Entering a complete name (first, middle and last or middle initial) should produce fewer matches while entering only a last name will return several possibilities - useful for people who might have used a variety of forms of their names (Susan, Suzanne, Suzy, Susie, Sue) and who may have changed addresses a few or several times. PublicRecordsNow.com is one of the most reliable sources to finding people and obtaining all kinds of public records about them. Our search engine allows you to look up and locate people by phone number, name, email, or address.
If you've ever served in a branch of the United States military and would like to look someone up that you served with, then this list of free military people search databases is for you. Unless otherwise noted, all these military people search resources are free.
Best Place to Start
- Vet Connect: Created by Google, this tool was specifically created to help veterans connect with each other on Google+, Google's social networking portal.
- Military.com Buddy Finder: Search over 20 million records for military buddies. Military.com searches for military personnel from four different sources: the Military.com member and Missing Buddy databases, the Department of Defense personnel records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, and the White Pages.
- USMC Military Reunions: Search for not only Marine reunions here but all services upcoming and past reunions.
- The American War Library: 'The World's Largest Online Military, Veteran, and Military Family Registry - Over 91 million Military Listings from Pre-Revolutionary War to the Present.' This is an enormous site and can be overwhelming. Start with the Index contents and work out slowly from there; it's well worth the time you'll need to get acclimated to this wealth of information.
- The Unofficial Air Force Email Locator: You can post your name to the database for free; at the time of this writing they had over 29,000 listings of past, present, and retired military personnel.
- Navy WorldWide Locator: 'The Navy's World Wide Locator is a service established to find the present duty station of active duty personnel, and is for official business use only. Family members, active duty personnel, and Navy retirees may also use this system. To do so, you must have the service member's full name, Social Security number, grade or rank, and, if possible, last known duty station.'
- Shipmate Search: For the Navy, Merchant Marine, US Maritime Service, Naval Armed Guard, etc.
- The Citadel People Search: Find Citadel faculty, currently enrolled students, and staff.
- Department of Defense - Locator Services: Make sure you have as much information as possible before using this service.
- The Vietnam Era POW/MIA Database - Library of Congress: 'This database has been established to assist researchers interested in investigating the U.S. Government documents pertaining to U.S. military personnel listed as unaccounted for as of December 1991.'
Niche Military Sites
These sites won't necessarily help you track down someone in the military, but they will help you connect with others who have served in one way or another.
- YouTube's Veterans Channel: Created to be a safe place for veterans to share transitioning tips, talk about their service, and even create tributes to those who have served in the military in some way.
- Tour Builder for Veterans: From Google Earth. Gives users the ability to create 3D stories of where they served in the military, complete with photos, videos, and written content.
- National Resource Directory: A job search engine aimed specifically towards veterans, created in tandem by Google and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Looking for More Free People Search Resources?
- Top 10 Ways to Do a Free People Search On the Web: Finding someone online is an extremely popular activity. Here are 10 sites that can help you do this successfully.
- Find People Free With Zabasearch: Zabasearch brings back amazing amounts of personal information, all public, and all free.
- Top 10 Free Public Records Search Sites: Public records of all kinds can be found online, whether you're looking for vital, historical, or genealogical information.
Google is one of several ways to find people online. In fact, a regular Google search is just one method for doing a people search on Google.
When you use Google to find people, you can do so with limited information like just their name, phone number, address, email, etc. You can even use Google to find people with just a single photo!
Every resource listed on this page is absolutely free. If you come across something that asks you to pay money for information, you've most likely discovered a resource we don't recommend using. See Should I Pay to Find People Online? for more information.
It's best to complete these people finding search tips without being logged in to your Google account. Staying logged out helps ensure that the results aren't tailored to you specifically, but instead are raw results from the search engine.
Google Person Finder — a way for people to reconnect in the aftermath of natural disasters — is a different topic not covered below.
Use Google Search to Find a Phone Number
You can use Google to find phone numbers, both business and residential numbers. Simply visit Google and type in the name of the person or business, along with any other information that might be helpful, and sift through the results to see if the phone number has been listed anywhere on the web.
A reverse phone number lookup is possible, too. Using Google as a reverse number search tool is helpful if you already know the phone number but you're not sure who owns it. You might do a reverse number lookup on Google if you don't recognize a caller.
Put Quotes Around Someone's Name
![Name Name](/uploads/1/2/5/8/125841621/490781672.png)
Quotation marks let you search for a specific phrase on Google, so using them around a first and last name can help narrow down your person search.
For example, looking up the name John Smith reveals over 2 billion results, but surrounding the name in quotes like 'John Smith', shows a mere 32 million. Obviously, several million results isn't ideal, but it's definitely better than billions of results.
The reason this works is because when looking for John Smith without quotes, Google finds all results that include both names. Using quotes make the search a single item, meaning that Google will only show results that have the name John next to Smith.
In addition, if you know where the person lives or works, or what clubs/organizations, etc., that they're associated with, you can try a variety of different combinations:
Track Someone With Google Alerts
If you want to stay informed of someone's doings via the web, Google Alerts is a great place to start. All you have to do is enter the search term you want alerted about, describe how often you want the emails, and then wait for a message.
For example, maybe you want to monitor the entire web for any new instances of someone's email address, address, or a combination of multiple search terms, like this:
This 'people finder' method is super helpful but, unfortunately, only works if the person or business has a presence online. In other words, you can't use Google Alerts to know when your daughter posts something on her Twitter of Facebook page.
Search for People With Google Images
Another way to find people with a Google search is to use Google Images. Many people upload photos and other images to the web, most of which is indexed by Google and viewable via a Google Images search.
To find someone on Google Images, just type their name as a jumping-off point. The Tools option lets you filter the results by size, color, type, and time uploaded, so if you know any of those details, you'll have better luck finding the person.
Another way to use Google Images to do a free people search is to start with an image you already have of the person. Maybe it's their social media profile image or something they texted you.
Visit Google Images and select the camera icon to get started with a reverse image search. A reverse image search on Google works from mobile devices, too.
Pinpoint a Location Using Google Maps
Maybe it's someone's physical address you're interested in. Google Maps is the easiest way to use Google for finding where someone lives.
When you search for someone by their address, you can find lots of useful information:
- Use Street View to see someone's house
- View an entire neighborhood
- Check out business listings
- Find names, addresses, and phone numbers tied to a business
- Get directions to any location
- View satellite, aerial, or hybrid views of a location
Once you find information here, you can print it, email it, or share a link to the map itself. You can also see reviews of businesses within Google Maps simply by clicking on their map listing, as well as any websites, addresses, or associated phone numbers.