Q&A for How to Find Someone

Search for friends you may have in common, and follow the steps in this article.

Do a public records search.

Your mother should be able to give you the information you need. If she's unwilling, when you're 18 you can request a copy of your birth certificate from the Vital Records Office in the state in which you were born, your father's name may be listed.

Contact the previous place of work and ask if they left forwarding information. They may know how to reach them.

Yes. Just type the phone number into the search bar of your favorite search engine, and you may be able to track where it comes from.

When searching online for a woman who might have gotten married and changed her name, try adding "né" in the search box with every variation (née is a word used to indicate the person is using her maiden name).

One way to find an adopted person would be through social media. If you know their name, where they were adopted, or even there adoptive parents names, look online. Websites such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter are all great places to start.

Go through her old items and see what you can find out. If you know the person's name, then do a web search.

If you only have their nickname/alias, it will be nearly impossible to find them. Many people share nicknames, and aliases will almost always have duplicates. If you need to find them, and they have an online account, take it to the police or government.

If the picture is in your phone or on your computer, you can do a reverse image search through Google, which is where you upload the picture into the search bar and then try to find related or similar images online. Otherwise you could try to figure out where the person lives and show their photo to people around the city to see if anyone recognizes them.

You could check their social media or ask their friends. You could even ask them directly.

You can Google the name and see if you can find the person that it belongs to.

I think it's best to just call the police. The police will help you. They know what they're doing, and going after the kid yourself could be dangerous, depending on the circumstances.

Do you know his full name or the city where he lived? Call all the nursing homes in that city to see if he is a resident there. Does he have children? If so, it's possible he may be in a nursing home in a city that one of his children lives in, so you can try those too. If you know the names of any friends or relatives of his, track those people down and ask about him. Finally, check on the internet by typing his name into Google. This will pull up any relevant obituaries or death notices.

Check his location on the Instagram pic, or check the comments. Also you can check for tagged pictures and follow close friends of his.

You can check if there is a verified icon next to their Facebook account.

That is not possible without more details. Maybe try social media, with more details like dates, appearance, etc., to see if friends of friends of friends might have any idea.

Try searching them on social media platforms. It may take long to find them but it'll all be more likely than using other search ways. If you do find them, don't be afraid to send them a message stating who you are and how you know each other. If you don't find the person you're looking for, don't give up hope; ask friends to help too.

List everything you know about the person such as their school or workplace, where you met them, what area of town that is in, what they looked like, any interests they expressed or groups they talked about, etc. For every fact about them, this may give you a way to narrow down your search or a person you can ask about them. For instance, if they mentioned a particular workplace, you can look that workplace up on Linkedin and see if anyone with that name is employed at that workplace.

Talk to someone in your family that may know their whereabouts, or some information about them to help you find them.

It depends on where you've already been looking for your friend. Have you tried social media, the phone book, other friends, family members, school? Other possible places to look include alumni associations, fraternity/sorority organizations, the electoral roll, old neighbors and maybe LinkedIn.

Begin by searching for their name on social media sites. For example, search on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. If you know your friend's surname, that should be more helpful. It can help to also search mutual friends whose names you know, as your old friend might be following them too.