Find Classmates Online

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Almost everyone goes to high school and a large number of high school graduates move on to further their education in a college or university setting. It's often said that high school and college days are the "best times" of our lives. Whether this is the case or not, we all have memories from our younger years that will never disappear. A good portion of those memories involve the people we shared them with.

Friendships formed in high school and college are often thought to last a lifetime, and sometimes, they do. However, even with the best of intentions, best friends from our school days will disappear into the hazy background of our past. While not every memory from yesteryear is filled with fondness, most of us have at least one or two floating around that brings a smile and a tug at the heartstrings whenever we think about them.

These sorts of memories are usually there because of the people we shared them with – the friends that we were sure we’d never lose touch with. Our world today is hectic, and people move around a lot more often than they used to – it’s not that easy keeping tabs on everyone – even those you want to. When you decide you’d like to rekindle an old friendship, but have no idea how to even find the school chum from your past, how do you start?

The first question to ask yourself is simple – high school or college? If the alma mater you have in common with this person is high school, you’ll want to start with the following:

  1. Check to see if the high school you attended has a web site. If they do, you may find they have an alumni section, listed by graduating year. Often, you’ll find exactly what you’re looking for here. Most high schools offer at least a small alumni section to post email addresses at.
  1. If your high school doesn’t have a web site, or doesn’t have an alumni section on their web site – give the administrative office a call. You’ll want to ask if they have an alumni association, and if so, who you would contact to get a directory.
  1. If there isn’t an alumni association for your high school, there should be some information on the class reunion coordinators for each graduating class. Try to get a phone number or email address for the coordinator of your class’s reunions. Your graduating class’s coordinator probably has a directory they’d be more than happy to send on to you, or at the very least, check to see if your friend’s name, and what information regarding them, is listed.
For an old college chum, your beginning steps will be very similar to what is described above. The only real difference is the institution. All colleges and universities have an alumni association of one sort or another – and the good news is; most all of them are available at the school’s web site. If you’re not already registered with your college alma mater, simply go to the alumni association web page (the link should be right on your college’s main web site). You should be able to register online, from the comfort of your own home.

Once registered, you’ll be able to view the private areas of the alumni association web pages. You are likely to find any of the following included in this private area:

  • Alumni Directory – A directory sorted by graduating year first, and then by name. If your friend is female, look under the last name she graduated with. While most of the time, this will be their maiden name – if she married while in college, make sure you check her married name as well.
  • Message Boards – Many universities are now including message boards in their alumni area. You’ll have fun browsing through the posts to see if your friend is part of the community – and even if they’re not, these message boards can still be a help to you. Create your own post asking for information about your friend – chances are, someone will know something to get you headed in the right direction.
  • Career Networking Page – You may find a career networking page dedicated to career directories, information, advisors, etc. If you know what degree your friend graduated with, and what their career path was, you may find some information here about their whereabouts.
  • Reunions/Activities/Events Page – Browse through past reunions, activities, and events to see if your friend’s name is mentioned anywhere. There may be pictures posted you can go through as well. Also, you can take a peek at upcoming events to see who has already registered to attend – your missing friend may be listed as an attendee!
If none of the above yields any contact data for/with the person you’re looking for, you can try a few other tactics. If you can find phone numbers for relatives, give them a call – just be sure to identify yourself as a friend from school. Even if they are unwilling to give you a phone number or address, they will likely take your name and phone number to pass on. In addition to calling relatives, try to check in with some of your other friends from that time frame that you do have contact information for.

Don’t forget, our world is large and small at the same time. Remember, the person you can’t locate anywhere, just may work with someone you know, or attend the same church, or maybe their kids are in the same class. By communicating with any individuals that share a common tie with you and your missing friend, you may be tuned in to new information you didn’t previously have; such as they moved to a different city or state or they got married/divorced or they accepted a position at an office just down the street from yours. It always pays to spread the net wide when in search of anything – whether that is a person or the data regarding that person.

Still not having any luck? Do a search online using any of the free search engines. You might find a blog they’ve posted on, their web site, associations they are a member of, or any other bit of information that may head you in the right direction. Realize, if this friend of yours has a common name, you’ll likely get lots of hits on the search engines. Take a bit of time to investigate to see which ones you can cross off your list immediately.

If you do find associations they’re members of, hop on over to the appropriate web site to gather more identifying information. Maybe there is a message board there you can post on, or a way to contact members of the association through the web site, or maybe you’ll find a biography on the person you’re searching for.

The internet is wide open, and if you look long enough, and hard enough, you’ll likely find something that pertains to your friend. Keep digging; using maiden names, married names, middle names, initials, etc. As already mentioned, investigate every lead to determine if they’re the same person or just someone with the same name. Don’t give up hope if you only glean small insignificant data – what may seem worthless when you find it, may turn out to be the lead you needed. Make sure to write everything down.

Okay, so you’ve checked with the appropriate schools, you’ve browsed web sites, talked to reunions coordinators, phoned other friends and relatives, searched online, and you still haven’t located your friend from school. Now what?

Try any of the online classmate reunion sites. There are many of them, so shop around a bit to see what each offer. You’ll find some are free, but they’ll likely only offer the most basic of information, and some have a fee involved. The way the work is very simple. You fill in a basic registration that includes your name, the school you graduated from, and the year you graduated. Once you’re registered, you’ll be able to view the other registrants from your school and class. Again, the free services likely won’t show you any actual contact information, however, they will show the names of the people who are registered. If your friend’s name isn’t there, you move on to another service.

Your next step will be to list all of the information you’ve found on a sheet of paper. You should be especially interested in identifying information for the person you’re trying to find. These could include:

  1. Full name, before and after marriage
  2. Date of birth
  3. City and state of birth
  4. High school attended, year graduated
  5. College attended, year graduated
  6. Employment history
  7. Residence history
You may have less or more information, but you should have the individual’s full name, their date of birth, the schools they attended and the years they graduated – at the very minimum. With this basic identifying information, you can now use an online information broker to assist you in locating your friend.

Will it cost money? Probably. Will it be worth it? Most likely. These information brokers are able to search many different databases utilizing the identifying information you’ll provide them. Also, they will be much more expedient in their search. If time is of an issue, for one reason or another, you will probably want to start with an online information broker – assuming you have the basic identifying information they’ll require.

Regardless of your reason for undertaking a search for an old classmate, realize that while it can be frustrating – it can be done. Just remember to start with the commonalities, i.e. the school, other friends, etc., between you, and then branch out from there.

These types of searches can be very quick or very time consuming, depending on many differing factors at every stage of the search. The best advice is to keep at it until you have that email address, phone number, or physical address of the schoolmate you’re looking for, because once you do, you’ll find the hunt was worth it.