It’s pretty normal to lose touch with our old school friends after graduation, and reconnecting with them can be challenging. A Redditor faced difficulty reaching out to old friends from a California high school, since some people might have gotten married and changed their last names. Despite having their parents’ phone numbers, concerns about making the situation awkward troubled them¹.

Fortunately, with today’s technology, it’s possible to find people you went to school with many years ago without embarrassment. Whether you’re preparing for a school reunion or just want to reconnect with your old friends from high school like this Redditor, there are a few easy ways to help you find your old schoolmates.

1. Contact the school

Let’s start our search where it all began – our school. Many schools maintain records of their former students, making it a good starting point.

As a Quora user rightly pointed out, “Some schools have alumni associations that maintain a directory of classmates who want to be found.”² answering someone who wanted to find past classmates but the only information is the name and age. So, reach out to your school or its alumni association to inquire if they have any information about your old friends.

2. Ask around

Another great way to find someone you went to school with is by asking people who knew the person in the past. Speak with your other friends from the same school to see if they know anything about the person you’re looking for.

Try asking your parents if they still remember your old friends. If your friend used to live next door, try contacting your old neighbors and ask them if they remember anything about your friend. If your old friend has a brother or sister, searching for information about them may help you locate your friend.

Anyway, gather as much information as you can. All of these details could help you find your old friend.

3. Run an online search

Thanks to the Internet, reconnecting with lost acquaintances is now easier than ever. In a post about finding past classmates, a user shared their successful experience of searching for names from their school days, including those from grade school and junior high. They mentioned, “I put the name and that large city, and found a few. And had the phone numbers or addresses displayed sometimes.”³

Simply type your friend’s name into a search engine like Google and see what will come up. When looking for a gal pal, try using both her maiden name and married name to search. You can narrow down your search results by using quotation marks or adding relevant information, such as the city he lived in or the school he attended.

For example:

• “John Smith”
• “John Smith” Hamden
• “John Smith” “Hamden High School”

4. Explore social media

When a user asked how to find old classmates on bogleheads.org, the first advice he received was “Your best bet is to use Facebook and Instagram”.

According to some reports, more than 4 billion people around the world now use social media⁴, odds are that you may find your old friend there. Therefore, search for your friend’s name on Facebook®, Twitter®, LinkedIn®, and other social networking sites. If your friend has a common name, you may have to take some time to figure out which account belongs to him/her.

On Facebook, you can also track someone down by phone number, school, or friends of friends.

5. Use a people search engine 

One of the best ways to find someone you went to school with is by using a people search engine.

People search engines are dedicated to finding information about people online. All it takes is a name, phone number, address, or email to help you locate someone. Below are some reliable people search engines we would like to recommend.

BeenVerified®

If you’re looking for a person, phone number, address or vehicle, BeenVerified can help. BeenVerified aggregates public records information from multiple sources, providing a one-stop service. Its subscriptions include 8 products for the price of 1: people search, phone number search, address search, email search, social media search, vehicle search, unclaimed money search and business search.

To find your old school pal with BeenVerified:

1. Go to BeenVerified.
2. Enter the information you know about your old friend and click SEARCH. 
   
3. Within seconds you’ll see a list of matches. You can narrow down your search results by age and location. Once you locate your friend, click View person report. The report may uncover a wealth of information, including full name, age, possible relatives, contact details, social media accounts, etc.
   

PeopleLooker®

PeopleLooker is a people search engine that offers fast, affordable and easy access to reliable public records. With PeopleLooker, you’re able to get in-depth people reports that may include names, addresses, photos, phone numbers, email addresses, criminal records and much more.

To find your old school friends with PeopleLooker:

1. Head to the PeopleLooker homepage.
2. Select the type you want to search for and enter the information. Then hit Search.
   
3. Wait a few seconds for PeopleLooker to search its database. Once done, you’ll see a detailed report that may include the information you need.
   

Intelius®

Intelius is one of the longest-standing people search services. It searches data from specialized sources to give users valuable information in one location. With Intelius, it’s easy to find the information you need. Just enter a name, address or phone number, and you can quickly get results.

To search for your old friend with Intelius:

1. Open the Intelius official site.
2. Type in your friend’s name, phone number or address, and click SEARCH.
   
3. Wait a few minutes for Intelius to locate a detailed report in the search results. 

Spokeo®

As one of the most popular people search engines in the United States, Spokeo allows users to confidentially look up someone by name, phone number, address, email or username. At Spokeo, you can look up profiles on 120+ social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

To find your old schoolmates with Spokeo:

1. Go to Spokeo.
2. Enter a name, phone number, address or email, then tap SEARCH NOW.
   
3. Spokeo will then scan through its database and combine all relevant data into an easy-to-understand report in seconds.
   

6. Try a reverse image search

If you have a photo of your old friend, you can try a reverse image search via Google Images or Social Catfish.

Google Images

Whether you need to search for info about an image or want to find similar photos, Google Images can be your best choice.

1. Go to Google Images.
2. Click Search by image.
   
3. Then paste the image URL or upload a picture of your old friend to start searching.

Social Catfish®

Social Catfish is an online service that can help people find lost connections using images, email addresses, phone numbers, and online profiles. When you do an image search on Social Catfish, it will scan millions of social profiles to locate information about the person, such as name, age, phone numbers, social media profiles, etc.

1. Go to the Social Catfish Reverse Image Search page.
2. Upload an image and hit Search, then wait for the tech to work its magic.
   
3. Once you have a match, you can select to view the report.
   

7. Other online sources

Founded in 1995, Classmates.com® is a social networking site that can help people reconnect with high school friends and browse old yearbooks online. With a free membership, you can search and view profiles of other schoolmates in its school directories.

1. NoStupidQuestions [Stuffing9]. (2019, September 05). How can I find old friends I went to school with? [Online forum post]. Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/czq0od/how_can_i_find_old_friends_i_went_to_school_with/ ↩︎
2. [Gregory Benson]. (2021). Some schools have alumni associations that maintain a directory of classmates who want to be found. Graduates of my high… [Comment on the online forum post What are some ways I can find past classmates? The only information I know is the name and age. Can I contact my past school to help?]. Quora. https://qr.ae/pKZITP ↩︎
3. Personal Consumer Issues [ResearchMed]. (2022, August 10). I’ve had a bit of success just googling a few names from the past, including some from grade school… [Comment on the online forum post How to find “old” classmates]. Bogleheads.org. https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=383576 ↩︎
4. Cassie, Bottorff. (2023, May 18). Top Social Media Statistics And Trends Of 2023. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/social-media-statistics/ ↩︎

Credit: Featured image by Yan Krukov