People Search Resources

As work on this site progressed it became apparent that locating people was a very frequent need.  The Internet's power was harnessed to facilitate the locating process, and this list of specialized search sites was developed.  Perhaps  you will find it useful when you need to locate someone.

Services that are free are strongly favored, but many of these free services also have additional information available for a fee.  However, by combining the free capabilities of several services it's usually possible to get an address and telephone number for a person without resorting to the "for-fee" services.  Since my need is to locate people there is less emphasis on reverse lookup capabilities, and even less on the many other types of public record searches.

How To Do It

Free People Search Tips & People Finder How-to Guide  -  The tutorial here gives many tips on how to find out almost anything.  Emphasizes free resources.

People Search Sites

AnyWho - This is AT&T's telephone lookup page.  Most up-to-date, and very helpful.  However, it (and the search services below) does not include cell-phone numbers, and hence people relying exclusively on cell phones are almost impossible to locate without paying a fee.  If a telephone number obtained via one of the search services below fails when cross-checked on AnyWho consider that the last 7 digits may be OK but that the area code has changed. 

Pipl - If Anywho fails this is an excellent site to try next.  It searches a number of public databases which cannot be reached via normal search engines and integrates the results.  Results at paid sites are presented first, but wait a few seconds and the free results will appear near the top of the page.  Clicking on them brings up the data from other search sites like ZabaSearch, WhitePages.com, etc.   

ZabaSearch - This is a powerful people search site, which (for less common names) can be searched on a nationwide basis.  It gives addresses and often the telephone number and an indication of the age of the person.  The Age range is unclear, but appears to be at least +/- 5 years on less common names. Problems: The site often gives too many hits for the same person and many of the hits may be for old addresses and/or old telephone numbers.

Peoplefinders - Similar to ZabaSearch.  If no state is selected will do a nationwide search if the name is not too common.  Returns age and a list of possible relatives, but no address or phone number.  Shows some previous address information (city only).  The usefulness of the Age restriction is unclear. Be careful in using the Social Security and E-Mail  lookups as they may be more information collectors than providers.

USA People Search - Can be searched by Name only, but results can be narrowed by including Age which has a +/- 3 year range at least on less common names.  Searches do not return address or telephone number, only age and city.  Only the first 100 hits are shown.

411.Com - Lookup by Street Address - Skip the first 3 boxes at the top of the page as they are not free services.  There are 9 nice lookup boxes below and lookup tips at the bottom of the page. This site will return all the addresses (where there are telephone numbers) on part of a street if the street is entered with a number range as: [1900-2000] E Main (Note the [ - ] are required).  Results include the name and telephone number for each address found. Useful for finding neighbors when an address is known but the telephone number is unlisted. 

WhitePages.com - Can search for: people, reverse lookup, and area and ZIP codes.  Seems to be able to find people and show addresses even for people who do not have listed telephone numbers.

Skipease - This site has changed.  It now uses Whitepages.com above for its searches.  However, the home page is full of other free search site suggestions some of which do not appear on this page.

123People - This one is particularly good at finding people who have a "web presence" or who have their name appear in the news.  Makes an attempt to find e-mail addresses.

ZoomInfo - Find people at companies or universities.  Excellent for universities, but usually only finds top-level people at companies.

CVGadget - Enables multiple searches of several contemporary websites for people who have a current Internet presence.  Usually not any good for older folks.

FCC Amateur Search - Many of the people associated with marine radio are also amateur radio license holders, and the multiple search capabilities of this FCC page helps locate them.

Canadian Amateur Search - Search by call sign or name via the Radio Amateurs of Canada web-site.

Social Security Death Index - After all else fails  - Maybe they can't be found because they have passed away.

Records Search Gateways & Links Pages

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