Genealogy isn't just about locating people who have been dead for decades or centuries. It is also about connecting with living family members — to capture their stories and memories, collaborate on research, learn about new branches of the family tree, or plan a family reunion. Not surprisingly, you can apply many of the same search strategies to locate living people. There are, however, a few online tools and databases that can assist with your search.

One of the most obvious places to begin a search for living individuals is the telephone directory. This may not be very fruitful if they have a common name, or if you aren't even sure which state they are in, however. If you can't locate a husband, try searching under his wife's name, and vice versa. A search by just the last name and location may also help turn up listings under initials or other first-name variations. Popular online phone directories include White Pages (www.whitepages.com), Yahoo! People Search (http://people.yahoo.com), and ZabaSearch (www.zabasearch.com).

Since the Internet is all about connecting the world, it's not a surprise to find so many websites dedicated to helping people reunite with one another. If you're searching for a military buddy, Wendy Boswell's list of “Military People Search Sites” (http://websearch.about.com/od/peoplesearch/a/militarysearch.htm) may be of some assistance. Want to connect with an old classmate? Then search or sign up with an alumni reunion site such as Classmates.com (www.classmates.com) or Reunions.com (www.reunions.com). Adoption search is a bit beyond the scope of this book, but if you're looking for a birth parent or child, there are many online resources to assist you — enter adoption search or adoption reunion in your favorite search engine.

Facebook (www.facebook.com), with more than 400 million active users worldwide, is probably the best place online for reconnecting with the people from your past. Register and create a basic page for the option to search by name, school, organization, society, and so on to locate and connect with old classmates, friends, or military buddies. Add details to your Facebook page such as your occupation, organizations you've belonged to, birthday, schools you attended, and so forth to make it easier for old acquaintances to find you as well. Be sure to include your maiden name if you're a married female! Not sure how to set up a Facebook account for best results? Download the free “Facebook for Genealogists Cheat Sheet” (www.hidefgen.com/facebook-genealogists-cheat-sheet) from High-Definition Genealogy.