Has anyone used a paid service as Intelius, etc to find classmates. How accurate is it and is it worth the price. I have exhaused anywho, facebook, myspace, ads in the paper.... etc and am still looking for 1500 people.

Any suggestions or feedback?

We found a lot of people using zabasearch. www.zabasearch.com It's free. Some of them were outdated. I'd say we had a 50/50 ratio on it. It shows the date the record was created so that helps too. Some even had phone numbers listed. I've heard rumor Intellis is taking that over too so it may not stay free for long. I really believe that if people don't want to be found they won't be so we haven't spent the money. Good luck!

Randall,

These are the sites I used to locate any addresses and/or phone #'s:

ancestry.com (find someone in your group who has a subscription)
rootsweb.ancestry.com "
ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com "
deathindexes.com
theyaremissed.org
classmates.com "
reunion.com "
genlookups.com
peoplelookup.com
whitepages.com
zabasearch.com
usgenweb.org
maidenname.net
publicbackgroundchecks.com
switchboard.com
yellowpagecity.com
whitepages.addresses.com
familysearch.org
peopledata.com
peoplefinders.com
blackbookonline.info
ussearch.com

government-records.com (I believe this is one I paid a five-year subscription for [about $40 I believe], but I still got to areas that I was not allowed to use because I didn't have a private eye license or law enforcement credentials.)

appraisaldistrict.net/county (for those where no phone # was found and unsure about address, find county of residence and go from there.) THIS IS FOR TEXAS!

I don't know if every state has this appraisal district info. I'm assuming the Texas Legislature passed a law that allowed this to be online. It was VERY helpful since the tax man knows where everybody is, supposedly.

Most classmates were very grateful to be pursued and found.

Anita

We used Harris Connect http://www.harrisconnect.com/index.html to find 25,000 people. I am not sure what they use but they also sell the compiled inforation as "Alumni" books. They do this the old fashioned way by calling people. When they call they say "do you know any other alumnui?" etc. They found a lot of our grads.

Like Ray, I am also going to use the results of a Harris Connect search. Back in late fall, my husband and I each received a postcard from our local school district foundation and Harris Connect with this message on MY card (my husband received the identical card with his across town high school info):

"We need your help immediately! Right now we are in the process of collecting current biographical information for John Tyler High School comprehensive directory of graduates. Our plan is to research the most recent data on alumni representing all existing class years for this exclusive personal reference volume. We do not want to print the directory until we hear from you! A brief telephone call at this time will guarantee that you are properly listed in this important historical register.
Please call our official publication office to ensure that your individual listing is complete, accurate and up-to-date.....
In advance, thank you for your help in making the Tyler Independent School District Foundation Alumni Directory a valuable and successful publication."

When I called to verify our info, they of course wanted to sell me a directory. You could order a paper book copy or a CD copy of the directory. I chose the CD at about $104. It is supposed to arrive in May. I will then find out if it is helpful in locating our 23 missing classmates from our 1968 class. I plan on sharing info with my husband's 1967 class and anybody else who is searching for local alumni.

In 2003 our school district published a book and sold it for fundraising. The book was very helpful in finding people and most of the information was up to date. It was published by the Harris Publishing Company. So when you get it I think you will find it very helpful unless you already had most of them anyhow. I use ReferenceUSA and Zaba search. I could narrow people down by age and then cross reference them with ReferenceUSA. Some libraries have connection with ReferenceUSA and by using your library card you can open it at home. I also used Americas death notices to find obituaries that is thru the library.

How do you use zabasearch.com? When I submit a query, I am given nothing. All searches just take me back to the screen to enter a name. It doesn't list if any details have been found or not.

Are you clicking on 'Free People Search" after you enter the name?

Randy Turnage - Administrator wrote:

Randy,

In 2007 I used Ancestry.com they have directories. They are within 2 to 3 years outdated. We put "return receipt requested" if they came back they would have a new address on them I would then forward and found all classmates this way. Also, found a few by just putting their full name in google search. I found divorce papers etc that listed where people were moving to. I have a few other things up my sleeves that I also used. Some classmates ask if I was a detective because this is the 1st year every classmate was located.

There is to many "free" ways of finding things on the internet. I wouldn't pay for this unless you have searched these means first. Unless you have a budget that allows for this. Our class never had money left over to be able to afford paying for things like people search.

Dawn