Finding People With Common Last Names (California)

Finding People With Common Last Names

Don't use this guide until you first read How To find People Through The Internet Step By Step.

A common name such as John Smith, can get you thousands of multiple listings. Obviously going through every one of them would take an eternity. But don't despair. Your "John Smith" can still be found. All you have to do, is cross reference things unique about him to narrow your leads. Once you know your subject's age, middle name or living patterns, it's easy to find your mark.

For example: California may have ten thousand John Smith's. But how many were Harvard grads from 1977, have a wife named Mora and now live in West Hampton? Not too many I bet. And of these John Smiths, how many are 47 years old and have lived in Sacramento, Boston and Austin? Even fewer no doubt.

Yes. With cross referencing, you can find the people who match your subject's age, middle name, travel patterns, profession, education, etc. And from there the search can be narrowed to the one person who fits the bill. Here's How:

First, find out all you can about them through special search engines, obituaries, bios (if famous) newspaper stories, etc.
Then write it all down. Include their name, age, city or state they once lived in, last known address, hobbies, interests, profession, name of relatives or spouse(s), colleges, etc. For An Overview, See Using A Bio To Background Someone.
Search for the subject's first and last Name on Google or ussearch.com. Write down any new information you learn and don't forget to look them up by their possible nicknames. (Use "Control F" to search for names within the nickname website.)

Note: if you find your mark, stop here and do a typical background search. Still not sure you have the right subject? Then see the next step below.
Narrow your findings to those people about the same age as your subject (as indicated by their bio, college graduation date, newspaper summaries, ussearch, obituaries or other sources).
Narrow findings to those who live or once lived near any place mentioned in step 1. This information can be quickly obtained from age websites that list the subject's city, state or Zip Code. Ussearch and Intelius are great for confirming ages and list the city and state where the subject lived. (To get city and state through reverse Zip Code lookup, click Here.
Narrow findings even further to those who work or once worked near any place listed in step 1. (i.e. same state and/or nearby city). Note: People tend to work close to where they live. Simply narrow your search to those subjects who lived near where your target works or has previously worked. For An Overview, See Using A Bio To Background Someone.
Narrow findings to those who have spouses with the same name and living patterns as your subject's. This can be a two step process. First, repeat all prior steps but now use the name of their spouse. Second, if your search turns up multiple listings, simply cross reference the places where these two people lived together. For example, The "Mora J Smith" found in Sacramento, Boston and Austin is likely the wife of the "John P Smith" who lived in Sacramento, Boston and Austin.

See Cross Referencing Spouses To Get A Hit
Search for one of their-easier-to-find friends or relatives who can tell you more about your subject, i.e. phone #, last address, etc.
Once you are almost certain of your target, do a Google search. Put the name in quotes (try with and without middle name). Get too many hits? Then Refine Your Search. A Google search may tell you even more about your target or confirm you've got a hit.
Then look up the person in the Internet White Pages or do a typical background search.

For An Overview, See Using A Bio To Background Someone.
See also Search By Their Photos.

Using A Bio To Background Someone
The Bio (Highlighting Names, Ages and Places)
Cross Referencing Spouses To Get A Hit
Piecing It All Together

Bio Of Francis Comerforl (CEO Found on A Media Network Website)

Color Key

Names=Gray
Dates/Ages=Purple
Places=Yellow
Education= Green
Current & Prior Jobs=Blue
Projects/Events=Blue

Formerly the Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing for the PBC Television Stations Division, Frank Comerforl was named President and General Manager of WPBC, effective July 12, 2002.

Comerforl has led the station group to record sales -- a major achievement in the recent challenging ad market.

Comerforl, a 23-year TV veteran, has been overseeing sales and marketing for PBC's owned-and-operated stations since 1999. Previously, he had served as head of sales for WPBC since 1994. Under his leadership, PNBC broke numerous sales records and surpassed the competition as the top billing television station in the New York marketplace. Under his watch, WPBC supported numerous community based campaigns, launching "Wednesday's Child," one of the most successful programs in the nation to help place foster children in permanent homes.

Comerforl joined PBC from Storer Broadcasting Company, where he held a variety of sales management positions, culminating as General Sales Manager at WSBK-TV in Boston.

Honored as "Volunteer of the Year" by the Friends of RSVP, Inc. (Retired & Senior Volunteer Program of the Community Service Society), Comerforl has been proud of his work as a GE/PBC Elfun Society volunteer at the Manhattan School of Science and Math.

Comerforl graduated Georgetown University in 1977, and holds a bachelor of science degree in Business Administration and Finance.

A native New Yorker, Comerforl and his wife Maura currently maintain residence in both Brooklyn and Long Island.

See Using A Bio To Background Someone

Piecing It All Together

Hi Luanne:

You asked me to find out if PBC Exec. Frank Comerforl is your uncle or a close relative. It looks like he's not your uncle but he still may be related. My first stop was to go to the PBC website and look for his Bio. There were many Frank Comerforls and it took some time to locate your subject with certainty. However, with the information from his Bio I was able to pinpoint your man. At that point it was easy to find him through the search engines.

This big wig actually has a listed # under the name Francis.

According to the bio I sent you, he's married to "Maura" and maintains a residence in both Brooklyn and Long Island. He also works in Manhattan for PBC and can certainly afford and probably has bought an apartment there.

Formerly he worked in Boston, MA (probably took his wife too).

A "ussearch" on Maura and Francis Comerforl found the following:

Although these names are quite common, both a Francis and Maura Comerforl live or have lived in Westhampton, Long Island, Massachusetts and NY,NY. This suggests they are husband and wife. This particular Francis has a middle name of "X" (very unusual) and he also lives in Brighton NY. (Brooklyn) So Francis X Comerforl has lived in every single place mentioned in the Bio of Big PBC Exec Frank Comerforl. Who by the way should be about 47 years old if he graduated Georgetown in 1977.

I did a white page lookup on him and found a

COMERFORL, Francis X
247 86th St
Brooklyn, NY 11210
(718) 749-8180

This looks like the same man in the PBC bio. I also confirmed through Any birthday.com that he's 47 years old (was born in 1955). Also found a Frank E. Comerforl with the exact same birth date and the same Brooklyn Zip Code as the above subject.

I then put his full name in Google. From this I learned that Francis X. went to high school in Hackensack, NJ and Graduated in 1973. Unfortunately, I couldn't find him in the The Georgetown University Alumni website. Although he went to school there, I didn't. And only GU alumni have access to the website.

Google also turned up a genealogy discussion forum where the subject actually lists his close relatives! See below.

Relatives of Francis X Comerforl
I grew up and live in NYC. We trace our family back through Pa. & NYC
My Father was Edward Francis COMERFORL Jr.
Grandfather was Edward Francis COMERFORL
Great Grandfather was Nicholas COMERFORL
I am not sure about his father's first name.
I think he was born in NYC or emigrated to NYC and died in Pa.
Any info you may have would be appreciated.

See Using A Bio To Background Someone

_____________________________________________________________________

Cross Referencing Spouses To Get A Hit

Note: US search will often list the same individual several times if they've moved around a lot. The bolded entries have been color coded to show where both people have lived in common. Given their names and locations, it's almost certain they are the husband and wife duo described in the WPBC Bio.

MAURA M COMERFORL NEW YORK NY -
2 MAURA MANNING COMERFORL NEWTON MA -
3 MAURA MANNING COMERFORL WELLESLEY MA -
4 MAURA MANNING COMERFORL NEW YORK NY -
5 MAURA COMERFORL WESTHAMPTON NY -

FRANCIS X COMERFORL BRIGHTON MA -
2 FRANCIS X COMERFORL BRIGHTON NY -
3 FRANCIS X COMERFORL NEW YORK NY -
4 FRANCIS X COMERFORL NEW YORK NY -
5 FRANCIS X COMERFORL WESTHAMPTON NY -
6 FRANCIS J COMERFORL BROWNS MILLS NJ -
7 FRANCIS J COMERFORL RAHNS PA -
8 FRANCIS X COMERFORL BRIGHTON MA -
9 FRANCIS X COMERFORL WELLESLEY MA -
10 FRANCIS W COMERFORL OAKLAND CA 46
11 FRANCIS W COMERFORL SAN LEANDRO CA 46
12 FRANCIS W COMERFORL SAN LORENZO CA 46
13 FRANCIS W COMERFORL UNION CITY CA 46
14 FRANCIS X COMERFORL WILMINGTON DE -

See Using A Bio To Background Someone

See Also Finding People With Common Last Names

PO Box Lookup-Finding A Business Or Person Through Their Post Office Box

FOR BUSINESSES: Good for revealing the business behind the blind job ad, for backgrounding fraudulent businesses, or for any business that’s hard to investigate. Find the name of the business, whether they do business under assumed names, and who else they’re connected with. Also good for finding the physical location of the PO box and at times, the name of the PO Box Owner.

See Also Is The Address A Concealed PO Box or Mail Drop?

FOR INDIVIDUALS: Good for finding the physical location of the PO box and at times, the name of the PO Box Owner. May also lead to websites or chat rooms frequented by the individual or those they're connected with.

Strategy: On Google, enter the PO Box #, state and Zip Code to learn the name of the PO Box Owner or Business. Several names may turn up which could either identify your subject or reveal who they're associated with. Then background all your relevant leads.

Example

Suppose you receive junk mail from a new business called The Matrix. Their flyer says they do home repair and that they're located at Post Office Box 12345” NY, NY 10022.

But when you Google "Matrix and "home repair" you find no one's ever heard of them. And your search with the Better Business Bureau and Secretary of State gets you nothing.

Approach

Google the PO Box # State and Zip Code exactly as shown below.

"PO Box 12345" NY 10022 (Always put the PO Box # in quotes and abbreviate the state)

Next, eliminate all irrelevant hits. Hits which don't have the correct PO box and Zip Code all in the same paragraph, should be ignored.

Note: You may still get multiple returns.
This could mean the company or individual is using a different name or, that the data has been posted in different places. It could also be that your search has turned up the prior owner of the PO Box. The important thing is to find a business, person, physical address or phone number, i.e. anything you can further investigate.

See Also US Postal Form To Obtain Physical Address of PO or Drop Box (For Service of Legal Process)

Is The Address A Concealed PO Box or Mail Drop?
An address may list the word "Suite" or "Apartment" to disguise that it’s really a concealed mail drop. Below is a partial list of mail drops and other non-physical addresses. Stop looking if your address appears there. But don’t assume the address is real because it wasn’t found in the first place you looked. No listing is by any means complete. So it pays to search all of them.

Step 1 (Search For Address in The Listings Below)

Find the Locations of over 40,000 Drop Boxes (UPS, Staples, Office Depot, etc.)
Ignore all other fields and enter in only the Zip Code of the address you want to verify. A huge list will appear, but you can stop looking if you’ve searched all locations within your Zip Code.

US PO Box & Drop Box Directory
Ignore all other fields and enter in only the Zip Code of the address you want to verify. Stop looking if you’ve searched all locations within your Zip Code.

Directory of US Post Offices
Under options, select, "Post Office Locations", ignore all other fields and search by Zip Code only. If you don’t find the address, go back to options, select "Automated Postal Centers and search again.

UPS Store Locator
Enter in the Zip Code. If you find the address, it’s not a real physical address.

Remailing Services-A Directory of Mail Drops & Mail Boxes
Select city and state to see if your address is listed as a mail drop.

In Google Maps enter the word "mail" and the Zip Code of the address you’re looking for.
Example: Mail 30319

At left a partial directory of drop boxes will appear. If you see your address, stop searching for it’s not a physical address at all. Note: You’ll get pages and pages of addresses, but do not search past the Zip Code you’re looking for. (Usually the first page or two). To see the Zip Code of an address, simply click on the blue link. The Zip Code will appear on the Map.

US Postal Form To Obtain Physical Address of PO or Drop Box (For Service of Legal Process)

Step 2
If You Can't Find The Address, Google the Main Part in Quotes.

Often this will reveal the address to be a UPS, Staples or Mailboxes Etcetera location.
For example, the address below is a concealed drop box that was missing from many of the drop box directories.

3522 Ashford Dunwoody Rd., Ste. 141
Atlanta, GA 30319

With the main part in quotes, do a Google search with
"3522 Ashford Dunwoody" (omit rd dr, city, or state, etc.)

Note the 8^th entry down shows this is just a UPS location.

Step 3:
Still Unsure? Then Ask The Post Office What Type Of Address This Is.
If you have an address and are not sure what it is, or if it's even a real address, then go to The US Post Office Website and look up the address and phone # for the post office that delivers to the address. Then call that post office and ask them if they know what's located at that address. Simply ask if it is a residential address, or if it's an office building of some sort. Also ask if they know if the address is a Commercial Mail Receiving Agency (CMRA) like a Mailboxes Etc. or UPS Store. The post office is not required to answer these types of questions, but they can if they want to. 90% of the time they’ll tell you what you need to know.

Backgrounding People By Their Phone #, Email or Address

Internet Phone Books (Consumer-SOS)
Use their name to find a phone #, or find more about them through their phone #, email or physical address.

Googling People By Their Address, Phone # or Email (Consumer-SOS)
Don't just find out their name. Background them.

Reverse Lookups-Find The Name, Email, Street Address Or Phone # When You Have Only Limited Information (Consumer-SOS)
Strange # on your phone bill? Find out who it belongs to.
Sent a letter to the wrong address? Find out who got it and call them!

Is it A Home or Cell Phone #?
Watch out singles. If it's always a cell phone, the person could be married or living a double life. Enter in the area code and phone number to see if the prefix is "Cellular". For landlines it will simply list the first three digits without the word "Cellular". Click Here for a backup site (For cell #s it will say "cellular" by the word "prefix".

PO Box Lookup-Finding If The Address Is Really A Concealed PO Box Or Finding A Business Or Person Through Their PO Box (Consumer-SOS)

Home Or Cell Phone? (Backup Site)
Enter the area code and first three digits for a "telco" code. Then look up the code in their FAQs section for what it means. Note as of 2004 cell phones don't come up on reverse Internet phone book searches (the free ones). But they may turn up on the search engines if listed on a website.

Find Their Neighbors (Consumer-SOS)

Back to Find & Background People By Their Public Records

Googling People By Their Address, Phone # or Email
KNOWING THEIR NAME IS NOT THE SAME AS KNOWING WHO THEY ARE. To find out more about their background or who they associate with, enter their number, email, or address in Google and the other search engines. Through Google you may learn if your subject is a famous politician, a convicted murderer or belongs to your local fitness club.

Googling An Address (Consumer-SOS)

Googling A Phone Number (Consumer-SOS)

Googling An Email Address (Consumer-SOS)

PO Box Lookup-See If It's A PO Box In Disguise or Find A Business Or Person Through Their Post Office Box (Consumer-SOS)

Back to Find & Background People By Their Public Records

Googling An Address
You can never predict if the search engines will pick up all or just a portion of the address . Therefore, start with as little as possible. Add more terms only if you get too many irrelevant hits. For example: If your neighbor's address is 2422 Morosgo Ct NE, Atlanta, GA 30324

first enter

2422 Morosgo

If you get too many hits or irrelevant returns, try

"2422 Morosgo" (put the phrase in quotes to narrow your search)

Also try

"2422 Morosgo Ct"
"2422 Morosgo Court"
"2422 Morosgo Ct" Atlanta

and finally

"2422 Morosgo" NE Atlanta

In addition, you can then background any business, organization or individual associated with this address.

See Googling A Phone Number (Consumer-SOS)

See Googling An Email Address (Consumer-SOS)

Back to Find & Background People By Their Public Records

Googling A Phone Number

Try various combinations. Note that each variation can yield different results.

See examples below:

404-816-6163 (Dashes)
(404) 816-6163 (Parentheses)
4048166163 (number)
404.816.6163 (points instead of dashes)

See Googling An Address (Consumer-SOS)

See Googling An Email Address (Consumer-SOS)

Back to Find & Background People By Their Public Records

Googling An Email Address

To Find Out Where They Work
To Find Them By Their Other Email Addresses

Back To Sleuthing For People On Line
Back To Find & Background People By Their Public Records

To Find Out Where They Work

At first put in their full email address.
If you get no hits, try a partial address.

If it appears to be a business email address, (not Yahoo or Hotmail or Bellsouth, etc.),
Google just the last part of the address to get where they work.

For example: if the address is "firestone@dol.state.ga.us"

Googling "@dol.state.ga.us" gets you information on both " the company, as well as the employees who work there.

see for example,

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%40dol.state.ga.us&btnG=Google+Search

Likewise:

Nothing turns up when you Google "johnsmith@accmhs.allegan.mi.us"

But search for "@accmhs.allegan.mi.us"

and you'll see he works at a community health center in Allegheny, PA. From there you may be able to find him in the company directory or background him through city, state and county records.

See Googling An Address (Consumer-SOS)

See Googling A Phone Number (Consumer-SOS)

Back To Sleuthing For People On Line

Back To Find & Background People By Their Public Records

To Find Them By Their Other Email Addresses

Suppose you're looking for an old school friend, but the most recent hits are from 2001. Or maybe, you get only recent information and want to know their past.

For more leads, just google the first part of their email address.

For example:

"zbdubin"

This works because as creatures of habit, people will often use the same combination of numbers or letter regardless of whether they're @ Yahoo, Bellsouth or Hotmail.

While tracking an old acquaintance from the Lenox School,

I came across her email
z bdubin@comcast.net (not her real email address)

Googling it got limited results.

However, googling just the prefix
"zbdubin" got me

zbdubin@attbi.com

zbdubin@optonline.net

These links gave me valuable clues as to where she works, where she went to camp and who she's married to.

See Googling An Address (Consumer-SOS)

See Googling A Phone Number (Consumer-SOS)

Back To Sleuthing For People On Line

Back To Find & Background People By Their Public Records

Find Their Neighbors

Neighbor lookup
Whether you're complaining about the noise, or forming a neighborhood watch, here's how to get in touch with your neighbors. Note: when your neighbors live in an apartment complex with one address, do several searches by entering different house numbers in the house number box. i.e. search with 100, then again with 200, and then again with 300 etc.

See Reverse Searches (Consumer-SOS)

See also Backgrounding By Their Phone #, Email or Address (Consumer-SOS)

Back to Find & Background People By Their Public Records

Find Or Background Old Classmates-Step By StepFinding old friends Finding old classmates Alumni search classmate
background backgrounding almuni lookup
Use the online phone books if you know their name and location and just want to call them. Otherwise, you'll need to learn more by backgrounding them. Backgrounding helps eliminate false leads, such as when their name is very common, or you get hits in many states. It's also good for finding married or divorced women who may now have a different surname.

1. The Alumni Section or alumni association of your school’s Home Page may have the classmate’s address, email address or phone number. If your subject is a woman who has divorced or married, it may even list her new surname.

Can’t find your alumni section? Look around for their site's search engine (many schools have them) and type in the word “Alumni”. Then search for their alumni directories or associations. If you cannot find your school's homepage, go directly to Google and type the school's name in quotes, i.e. "Tulane University".

Next, do a Google Search for your subject’s last name within the website itself . (Google can sometimes find things within a site faster than the site's own search engine!). Search Here to Google the websites of major universities. Or, just enter the last name in the Find Results box and then enter your school's website address lower down to the right of the "domain" box. (leave out the "http" or "www") This may tell you if they’ve been married, where they live, or give you other news such as their profession, births, deaths, etc.

See also Finding Women

2. Age lookup sites are far more comprehensive than Internet phone books. (Omit state and search with and without middle initial). These will often list the subject’s age along with the cities and states where they once lived or currently reside. Sometimes they’ll include a middle name or even who they live with! Note that with US Search you just click on your target name for the cities and states where the person lived or now resided in. If none of them are familiar, you probably have the wrong person and should click on your next lead. Try several age look up sites. ZabaSearch might even return a current address or phone number.