How to locate a lost friend???

I have an old British friend who I have lost contact with but his last known wherabouts are the Philippines. I tried posting something on the Manila Practical section of Asiaxpat but it was deleted almost immediately, maybe because I gave his name. I don't know if he's alive or dead and, apart from contacting the British Embassy in Manila, I can't think how else I might locate him or get a message to him using the internet. Does anyone have any idea and suggestions?

Have you tried the Friends Reunited UK website? You would need to pay a few quid to get contact details, but you can browse for free.

If you want to do it for free, saikunga's suggestion is fine. It will take a lot of patience and a lot of luck. Claire's way works too.


When you search on the Net, try coming up with known facts about your friend, such as school and university attended, last known company he worked for, his field of work and hobbies and interests, whether he uses the Net, in that order. Then, if you have no joy, expand the search parameters to family then friends, if you know anything about them. If you can make a contact there, then you have a starting point.


People who are professionals and have regular high ranking jobs are easier to locate; people who move in the other end of the social strata are hard to find. For example, I located a chap who was an accountancy graduate 20 years ago working as a senior auditor in the government. I surmised that he may still be in that field and being a exceptionally bright individual, he would not hold a lowly position. Took me about 5 hour after checking partners names in local accountancy and investment firms and then switched to government websites and I got lucky. At the other extreme, I still haven't located an ex glamour model/stripper from London who's moved to Africa. Too many alias and not in jobs where people keep very good records. I know she frequened certain night spots in UK in a given period and I ahve tried, with little success so far, sites such as dontstayhome.com hoping from thousands of pictures there that I might catch a glimsp of her. Then I have a starting point.


Or it's about spending money. Those who do this for a living pretty much do what I have just listed above, but their resources are better, coz they pay for them and then charge you for a profit. They may also have "other" methods such as having a mate in the Inland Revenue or Police who aren't too worry about the Data Protection Act 1980, when it comes to looking up things that they shoudn't, or legally bound not to.


Try friendster.com or similar networking sites. You may not find him but you may find someone who knows him. You need a referrence point from which you can start. It may be a long haul. I sincerely wish you a lot of luck!

If you know where his family in the uk are from you could try and locate their home phone number thrugh the on line whites pages. Generally any country/major city that has an online phone directory you could do a search.

Overall,it will depend on how unusual his name is as to how well your google and other searches are. Be warned I was trying to find a friend of mine in the US and did a few different searches and found an obituary - got really upset reading it cried and then re read the details only to realise that it was not him (date of birth was 10 years out).. this was someone with an unusual name!!! Managed to find him through details on a site lisiting a donation that he had made to a political party (had his place of work and then I guessed his email address). When I tracted him down he was impressed how I found him and found it a little weird when I told him about the obituary (the person who died was in no way related to him even though they both came from the same satellite city in the US).


Also if you know say sibling sames you can use those in your searches - it may help in finding at least a relative or sometimes you find geneology sites that provide personal details.


Good luck let us know how you go!

Many thanks for all the advice. We're university friends not school friends and I know he's not on Friends Reunited, having checked a few years ago. I'm not sure whether he has split from his wife in the UK. I've tried the UK's on-line BT Directory Enquiries, phoning any likely numbers, but that has yielded nothing. I am aware that not everyone is a BT subscriber, meaning they don't get listed.


He has a fairly common name (Powell) and google type searches have revealed nothing. I'm not sure whether he doesn't (or didn't) work part-time for the CIA, even though he's a Brit, making him a target in a lawless place like the Philippines.


I'll contact the British Embassy in Manila in the first instancs and make sure that there has been no report of his death over there. I'll keep you posted about the degree of success or failure.