Finding a Person

So I have a friend wanting to find her grandfather. Are there any companies or such that can find people? They have a clue as to where he might be, but they're not sure.

Hire a private investigator, or use google.

The Ripper wrote: use google.

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Why the face spyware? Use Google to find a company or website that fines people.

The Ripper wrote: Why the face spyware? Use Google to find a company or website that fines people.

Fines people, that would be the government! :D;);):D

its not actually that hard to find people yourself. you'd be amazed at the amount of information you can find out about a person if you know where to look online.

electoral role, directory enquiries, social networking sites, companies house, friends-reunited etc etc

virtually everything housing related is transparent and easily available from council sites and other government sites.

it's just a case of starting somewhere, searching, getting a bit of info, move onto the next source… then after a while bits piece together and it becomes pretty easy to follow their trail.

i've been asked a fair few times in the past to locate people who have split without paying rent / not shown up to court etc etc and i've found all them using the methods above. doesn't take longer than a few hours solid work.

i dont know what methods PI's use, but i wouldnt be surprised if they started with the sources listed above.

note im basing my experience on UK searches, im unsure what information is available in other countries.

Mr_Cheese wrote: note im basing my experience on UK searches, im unsure what information is available in other countries.

United States is the same.

So they have an approximate location. I could take zip codes, look people up in for example a 10 by 10 square mile area. Thorough investigation? I was thinking about social engineering, such as letters.