How to Find and Reconnect with a Long-Lost Friend

We’ve all got friends that we’ve lost touch with over time - maybe not for any particular reason, but life got in the way for the two of you and you found it hard to keep the friendship going like you once could. There are many reasons why we might fall out of touch with friends - perhaps it’s a friend from school that you haven’t spoken to since you both went to different colleges, or maybe it’s a friend from college who you’ve lost touch with since you both graduated and went to live back home far away from one another. Thankfully, social media has made it easier than ever for us to hold onto our friends for longer than ever, but if you weren't using social networks like Facebook or Instagram when you were friends, then it can be easier than you realize to lose touch with somebody.
The good news is that most people today have some kind of online presence - and finding an old friend and reconnecting with them is becoming easier than ever. Whether it’s a friend that you had a misunderstanding with and you’d like to repair the relationship, or somebody who you used to spend a lot of time with as a child and have fond memories of, here are some of the best methods to consider if you want to find and reconnect with a friend that you’ve lost touch with.

Search Social Media

When it comes to finding old friends, social media is your best bet - but you’ll need to know their first and last name, which can be tricky sometimes. For example, if you were childhood friends, you may not have known or no longer remember their surname - if you were friends for a short time, you might not have even thought to ask for it, and don’t forget that your friend might have changed their surname since - through marriage, for example.
However, for most people, the good news is that social media is a useful tool for finding and reconnecting with old friends. All you need to do is search for them using the name that you knew them by - Facebook is the best social network to start with, since most people have an account - and see if you can find them in the results. If they have changed their name, they may still have their previous name listed on their social profile which means that you may still be able to find them.
If you know where your friend lives, then it might be worth searching for local Facebook groups in that area - you may stumble across them as a member of a selling group, for example, or you could post in a group to see if anybody else living in the local area knows them and is willing to pass on a message from you to let them know that you have been trying to get in touch.
Alternatively, you could search for mutual friends - perhaps you are friends on social media with somebody that knows or knew the two of you - a quick check of their friends list, if it is available to you, might bring up the friend that you are trying to reach.

Speak to Mutual Friends

If you can’t find your friend on a mutual friend’s social profile, then it could be worth speaking to anybody else who knows them, to see if they have heard from them recently and could point you in the direction of getting in contact with them. It may be that your particular friend doesn’t use social media - but a mutual friend has their contact number or email address that they can pass on to you, or are willing to let your friend know that you are asking about them and pass a contact detail on for you, so that they can get in touch.

Use Google

A quick Google search of your friend’s name could be all that it takes to put you back in touch with them once again. Google will not only bring up any social media accounts for people of that name, but may also help you find more information about them, such as what they do for a living if it is publicly listed on their employer’s website, for example, or if they run a business. If they’ve been in the news at all, this is also likely to show up. Bear in mind that if your friend has a popular or common name, like John Brown, then you might need to enter some additional keywords into the search - the place that they live, or the last place you know them to have lived, can help to narrow the search down. If you know where they attended school or college, this might also help. Additionally, if you have the name of their spouse or partner, try searching for them or searching for the two names together.

Access Public Records

Searching public records is a good way to try and find out more about your friend. You can get records using this website and search a wide database of birth, death, marriage, and criminal records plus more to try and get more information on your friend. All you need to do is enter any details that you have about them into Public Records Reviews - the more you can remember, the better. While you may not always be able to get contact information for them, it can certainly be a useful tool if you want to find out where they are currently located, if they have any children, or even if they have passed away.
Bear in mind that searching public records might not bring up the information that you want about your friend - in some cases, you may even find that they have committed a crime, or that they have died. If you’re struggling to find any information about your friend at all, it may be that they simply do not want to be contacted, in which case there is not much else that you can do, except for pass your details onto a mutual friend or family member if you manage to find one, and hope that your friend gets in touch with you.

Use an Online ‘People Finding’ Service

People finding websites are not as popular as they used to be thanks to social media, but they are certainly still out there and you might have some luck using one to find your old friend. Services like 123People or Spook, for example, can be useful - all you need to do is search for the information that you have about your friend and see if anybody matches the details that you give. There are lots of other networking sites that you can use to find lost friends - Classmates.com, for example, is a good option if you are trying to find somebody that you lost touch with after school or college.

Search in-person

If you’re not having much luck searching online for your friend, then you might be able to find them in-person. This is easier if you know or at least have the names of your friend’s family members - you might be able to track them down and see if they are willing to help you get in touch with your friend. You may need to search for family members online, but this isn’t always the case - for example, if you were childhood friends and remember where they lived, it might be worth a visit to see if their parents still live there. And even if they’ve moved on, the new occupants of the house might be able to provide you with contact information that you can use to get in touch with somebody who knows your friend and bring you one step further to finding them.

Contact an Organization You Attended or Worked at Together

Are you trying to find a friend who you went to school or college with, or worked with? If that’s the case, then you may be able to get some further information about them from your old school, college or employer. To be in with a better chance of getting leads, it’s a good idea to try to talk to somebody that you know who trusts you, as organizations are unlikely to give out data to just about anybody.
If you attended school or college together, then you can make use of your alumni directory, which you can usually purchase directly from the school. Or, get in touch with your school or college for information on reunion events - your friend might also attend.
Thanks to the internet, completely losing touch with a friend isn’t as commonplace as it once was, but it still happens. If you have been thinking about an old friend recently but you haven’t spoken to them in years, the good news is that there are plenty of ways that you can find them and rekindle your friendship. Chances are, they have been thinking about you too and will be thrilled to hear from you after all this time.
The search for an old friend might not always be easy - but getting back in touch with them again will be worth it!