Reconnect Online With Old Flames, Friends and Family

Ever had a hankering to find an old flame, friend or relative? Now, thanks to cyberspace, you may be able to find them and reconnect easier than ever before.

But where do you start? Check out your favorite search engine. Look for the White Pages, where you can input the name of the person you want to find. WhoWhere at Lycos and AnyWho are other choices.

Reverse Lookup lets you track down the name of someone if you already have an address, phone number or e-mail. Paul Craven's People Finder lets you post a personal note about the person you're seeking.

"I've been catching up with some old friends from high school through ClassMates.com," says Tim Underwood of Nevada City, Calif. "It's easy to look up people from your high school on this site, and charges a reasonable cost to officially register and use their services to make contact."

Commercial Web sites, like PeopleFind.com and 1-800-WHO-WHERE.com, charges varying rates for professional searches. With the help of Find People Fast, Ken Scotland of Los Angeles discovered a distant relative he had been trying to locate for 30 years.

But your search may not wind up the way you expected. Scotland's relative had no interest in a renewed relationship. "When you're tracking down people from your past, there's always a chance that they won't want to pick up where you left off," Scotland says. "You should approach people-searching with no expectations, and that way you won't be disappointed."

Marcy Black of Cumberland, Maine, located an old high school friend over the Internet. "In the first e-mail I sent," Black says, "I asked her how she was doing and she took some time to respond."

It turned out that Black's friend was battling breast cancer. "I went to visit her in Texas. We were fortunate enough to spend some wonderful times together before she passed away," Black says.