Tracking down an old friend....

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SpookyAwol

626 posts

Ultimate Geek

#75896 25-Jan-2011 16:25

Any advice from the professional cyber stalkers out there?

Trying to track down a friend from 20 years ago. She has no immediate family, and could be using a married name. What options can people think of that perhaps I havent to locate her?

Done.. facebook, oldfriends, white pages, googled........

Ideas?

SCM

459 posts

Ultimate Geek

#431114 25-Jan-2011 17:48

bebo, myspace, orkut?
Sure theres more too.

nate

6473 posts

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#431115 25-Jan-2011 17:53

How did you know her? Through school or some other association? I would try and dig up her records there, hopefully you can find someone who is still in touch with her.

rscole86

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#431125 25-Jan-2011 18:36

If you think you know where she lives, try the electoral roll.

mudguard

2119 posts

Uber Geek

#431177 25-Jan-2011 20:50

Is there some kind of marriage register?

SpookyAwol

626 posts

Ultimate Geek

#431193 25-Jan-2011 21:29

A friend of the family that I want to inform of a funeral. No idea which school she went to and if the electoral roll, would need to know her (new) last name.
She has since moved out of the area and the only family I knew of hers passed on.

So yeah, kinda difficult....
Ill try the bebo route etc, but she may be one of the few that doenst have an online profile :)

MG1976

43 posts

Geek

#431415 26-Jan-2011 14:36

Try registering with http://www.terranet.co.nz/terranet3/ and search on owner details. If she currently owns (or has owned) property this should reveal where it is.

gjm

808 posts

Ultimate Geek

#431436 26-Jan-2011 15:43

NZ has about 3 degrees of separation I reckon. Just post it up on facebook with her maiden name and then make sure you spam it to all your friends. A friend of a friend of a friend is bound to know her.

Of course I could be wrong....it happened this one time...

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SepticSceptic

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#431801 27-Jan-2011 13:21

had much the same situation a few years ago - trying to find an old friend.

All I had was :

Original maiden name, and last place of residence, and a marriage or two.

Went to the electrol rolls, looking as far back as I knew her, looking for the maiden name and address. At the year that the maiden name disappeared, as well as an address change, then I started on the Births Deaths and Marriages register. Had the marriage date, and now new location by again looking at the electrol rolls since the marriage.

This info is publically available at the larger libraries, Auckland in this case, as they have all the records from around the country. Be prepared to go digging into microfiche records.

tardtasticx

3075 posts

Uber Geek

#431807 27-Jan-2011 13:28

SepticSceptic: had much the same situation a few years ago - trying to find an old friend.

All I had was :

Original maiden name, and last place of residence, and a marriage or two.

Went to the electrol rolls, looking as far back as I knew her, looking for the maiden name and address. At the year that the maiden name disappeared, as well as an address change, then I started on the Births Deaths and Marriages register. Had the marriage date, and now new location by again looking at the electrol rolls since the marriage.

This info is publically available at the larger libraries, Auckland in this case, as they have all the records from around the country. Be prepared to go digging into microfiche records.

Can't believe so much of that info is publicly available.

And best of luck with your search OP

SepticSceptic

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#431861 27-Jan-2011 14:58

tardtasticx:
SepticSceptic: had much the same situation a few years ago - trying to find an old friend.

All I had was :

Original maiden name, and last place of residence, and a marriage or two.

Went to the electrol rolls, looking as far back as I knew her, looking for the maiden name and address. At the year that the maiden name disappeared, as well as an address change, then I started on the Births Deaths and Marriages register. Had the marriage date, and now new location by again looking at the electrol rolls since the marriage.

This info is publically available at the larger libraries, Auckland in this case, as they have all the records from around the country. Be prepared to go digging into microfiche records.

Can't believe so much of that info is publicly available.

bloody scary Eh ! :-) Especially the electrol rolls - even though you don't have a publicly listed White Pages entry, direct mail marketeers use the electrol rolls for scraping names and addresses. I don't think the rolls are available as a file to public or business users, with OCR these days, it's quite easy to create a database etc from these rolls.

It's also how forged passports etc are created from electrol rolls and BDM (Hatches, matches and Dispatches - Births, Deaths and Marriages ...) lists.

Hence why you youngsters need to be oh-so careful about what you put out on the facebook, myspace, bebo, etc pages. Not only for privacy reasons, but also for identity theft, and also for legit reasons - how else to many collection agencies track young ( and not so young ) people down these days - it's all out there on FB !!! All the connections, workplaces, sheesh, it's a doddle !!! One of my relations works for a collections company and regales us all about the ways they track down financial miscreants. but is quite careful in not exposing any names or pertinent details.

Still it brings me to another post I was planning on starting about disposing of financial stuff - bank statements, power bills, etc. Any readily identifiable information that links you to your residence, together with account numbers, etc.
Is it just thrown out in the rubbish, burnt, buried, shredded, composted ? I personally think just throwing it out is not a good idea....

tardtasticx

3075 posts

Uber Geek

#431872 27-Jan-2011 15:27

SepticSceptic:
tardtasticx:
SepticSceptic:

...

Still it brings me to another post I was planning on starting about disposing of financial stuff - bank statements, power bills, etc. Any readily identifiable information that links you to your residence, together with account numbers, etc.
Is it just thrown out in the rubbish, burnt, buried, shredded, composted ? I personally think just throwing it out is not a good idea....

Ages back mum wanted a hand cleaning out one of the cupboards in the kitchen (where we keep old bank statements, bills etc...). We ripped each bill in half, then in half again, stuck it in a pile and attacked it randomly with scissors except for the parts with address's/account numbers and info etc.. which we cut up even more fine, stuck it in a box, shook it so it was shuffled, stuck it in multiple plastic bags, put some out with our rubbish, then dad took some to his work which had a big industrial trash compacter. Lol. We were safe I think.

Geese

1028 posts

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Inactive user

#435052 3-Feb-2011 21:32

When someone joins a political party as a paid member, would their details be passed onto Electoral Commission, or is that only during the registration period when 500 members have to proven?

Is there a register of all current paid members of all registered political parties? Or is that information only used by Electoral Commission to satisfy their requirements and not passed onto anybody else?