The entire point of a class reunion is to reunite, and you cannot do that without your classmates. To guarantee you find as many folks as practical before the class reunion, start locating classmates early, maybe even a year before the event. This could also help spread the word a class reunion is being planned.

You want to make a master list of everybody you are making an attempt to find. Make a list of classmates' names using the annual from your senior year. Another good reference, if you have a copy, is your school graduation program, which should contain a list of everybody who graduated with you.

If you can't find either an annual or a program, contact your high school to see whether the registrar or college secretary can supply you with a list of your classmates. Start a spreadsheet so that you can keep all of the info you find on people in one place. You can also use it later as a database for class reunion promotional mailings. Your spreadsheet might include each classmate's: last name, original name, first name, postal address, telephone number and email address. It is also a sensible idea to have a notes section for each classmate in which you can enter leads or tips you want to chase up on. After you enter all of your classmates' names in your spreadsheet, fill in the contact info for the people with whom you have stayed in contact.

In this age of email, it's simpler to stay in touch with old pals, so start by getting in touch with any classmates in your email address notebook to ask them for their current contact info.

Here is an engaging statistics fact : Seventy percent or more of your school classmates still reside in your school's home state. So they could be right under your nose!

Here are some ideas for finding old classmates:

• Get the records of any previous reunion planners
• Check for classmates registered on public alumni sites
• Check with your college or alumni organization and on their sites
• Post your missing classmate names on your internet site and college or alumni site
• Ask your faculty or alumni organization to post a link to your class internet site in case classmates visit these sites.
• Check online state telephone books such as: Switchboard.com, Anywho.com, or Whitepages.com - See who is living at their last known address by employing the 'reverse address' feature at Whitepages.com. Fill in the address and get the prevailing telephone number for that address. Perhaps they know your classmate's location or location of other family members.
• Check other graduating class internet sites for your school for possible relatives of a missing classmate
• Try entering names of school classmates on main search engines like Google or Yahoo - The following paid search services might provide info about missing classmates: USSearch.com or People-finders.com.
• Facebook and MySpace can be excellent resources for finding classmates
• Check the Social Security Death Index for deceased classmates at deathindexes.com/ssdi.html
• Check online Obituaries for deceased classmates
• 'Pay for' search services

Do not forget your low-tech options to find classmates:

• Check the telephone book for the city in which your high school is found. You might find missing classmates listed there. If not, see if you can find the names of their family who might be in a position to point you to the people you're looking for.
• Organize a phone-a-thon by making contact with all found classmates and ask if they understand how to reach other high school classmates.
• Often overlooked by reunion committees is the fact that classmates may actually be trying to find you. Publicize your reunion info in local and area papers, radio stations and online public websites.
• Your high school might be in a position to supply you with an inventory of classmates' last known ( likely their parents' ) addresses.
• When you do find classmates, ask them for the contact info of other classmates they have stayed in contact with. If they do not have precise contact info, they may have other tips that might point you to the people you're looking for (who they married, last town they were living in, for example ).
• If you continue to have lost classmates by the time you are prepared to send out your first promotional email or mailing about your class reunion, include an inventory of those classmates in the email or mailing. Ask the classmates you have found for leads or tips on finding the missing members.

To locate married women classmates, use what you already know about the female's age, hometown, middle initials, and their maiden name to then find more documents to retain more information about that classmate. Find the earliest marriage certificate for a woman to help obtain the most recent personal information on their whereabouts. When searching, keep in mind that divorced women continue using their married name being of children and property ownership. It helps to search for the husband's first name because most married couples purchase property jointly, which also helps you in locating the female classmate. If you know the women's date of birth you'll be able to access positive identification of other documents.

Locating school classmates is a continual project during class reunion planning. Do not expect to complete the task before you start other sides of class reunion planning.

While your largest push in locating old classmates should be made before your first promotional e-mail or mailing, you must continue the effort till the day of your class reunion so that as many folks as practical can be included.

Do not get deterred if you can't find all of your high school classmates, and do not think everybody wants to be found and wants to take part in the reunion. For some, it could be the past is loaded with upsetting or distressing memories or there could be extenuating circumstances in their present life.



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