People-Finding Resources

Before search engines became the first stop for everything, finding a person meant knowing which directory to open, and a page like this was the map. It is a working list kept by a researcher: genealogy archives and family trees, grave and cemetery indexes, telephone and address directories, alumni and classmate registries, email and messaging lookups, reverse telephone lookup, name server and reverse address tools borrowed from the network engineers, and a state registry searchable by neighbourhood.

Most of the individual links have long since moved, merged or closed, which is exactly why the page is still worth reading. The categories are the method, and the method has not changed. You work outward from what you know: a name and a rough place go to directories; a name and a date go to vital records and grave indexes; an old address goes to reverse lookup; a school goes to alumni registries; an email address or a handle goes to the messaging directories. Each result is treated as a lead to confirm somewhere else, never as an answer.

The compiler noted that the page was under construction, which it will now remain. It is kept as it was published on this domain, with its original ordering and its author's request for questions and comments; current equivalents of these services are published by the services themselves.