Laurie with her sister Kathy, aunt Peggie and brother Kevin

Jeri is a people finding sleuth who goes by the nickname “Sherlock”. She has utilized The PeopleFinders Network to find hundreds of people, and was kind enough to share a few of her success stories with us. One of our favorites is about a woman named Laurie…

Laurie was separated from her mother as an infant in the 1940’s. She would never see her mother again.

Years later, Laurie hoped to find her family, but only had a few clues: her mother’s name (which was very common), the name of her mother’s husband (Bruno Vernazza) and the fact that her mother had a sister named Peggy. After some intense investigating, Laurie found an address for Bruno, but it was not current, and the trail dried up.

That’s when Jeri got involved. Jeri used the old address to find more recent information through The PeopleFinders Network. Sadly, Bruno had passed away, but Jeri also found someone who used to live with him. That person was able to provide a few of Bruno’s personal belongings, including a marriage certificate. It was the lead Jeri had been looking for.

After a little more searching, Jeri tracked down a man in Arizona who had the same name as Laurie’s grandfather. That man turned out to be Laurie’s uncle. He helped fill in even more blanks, which led to the discovery of several of Laurie’s family members – including her aunt Peggy, her sister and a brother she never knew existed. Today they all enjoy a larger and very loving family.

Laurie’s case was difficult to crack. It was full of twists, dead-ends and false hope. During her search, Laurie discovered that her name was listed differently on four official documents. The name on her birth certificate was Doran Doran, and officially changing that name only led to more complications. Her search for relatives took more than eleven years, but she finally reunited with her family … and it happened on her 60th birthday!

It took a large amount of ingenuity and perseverance from Laurie and Jeri, but the end result was a happy ending worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster. Laurie loves to share her story, and to give others hope that they too can find their family members – no matter how much time has gone by. As she likes to say, her story shows that you just have to be persistent.

If you have someone that you’ve been missing, we can help. Visit us today to search for anyone in the United States. We’ll show you how to reconnect with a family member, friend, classmate, military buddy or anyone else.

We love reading heart-warming tales like this one. If you’ve had your own people finding adventure with help from PeopleFinders, please let us know.  Share your story with us … and we’ll share it with the world.

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to write and remind us of why we do what we do. We appreciate the messages and love to hear about how we helped you plan your own reunion. Keep searching until you find the people who mean the world to you, and thank you for reading the PeopleFinders People Search blog.

Developing a business involves an incalculable amount of time, work and effort. It is not a venture that is entered into lightly; the desire to found a company stems from the pursuit of a dream and the need to carve your own niche in this world.

At PeopleFinders, we believe in people. We believe that family and friends are the most important part of life, and that it is the love, friendship and companionship of others that truly keep us going. That’s why PeopleFinders was created, and why we continue to do what we do.

PeopleFinders is dedicated to helping people find and reconnect with others. Now and then we receive emails from people who have used our services to reunite with someone they lost touch with years ago. These messages remind us of why we continuously endeavor to provide our customers with the most powerful people search tool available: we want to help you find anyone, anywhere.

We thought we’d take a moment to look back at some comments that made us smile, laugh or just stop for a moment and enjoy a sense of pride for our work. Like this message from our friend Will:

“I decided to join PeopleFinders to locate my old classmates. I was so thrilled when I started finding people. I had the daunting task of finding 455 people. Over a two month period, I was able to locate 413 classmates. Being able to cross-reference people who are associated with an individual really helped. Last month, we had a great reunion…”

Will finishes by saying that using PeopleFinders has been fun and rewarding. Thank you, Will, we’re glad we could help.

Most families share a bond that cannot be broken – at least not permanently. When we hear from someone who reunited with family members through PeopleFinders.com, it makes our day. Like this letter from Samuel:

“5 days ago I got onto this site to see if I could find my mom and my brother, and within minutes I found out where she was. Now, just today my mom contacted me, and after 23 years I am finally reunited with my mom, brother, uncle and two sisters I didn’t even know about. I encourage anyone that has lost communication with someone or never really met a family member to give this site 5 days the way I did and see the results this site can produce.”

Samuel enjoyed a family reunion that included siblings he never knew existed. We know that this meant everything to Samuel, and we were excited to play a small part.

We are proud that our services help people – and that some people use our websites to help others. Take Jeri from California, who goes by the nickname Sherlock. Jeri helped find “missing” classmates for a High School Reunion Committee, and then continued to help friends, other committees and complete strangers find their long lost loved ones. Read more about it in part two of this blog.

Schools in the 1950’s, like most other public locations, were segregated in Georgia. Kids were forced to attend different schools depending on the color of their skin, and those with white skin were further separated by gender. Fifty years later these people who were not allowed to associate with each other were finally able to connect.

It all began with the personal journey of a man named Tom Johnson. He grew up in Macon and enjoyed a very successful career which included serving as the publisher of the Los Angeles Times and president of CNN. Tom’s life changed drastically over the years, but he still felt the desire to reconnect with his roots.

In 2005 Johnson returned to Macon with his son, Wyatt. As the pair drove around town, a father recounted high school stories to his son. He talked about how students attended one of three schools: Ballard-Hudson, Lanier or Miller. Wyatt looked over at his father and said: “Dad, think about how many friends you missed getting to know.”

Johnson did spend time thinking about the people he never got the chance to meet. He decided to do something about it.

The first step was to find people who graduated from all three schools. Johnson wrote to each person and proposed they all get together for a luncheon. He explained that even though they were kept apart during their youth, they didn’t have to be separated anymore. People listened, and his classmates received the message with open hearts. A reunion date was set for October.

More than 200 former Macon students traveled hundreds of miles to reunite with people who went to high school with them, and others that should have. People greeted old friends and made new ones as the celebration began. It was an unprecedented event; former students coming together to make up for the time they had lost during the days of segregation. For this group, however, even that wasn’t enough.

The attendees agreed to plan an annual reunion. During the year each one would do what they could to break down barriers and bring people together regardless of their race,  gender or any other factors. People created a list of 59 things the class of 59 could do to help make this world a better place.

One of their first goals centered around one person who refused to attend the luncheon. Johnson reached out to everyone he could and received an overwhelmingly positive response. Among the replies, however, was one full of hatred and anger. It came from a graduate of the all-white school, and it helped prove the fact that even in 2009 we are still dealing with racial issues.

When word of this hateful response got around to the revelers, their response was a little surprising. It would have been easy to react with anger, but they chose another path. They discussed ideas on how to help their classmate understand that no matter what color anyone is, we are all just people sharing our lives on this planet. With a little luck and a lot of patience the group hopes to have this person join them at their next reunion.

At PeopleFinders, we felt this story was worth sharing. We believe in the simple truth that people are people, no matter what color, race or gender they may be. Our goal is always to help people find and connect with each other, and it warms our hearts to hear of an event that restarted old friendships and kindled new ones.

We can all join the Macon class of 1959 in attempting to make our world a better place for everyone. Do what you can, celebrate the humanity we all share and thank you for reading the PeopleFinders People Search blog.

At PeopleFinders.com we fully support the concept of reconnecting with people from your past. Seeing former classmates can be a fun and rewarding experience, but the days leading up to the big event often leave people feeling anxious and stressed. The thrill of reminiscing about school days and catching up with old friends can sometimes be overwhelmed by feelings of anxiety.

It’s normal to be nervous about reuniting with a group of people you spent most of your time with when you were younger. You may wonder what they look like now, how their lives have changed, how they will perceive the “new” you and if you will get along after so much time has passed. Luckily, modern technology makes it easy to cheat and get some of your questions answered in advance.

Want to find some classmates before your High School reunion? Try a People Search to find anyone instantly. Once you’ve found them, you can learn a lot about their lives today. Use a Social Network Search to see the profiles, blogs, photos and other personal details they have posted on popular sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.

Finding classmates online allows you to contact them and enjoy some time catching up away from the rest of your graduating class. You may want to make plans to get together with one person or the whole gang in advance. This gives you an opportunity to reconnect with your former social group in a private and more relaxed setting.

Before you head off to your class reunion, take some time for yourself. Request a few days off work so you aren’t rushed and have more time to spend with old friends. Set up your travel arrangements well in advance so you don’t have to worry about your accommodations when you’re already nervous about the reunion. Get some rest before the big day, and consider meeting up with others on the way to your High School reunion so you can all go in together.

If your class reunion is this summer, have a great time reconnecting with faces that are very familiar, just a little bit older. Thank you for reading the PeopleFinders.com People Search blog.

Take the tale of two sisters who were separated at a very young age and spent nearly 5 decades apart. One was so young when it happened that she didn’t even remember having a sibling, but after their reunion the pair immediately established a strong sisterly bond. Just goes to show that the passing of time is nothing compared to the power of emotion.

We were also touched by the story of a father and son who reunited after 48 years. Military obligations and foreign regulations caused them to be torn apart when the boy was only 3 months old, but his heartsick father never gave up hope. Thanks to the internet, the 2 were finally able to reestablish the connection that had been broken so long ago.

Stories like that motivate us to constantly maintain and upgrade the Web’s fastest and most reliable People Search feature.  We’re dedicated to helping you find the people you’ve been missing as quickly as possible.

When we receive messages from someone who used PeopleFinders.com to find people from their past it makes all the hard work we do worthwhile. Like the email from Richard Elam which said “I am a Vietnam veteran, and I have been looking for veterans that were in my company. I have found about 30 veterans so far using PeopleFinders and still looking for more. I have reunited myself and the ones that I have found together after 40 years. Thank you, PeopleFinders”.

Watch for upcoming articles about great ways to break the ice when you reconnect with someone you haven’t seen in years, and ideas on how to stay connected with everyone you know.  Let us know if you have any questions you’d like to have answered here. We’re always ready to help you find anyone, anywhere.

Thank you for reading the PeopleFinders.com People Search blog.