Help me reunite best friends.

August 5, 2010 10:45 PM

My mom recently told me that she had a best friend when she was in grade school, many many many years ago. When her friend moved across the world, they lost track of each other. Now I want to find that person.

That best friend moved when they were both young - to Maryland from India. My mom lived in India at the time. They tried to stay in touch but it was difficult. Now, almost 35 years later, I want to find this person for my mom. I know it would mean so much to her.

I tried Google, ZabaSearch, LinkedIn, Census Databanks, and so on. The problem is that my mom remembers her friend's maiden name, and she is most likely married now. She knows the town in Maryland that her friend moved to, but not much else.

How can I find this person? Also, this is my first post on MetaFilter (I've been a visitor for years), so I thank you in advance.

posted by nondescript to human relations (9 answers total)

Did you check the town in Maryland's newspaper for a marriage announcement? When I got married, it was automatically announced in the local city paper's legal classifieds.
posted by flex at 11:10 PM on August 5, 2010

I would recommend contacting the local library in the town your mother's friend moved to. Tell them everything you know. The year, the age of the girl, her maiden name, ect.
If they are a good public library, they will have resources within their disposal to achieve your goal. Good Luck.
posted by QueerAngel28 at 11:11 PM on August 5, 2010

You might also check old yearbooks to see if the friend graduated high school in Maryland and if so contact the person who organizes reunions and see if they will pass on a message. For my high school that info is on Facebook and probably Classmates.com. Those people are freakishly good at finding you!
posted by fshgrl at 12:00 AM on August 6, 2010

Please check your Mefi mail, nondescript.
posted by malibustacey9999 at 12:03 AM on August 6, 2010

See if there's a local newspaper in the town and ask if they will run a story or an advert.

Older generations may avidly scour the columns of their local newspaper in a way that they don't use online resources. Even if the long lost lady isn't among that age group, there may be an older generation of people who remember her in the town as a child, who you're currently missing.
posted by penguin pie at 7:43 AM on August 6, 2010

If you haven't tried already, don't forget to look on Facebook. Being able to search by unmarried name might be helpful there.
posted by Ys at 7:45 AM on August 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

You can find marriage records on ancestry.com (may need to sign up for a free trial). If you search by maiden name and state, along with approximate date range, you might be able to find her married name. I've successfully tracked down someone who was divorced twice and was on her third surname this way.
posted by mudpuppie at 11:36 AM on August 6, 2010

The one-month free trial at Ancestry is great. I recommend signing up and blitzing through the public records section. (Your public library may have access to Ancestry.com, too -- check its website. I know the SFPL does.)
posted by vickyverky at 5:39 PM on August 6, 2010

Oh my God. Thank you all for all your help. I tried everything except for the Ancestry.com account. Oddly enough, a clickthrough to classmates.com listed my mom's friends married and maiden name. Thank you all for all your help and suggestions.

Also, here's a brief account of what happened: my mom and her best friend went to gradeschool together. When her friend moved, they would write letters to eachother - from 5th grade to highschool. As things got busy the letters stopped, her friend got married and my mom moved from India to the states, and got married as well. Anyway, the other day I overheard my mom talk about this long lost friend and I just had to find her. When I finally did find her, I was able to pull up her phone number (a breeze at this point). My mom called and left a message. The next day she called my mom back and said "is this so and so" my mom said "yes is this so and so" and they started to catch up on lost time. It was really beautiful moment.

Again, thank you all for helping me with this.
posted by nondescript at 7:07 PM on August 11, 2010 [1 favorite]