How To Locate A Person When All You Have Is The Name And The Last Known Address

Discover how to locate a person by looking for the last known address to find people. Also, at the bottom of the page is a recommendation on Net Detective software to save you hours and hours of time searching for someone.

You can do a person search to locate a person with only these two pieces of information:

  • The name of the missing person
  • Last known address of the missing person

Locate a person using the Post Office records strategy

To locate a person, mail a letter to the last known address of your missing person that you're doing a person search on. Be sure to write on the front of the envelope "Address Correction Requested". If the post office has a current address of the person you are trying to locate, they'll forward it to you.

Use telephone, city/suburban and cross-reference (crisscross) directories strategies to locate a person

Many people are not aware of the techniques to do a person search by using the telephone directory. You will be surprised by the steps you can take to locate a person just by letting your fingers do the walking. Most public libraries keep local phone directories from past years - up to thirty or more years. The main library, if the town has more than one, is your best bet in finding what you need. To locate a person, when you find a name in the directory that may be the missing person you're trying to do a person search for, give them a call. If there's more than a few names, you may want to write a letter, photocopy it, and mail it to all the people to save time and save expense of long distance phone calls.

To locate a person when searching for names in the phone directory, the first part of the name of the missing person may not be listed as you may think. You may know the person only by his or her nickname. Or,the name you called this person could be his or her middle name, and you never gave it a thought that it wasn't the first name. Therefore, the first part of the name may be listed in the phone directory under his or her nickname, middle name, or birth name. Also, the missing person may have it listed with initials in different combinations such as first and middle initials, first name and middle initial, or just one initial with the last name.

Obviously, when you are trying to locate a person, you may not find the phone number because:

  • the phone number is unlisted
  • the person moved to another city
  • the person may have remarried and has a new name that is unknown to you

To locate a person, call the phone directory assistance to check for a listing for the person that you're trying to do a person search for. The directory operator can tell you if the person's phone number is unlisted or that the person you're trying to find still lives in that area.

What about if the person you're trying to find moved to another city? Even so, the telephone book can still be of use to you by providing names of family members who may still live in that city. You can call or send a letter to find out if they are related to the missing person and if they would be willing to give you information.

As I said previously, many public libraries keep local phone directories from past years - up to thirty or more years. These older telephone books come in handy because the person you are looking for may have been listed. All you need to do to locate a person is search for the former address in the directory of the year that you think that the person may have lived in that location.

Then use the criss cross directory to find the addresses of the former neighbors. Click here for explanation of criss cross directory. Check the address from the criss cross directory to the current phone directory to determine if the neighbors still live at those addresses. If not, then use the current telephone directory to locate the former neighbors current addresses.

Then call them. Hopefully you will find a neighbor who remembers the person your trying to find and knows where this person resides.




If you want to locate a person...

Check this out at PEOPLE SEARCH, REVERSE PHONE & EMAIL.

Or...

If you want to locate a person yourself, I suggest getting Investigations Online - "One of the largest sources of legal public information ever to be compiled". If you would like to check it out, click locate a person.







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