by Melissa D. Ing

Created on: May 18, 2010   Last Updated: January 28, 2012

At some point in our lives whether through necessity or curiosity there will be someone missing from our lives that we need to find. While our television sets inundate us with stories of high powered Private Detectives who track down missing people with only a handful of clues, real life is just not that simple! In order to locate someone, we need a starting point, and often with a few helpful tips we can find who we need to find by searching the Internet.

Before you begin looking for anyone, whether a classmate, long lost love or even a dead beat ex behind on maintenance and child support we need to ask a very important question; is this person really MISSING or just missing to us? If it's the first, then we need to inform the authorities of where they were last seen, if it's the second, read on!

Begin with where you left them

Believably or unbelievably over 70% of our Western population never moves more than 30 miles from their childhood home! Humans are homing pigeons at heart, so if it's an old friend or acquaintance you haven't seen in 20 years try the online white pages for their home town. If nothing is available, try neighbouring towns or even a neighbouring city, chances are you will find them pretty quickly. If you can't locate them you may recognize the last name of a mutual friend or acquaintance, or even a family run business with someone who can give you some information.

High Schools, Colleges and Universities have joined a recent trend of posting old year books online and creating forums for old classmates to get reacquainted. If this is not available to you, then there are two options, telephoning your old school to see if any reunions are being planned, or searching sites like www.classmates.com to see if they are also looking for you.

Try a focused Internet Search

Just typing in John Smith, 123 Main Street, Anytown, Any State, USA may work, but more often than not it won't. It will simply bring up any references to that person, and if they have a common name, you risk scrolling through hundreds of page's. Instead try a focused search that will typically involve spending a little bit of money.

While there are many websites dedicated to the truly missing or disappeared, there are some savvy online business that can help you locate people in a snap. Reverse phone directories, reverse cell phone directories, will not only give you someone's last known address, but their SSN, workplace, criminal record, legal judgements, and estate records for

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