It is highly recommended that you use more than one site for searches since it is improbable you will find everything you are looking for in just one or two searches. If someone has left a trace online — whether that be via , postings online, or other content — at least one of the resources mentioned in this article will help you track that down. While the is an amazing resource, if the person you are looking for has not been active online in some way, then it follows that their information will not be easily available online. Most of the time, simply typing a phone number into your favorite search engine area code included can turn up accurate results, whether it be for a business or residential phone number. However, sometimes a phone directory — a specialized site that offers vast indexes of published phone numbers with accompanying information — can really come in handy. Here's how to get around that. An excellent place to begin, since this site has one of the largest family history databases on the Web. Note: This site is currently reconstructing. It offers free access to census records, birth records, death records and living people information. Search both locally and internationally. Their family records database is one of the largest on the Web. This is especially true when it comes to sites that promise to find information about a certain someone since the drive to find that person can sometimes overtake our common sense. While there certainly does exist a wide variety of information on the Web, there's no one site that is going to deliver it to you, nor is one simple search query going to usually do it. Finding someone online, especially someone who you've lost touch with or doesn't leave much of a trace on the Web, requires patience, diligence, and persistence in order to be successful. Any information found online is inherently public, simply because it has been found in public databases, directories, blogs, forums, message boards, websites, etc. Small tidbits put together can add up to quite an impressive whole. The information they find is found for free online; all they do is put all the little bits and pieces found in a hundred different places into one cohesive package. The resources shared in this article can help you do all of this.