How to find a phone number using just a name and address?

I’m looking to reconnect with some former colleagues after quite a few years apart
I happen to have their last names and home addresses, but I don't have any phone numbers—they all seem to be old-school types who still rely on landlines
I tried searching for them through online directories like WhitePages and AnyWho, but I haven't had much luck finding anything useful...
Does anyone know if there might be another way to track down their numbers?

Go ahead, try calling 988 instead of 911.

swifttinker40 said:I’m looking to reconnect with some former colleagues after quite a few years apart
I happen to have their last names and home addresses, but I don't have any phone numbers—they all seem to be old-school types who still rely on landlines
I tried searching for them through online directories like WhitePages and AnyWho, but I haven't had much luck finding anything useful...
Does anyone know if there might be another way to track down their numbers?

you got a message

swifttinker40 said:I’m looking to reconnect with some former colleagues after quite a few years apart
I happen to have their last names and home addresses, but I don't have any phone numbers—they all seem to be old-school types who still rely on landlines
I tried searching for them through online directories like WhitePages and AnyWho, but I haven't had much luck finding anything useful...
Does anyone know if there might be another way to track down their numbers?

Well, if you say you already have their home address, why not just send them a little note through the mail? Just drop a quick message letting them know you'd love to catch up and include your own number so they can reach out if they want to. Or perhaps you could reach out to some old mutual friends who might still be in touch with them and ask them to pass along your info? Honestly, isn't it a bit counterproductive to go through all this trouble when a simple letter would work?

If someone has a landline but they aren't listed in the public directory, doesn't that pretty much mean they intentionally chose to keep their number private?
In that case, I have to wonder, why are you looking for "workarounds" to get ahold of them?

Rista, man, about forty years ago, I headed down to the local Post Office in downtown Chicago just knowing a last name, a city, and the state. They actually had those massive paper phone books for every single state in the country right there.
Back then, it took me ten minutes just to talk my way past the lady at the service counter—trying to explain why on earth I needed them—and then another twenty minutes of flipping through pages just to track down a dozen addresses. After all that, I spent another ten minutes huddled over a payphone right there in the lobby making the calls.

Believe it or not, paper phone books actually exist.