIRECTORIES ONLINE

  24. Printed and online telephone directories now only list land phones, not cell phones
  25. Below are some helpful online phone directories, some charge $ and some show me show people related or associated so you know you have the correct person 
  26. Ancestry -- https://www.ancestry.com/ -- has some searchable telephone directories 
  27. FastPeopleSearch - free -- https://www.fastpeoplesearch.com/   
  28. Spokeo.com -- https://www.spokeo.com/
  29. White Pages -- https://www.whitepages.com/ -- $ now
  30. PeekYou -- https://www.peekyou.com/
  31. Anywho -- https://www.anywho.com/ 
  32. Address.com -- https://www.addresses.com/  

    33. MISCELLANEOUS SOURCES

  33. Schools they attended, e.g. universities, high schools, trade schools
  34. If they have done some genealogy, try contacting them trought the online tree, e.g. FamilySearch -- they won't give you the email address, but you may be able to send an email with your information that they will deliever, so the person can contact you.
  35. Check the U.S. censuses for names, addresses, and family relationships
  36. Check voter registration records -- all public, but may require info to search them

    37. INSTRUCTIONAL WEBSITES

  37. FamilySearch Wiki -- https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Finding_Living_People_in_the_United_States  
  38. Bob Rankin article -- https://askbobrankin.com/its_getting_harder_to_find_a_people_finder.html?awt_l=I6HIw&awt_m=IqSq3FZY1OP6SL
  39. Cyndi's List -- https://www.cyndislist.com/  and  https://www.cyndislist.com/finding-people/  

    40. CONCLUSIONS

  40. Finding people used to be much easier, but privacy laws now make it difficult.
  41. You used to be able to send a stamped letter (open in an envelope) and the Membership Dept of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints wold send it on, but not now. Some organizations may still do this for you.
  42. There are many commercial websites that will search, but subscriptions to some are very expensive. 
    43. Return to the  Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group Home Page  or  Don's Class Listings Page .