If you currently have the first name of someone you want to look up with PeopleFinders, that’s only the first step. You won’t be able to look someone up with exclusively their first name—there are thousands of people with that name in the United States. Instead, you need to know how to find someone with whatever information you do have. Here are the four steps to take if you’re looking to discover someone on PeopleFinders.
1. Try To Find as Much Information as Possible Before You Start Searching
The first step is to try and gather as much information as possible before you ever start looking. This might seem a bit counterintuitive—after all, aren’t you using PeopleFinders to find the information in the first place? As a matter of fact, finding more information before you start searching will help you find the right profile more easily.
When you search on PeopleFinders, especially if you’re searching with a name, you’ll typically get a long list of people who have that name or a similar name. If you know more information, like where they live, where they were born, or their age, you can start to narrow down the results, making it more likely that you’ll find the right person.
2. Search With Critical Information First
The first step is to use the more critical information to search first. A people search, for example, allows you to use a first and last name. You can also use an address search or an email lookup to search with a full physical address or an email address, respectively, which can help you narrow things down nearly immediately.
The more identifying a piece of information is, the better it will lead you to other information about someone. A phone number, for example, will typically be better at tracing someone’s information than the name John Smith would be. Gather as much information as you can, then search with the most identifying information first.
3. Narrow Things Down With Other Pieces of Information
Less identifying pieces of information, like the city and state where someone lives or their age, can be a great way to narrow down your search options. While you can’t use PeopleFinders to search for someone based on just their age, you can use their age as a benchmark for weeding out certain people, even if you only have a vague idea of their age.
Remember that when you’re narrowing down a search, you can cross-reference with multiple pieces of information that you only vaguely know. For example, if you know that someone has lived in Arizona and is around 30 to 40 years old, those two pieces of information can weed out a lot of false positives. Don’t be afraid to look into things you only vaguely know, especially to rule out entire groups of people.
4. Start Your Search as Early as You Can
Finally, it’s crucial that you start searching early on. Especially if you’re looking for someone with a very common name and you only have the first and last name to look with, you’re probably going to have to look through a lot of different files to find the right one.
The more information you have, the more you can cut down your searching time. If you have someone’s phone number, physical address and full name, you’re going to be able to find someone much more quickly than if you just have their name and a vague knowledge of where they live. However, the earlier you start, the more quickly you’ll be able to find someone.
Conclusion
If you only have a first name, you’re going to need to gather some more information before you’re able to find someone through PeopleFinders. However, it is possible to find someone with only minimal information, such as a first and last name. It’s just typically going to be a bit harder. If you’re interested in starting a search for someone, no matter how much information you have right now, you can start searching around with help from PeopleFinders.
Image Attribution: svetazi – stock.adobe.com
