Learn
How to find people the right way.
Searching for someone is part craft and part responsibility. These guides cover both: how the tools actually work, how to approach the difficult searches, where the records come from, and the boundaries that keep this kind of work honest. Read them in order or jump to what you need.
Getting started
The mechanics: what a search does, what a report contains, and why some searches come up empty.
How a people search actually works
What happens between the moment you type a name and the moment a report appears — in plain language.
Read the guide →What’s actually in a report
A field-by-field tour of a typical people-search result, and how to read each part.
Read the guide →Why a search comes up empty — and what to do next
A blank result rarely means the person doesn’t exist. Usually it means the records and your inputs haven’t met in the middle yet.
Read the guide →
Playbooks
Step-by-step approaches to the searches people find hardest — and most worth doing well.
How to find a birth parent
A careful, step-by-step approach to one of the most sensitive searches there is — including when not to.
Read the guide →How to find a high-school classmate
You have a name, a school, and a year. That’s a stronger starting position than you think.
Read the guide →Finding someone when you have only a first name
A first name alone is not enough — but a first name plus one or two contextual anchors very often is.
Read the guide →
The rules
The one legal line that governs everything, in plain language.
Sources
Where the information actually comes from, and why it’s public in the first place.