Looking for your old school friends?

As time goes on, it’s natural to wonder what happened to the people that you used to see on a daily basis. Those people whom you shared a class with at school, the girl who you played netball with on the local team, the boy who you always saw on the bus every morning. Time moves fast, and as a result, we lose touch with people very easily.

Of course, much of this is normal; we cannot stay in touch with every single person who comes into our lives, and not everyone is meant to stay within our social circle, but it’s totally normal to feel curious from time to time.

For many, this curiosity simply disappears, but what if you want to get in touch with someone again? What if you have tried to track them down, you’ve tried social media, and it’s come to nothing? There are other routes you could try in that case.

You could hire a private investigator, but that could be a costly and rather drastic route to go down simply to find an old school friend. Of course, if you’re looking for a lost relative, or you want to find out some other secret from your past dalliances, you could go down this road, but for something a little less urgent, how about public records search?

Is a Search Ethical?

There are people who have their reservations about searching for people in this way, but the fact remains that it is a reliable and very accurate way to search for those who are no longer in your life, to try and track them down. Whether they want to be a part of your life again is something only they can decide, but the information you will receive, if you manage to find them, is enough to put you on the track to say you did everything you could.

These searches will give you access to information on over 700 million adults in the USA, in a database form that is very easy to use. This information is not personal information, it is freely available information that anyone can access, e.g. name, age, location, etc. There is nothing illegal about public records search because the clue is in the title – public record.

Not everyone has access to these, and of course, there is a fee to be granted that access, but if you’re trying to find someone important to you, would you consider the cost worth it?

Many do.

What do you do if you find the person you’ve been searching for? How do you approach them? Gently is the best option. The person may not want to see you, they might not remember you. It’s harsh, but we have to suggest it because the reality is the best course of action when searching for people. Of course, we hope that they are pleased you have reached out to them and that the reaching out brings you both to a place of friendship in the future, but keeping an open mind and not getting your hopes up is the best course of action.