How to Locate Someone in Another Country

Traveling abroad is sure to entail meeting friendly locals with whom you might want to keep in contact or send a letter of thanks for their hospitality. Contact information hastily written on a paper napkin or a scrap of paper is easy to lose in your travels. Fortunately, finding someone in another country is reasonably easy today using international resources available on the internet, on the telephone and even at the library.

The easiest way to find someone in another country begins with entering their name and city of residence in the search engine of your choice. Search results for people with that name living in that city will come up, making it easy to click on their Facebook or other social media profiles. A search engiine will also make suggestions if it finds similar names with slightly altered spellings. Searching on individual social media sites can also be useful as profile pictures can help you know whether you're reaching out to the correct individual.

If you're still in the same city, use a telephone book at the hotel to try to locate the person by name or get the contact information for her business. After returning home, try online directories like the International White and Yellow Pages. The Wayp.com site has directories for 150 countries on five continents.

PhoneBookofTheWorld.com offers access to more online directories. In addition to searching by city or country for a local phone directory, the website has a search feature by country area code if there's a partial phone number. Clicking on the country code brings up a map with major cities for which a phone book may be accessed. Once in the selection for the correct city, PhoneBookofTheWorld.com offers searches for white pages, yellow pages, hotel pages and local Google pages.

There's an extensive collection of telephone books at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C., including foreign telephone directories. Head to the Main Reading Room on the first floor of the Thomas Jefferson Building to access the phone directories. The foreign collection is accessed through Alcove 4 and stored on Deck 46. Yellow-coded card catalog drawers contain an incomplete list of the foreign directories. There are more foreign city directories in the Local History and Genealogy Reading Room. Look in the main catalog or online catalog and request the specific directory in the Main Reading room or Local History and Genealogy Reading Room.

To find a telephone number for a foreign person, try international directory assistance. Although 411 or 555-1212 both access directory assistance for the United States, international directory assistance has its own number. Dial 800-225-5288 to find out international numbers, but keep in mind that there's a per-use charge.