How to Find People

How to find people is something that from time to time we all want to know. People lose touch for so many reasons, even people who are very special to us can suddenly and unexpectedly leave your life, sometimes this is due to a particular event such as a break up but can sometimes be something as inconspicuous as losing a someone’s contact details. In the end, we all sit back from time to time and think, what happened to…..

If this is you and you would like to know how to find people you have lost touch with then read on. This guide has been put together especially for you. We will look at modern ways that you can find people in the UK.

Let us Begin

The first things you will need to begin your search are your laptop, pen and paper, a telephone and a cup of tea. These are the things that a professional people tracer would have around them when they started a search. The professional people searcher would have build up a picture of the person they were looking for by speaking to their client at some length. You are your own client so start by writing down everything you know about the person you are looking for. The key information you should concentrate on and write down is

  • The persons full name
  • The persons sex – females are 90% more likely to change their name, mainly due to marriage
  • The last known address you had for the person in question
  • Any family members names
  • Any old work details, where they a professional person or a casual worker
  • When did you last know where they were – was it the 1960’s or two years ago? This makes a huge different on how you go about your search.
  • Why are you looking for them? Do they owe you money? Or are they a lost love?

Is your childhood sweetheart still so sweet?

Before you start spending money and lots of time you should probably consider why you are looking for the person in the first place. Many people look for childhood sweethearts only to find out that the person they previously knew is no longer the person they have found. Just make sure you are looking for the person for the right reasons.

Still here? Great news!

Ok so now you have your key tools for the job and a detailed description of the person you are looking for. You now need to appreciate the next step of your search. The person may be easy to find or might be very difficult to find, either way you should be able to find out what happened to them.

So what do you do first?

Well that totally depends on the description you have wrote down. Let’s look at a few scenarios and see how varying information is worked in different ways

Scenario One – A woman from the sixties

If you are looking for a woman from the sixties then the first thing to do is access Birth, Death & Marriage records and see if she got married. You can search most systems by name and the area where the marriage would have been registered. If you find a marriage then you now have her correct name and her husband’s name, if she has not married again then now you have a much simpler task of looking for a couple. Now you need access to an electoral roll search. If you search both names in the area, you may get lucky and find them very quickly. Look out for an electoral roll search that has access to telephone numbers too.

Scenario Two – A male friend from the 1990’s

This should be a relatively simple one. If the person’s name is unusual then you can perform an electoral roll search in the area in which you knew they lived, you may get lucky and find them. You should also have a look at social media sites. Do not be afraid of the term social media, for our purposes it means Facebook. Do not be scared of Facebook, it can be a great way to find out how to find people. Facebook is free to register; once you have registered, you will be able to search for lots of people you have lost touch with.

Scenario Three – A person who owes you money

To be honest if someone owes you money then you may be better going to a professional people tracing service, this is for two reasons, firstly the person will likely be difficult to trace yourself, and they will have probably opted off the electoral roll and will be unlikely to accept your friend request via Facebook. Secondly, a professional people finder company will have access to better quality systems and have a much higher success rate when it comes to locating debtors.

The art of finding people is one that can be learnt, you can scour the internet for information, some will be free and some you will have to pay for but ultimately you will never be able to access the same standard of information as a professional company. A professional people finding company that is a member of the credit services association will have access to credit reference information, they will have access to systems that cost thousands of pounds to licence. Most professional companies work on a no find no fee basis and also offer a fixed price for successful results. From this we can ascertain that you need to decide if finding the person is the most important thing or if it the fact that you personally want to find the person is more important to you. If you simply want to find the person and are not overly bothered about finding them yourself you would be best served using a professional company, it will be cheaper and faster and you will be given the current name, address and probably the telephone number for the person and all for around £50. You could spend more than £50 trying to locate someone’s birth certificate.

And Finally,

Whatever your choice make sure that you are looking for people for the right reasons. Also, remember to write down everything you do so that if you end up working on a case over consecutive weekends you can pick up where you left off. Make sure that if you are phoning potential matches and it is not the person you were looking for that you are courteous and grateful even if they are not able to help you. You must also prepare yourself for the fact that the person you are looking for has passed away. On a happier note, enjoy searching for old friends, it is a rewarding, exciting way to spend a weekend, and we hope we have helped you learn how to find people.

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Electoral Roll Search

An electoral roll search is a great way to find someone you have lost touch with. It is a simple search of names and addresses in the UK from 1992 to the current year. Your local council collects the electoral roll information on a yearly basis; your council then sells this information on to companies that in turn sell it to the British public. An electoral roll search is not a search to find an exact person, these searches generally cost more money, an electoral roll search searches a name and an area, for example John Smith Leeds – your results would reveal all the people called John Smith on the Electoral Roll in the Leeds area. As you can see, it is important to narrow the search down as far as you can to obtain the most accurate results. It is extremely effective for tracing people with unusual names or if you have the name of the street, a person lives but not the door number.

Can I search the Electoral Roll for free?

Currently this is not something that you can do, this is because of the cost to companies to buy the electoral roll data from each council and then put it into a searchable online format. You should typically expect to pay between £5 and £10 per electoral roll search. There are some free services but if you use them then you will soon realise that you get what you pay for.

So what company should I use?

Different companies work in different ways, some ask you to buy a number of credits and then allow you to access the electoral roll. Others search the electoral roll for you but provide a one off search fee. Make sure you research the market before you make an electoral roll purchase as some providers offer additional services or information. For example FinderMonkey.co.uk charge a one off £4.99 per electoral roll search but they also access additional information and provide the largest non credit related search of the UK population currently available online, making their service one of the most cost effective searches of the electoral roll.

Didn’t I hear something about the Electoral Roll been edited?

Yes you did, since 2003 the electoral roll has been edited, this means when the council send you your electoral roll form you can now ‘opt out’ the data that is sold to companies. This does not affect your right to vote. Good electoral roll search providers get round this by accessing other pieces of publicly available information such as telephone numbers and mobile numbers.

An electoral roll search is a great way to start to find someone you are looking for, if you use it in the correct way. You should use it as one tool in your people-finding armoury not as a one-stop solution.

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Using a Professional People Finder Service to Find People

A People Finder search is a great way to locate the exact person that you have lost touch with and be provided with their current address and telephone numbers. Most people do not realise the powerful systems that are now available to specialist people tracing companies. Many people try to perform searches on their own [...]

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