How to Find People through Their Work People spend much of their lives working. So it makes sense to use people’s jobs as a way of locating them. While we may have a few different jobs in our working lives, most of us use the skills we have and move from one similar employment to another. If the person you are looking for has a trade then your task should be a lot easier as trades have governing bodies or societies or trades unions. Take me for instance. I am a member of several organisations including the Association of British Investigators, the Institute of Professional Investigators, the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives, the Society of Genealogists and the Investigator’s World Wide Association. So you could find me in their member’s directories, many of which are online. Some work requires a licence, so you might be able to find them through the body that licenses them. For example, all doctors have to be members of the General Medical Council, which holds the register. Take a look at http://www.gmc-uk.org/register/ Think about your own circumstances … would you be easy to locate through your work? If you know which trade it is, you could Google it to find their trade body. At your local reference library, you should find a copy of a heavy tome called the ‘Directory of British Associations’, which will give you the contact details of thousands of associations interested in all kinds of trades and activities. If you know where the person you are looking for used to work, you could ask their Human Resources department if they have a forwarding address. If so, you could ask them to forward a letter for you. They won’t be able to give you any addresses they hold as that data is private and they are governed by the Data Protection Act. If the person you are looking for owns or runs a limited company, then you could look at the Companies House register. You can get some free information on ‘WebCheck’ at http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/ As ever, if you cannot find the person you are searching for directly, you should consider trying to find a work colleague and getting their advice. To someone in the same line of work the search will not seem all that daunting and they may know where they moved on to. ******************** I hope that this information is useful and that it helps you to find the person you are looking for.
For a basic beginner’s guide to searching for people I recommend that you take a look at http://www.howtofindpeople.info/ I run a people finding service called Blood-Ties Tracing Service, which you can find at http://www.blood-ties.com/. I should be happy to help you in your searches. Archives of these e-letters can be found on the ‘UK People Search News’ at http://ukpeople-search.blogspot.com/ Please feel free to re-publish this article so long as it remains unaltered and this resource box is included. The views expressed in my articles are mine alone and while they are effective methods used in my own business I cannot guarantee the results that you will achieve. While these articles are written with every care, I am not a lawyer and you should consider the legality and morality of any steps you take to trace people. Please remember that your investigation could cause distress to others so tread gently and make sure your contact is welcome to them. ********************