Imagine yourself searching for... an old school friend, a long lost cousin, a neighbor from years past, military buddies, college roommates, possible relatives, a birth parent and siblings, or someone whom you've simply lost track of. Internet has lots of ways to help you track down missing people, and locate folks bearing the same surname you are researching.

Locating a Specific Individual

Begin your search by looking conducting a quick search at one or two of the many engines -- for instance, Alta Vista which searches web sites, and Deja News which searches Usenet Newsgroups. Alta Vista will tell you if the person for whom you are searching is mentioned on someone's web page, anyone's web page--not necessarily the page owned by the person you are seeking. Many pages contain lists of employees, students, members, etc. many of which are indexed by search engines. Deja News will search either newsgroups you specify, or all newsgroups to see if the person has posted a message to any of the thousands of Usenet newsgroups. Both Alta Vista and Deja News are a good place to start for people you think might be online, have a web page, or have posted a message to a newsgroup.