Returning A Class Ring

[Nighthunter]

First, I am new to this site and extremely glad and excited to have found and joined it. Lots of good info and 'pump you up' finds here that keep it fun to check the site. Congrats to all on your finds.
Two years ago I found a class ring from a school a few hours away from the find site. I have tried several times to contact the school to find the owner but to no avail. They haven't even returned my call, not sure if they think I'm after the owner or something like that or just unconcerned. My question is how do I go about finding the owner. The ring has his initials inside the band and his first name on the outside along with several 'icons' of things he did in high school. His grad year was 1994. Its been fifteen years and I'm sure he would like it back.
Funny thing is, I lost my class ring when in school and had it returned 18 years later!!! Thanks much to an honest treasure hunter whom I would like to imitate in his sincerity . Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

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[Likely Guy]

Since the ring is only 15 years old the school should have a copy of the '94 yearbook. Returned class rings are actually fairly common. Here's a few instances from recent weeks, some were lost for decades. Perhaps you can use the methods that these finders employed. Good luck!

New Hanover class ring returned to owner after 40 years
http://www.starnewsonline.com/artic...-class-ring-returned-to-owner-after-40-years#

Lost Oak Park and River Forest High School class ring returned to its owner -- 47 years later
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/chi-talk-ringjun12,0,5320003.story

Ring Returned After Decades
http://www.theeveningleader.com/content/view/139876/1/

Lost class ring returned to woman, 97
http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2009/06/01/Lost-class-ring-returned-to-woman-97/UPI-24131243887432/

A thing of the past becomes unearthed
http://www.limaohio.com/news/bradley-38270-carter-ring.html

30 years later, ring returns home
http://www.pal-item.com/article/20090606/NEWS01/906060301

Plus numerous others: http://news.google.ca/news?pz=1&ned=ca&hl=en&q="class+ring"&cf=all&start=10

 

[allen]

most city libraries have copies of school yearbooks
go there and check for people with the same initials
that are on the ring and then look the person up in
the phonebook, myspace, face book or something like that.
hope this helps,
Allen

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Allen and Likely guy are on-the-money: Just find that year's graduating class yearbook (assuming the guy/gal didn't get the ring as a junior, and drop out before he was a senior), and look it up. This assumes there's initials inside the ring (usually par for the course when ordering a class ring). Just match that up with male/female graduates for that year. Then once you get the match from that, then you hit the phone book for that town. Of course, if it's a "Jones" or "Smith" from a city the size of New York, you'll have a problem

Bummer that the school won't call you back. I'm sure there's litigical reasons (or lack of staffing, etc...) to return such calls (that maybe reek of sales pitches or whatever, so they promptly ignore them). I've heard of schools who, although they can't give out names & numbers of graduates (for obvious legal reasons), yet they have "passed on" the info to their last listed #, and connections have been made that way, when the owner follows through on the school's contact.

 

[mtntrekr2]

I found a ring dated 1990. I called the school and asked them to pass along my contact info to the possible owner. They will not give you their info due to the privacy act. But yes it did take 3 calls from me to get thru to someone at the school who would help.
Should you go to the library to look for a yearbook, and you do get some matches. Try entering their name and town into anywho.com. The site not only gives name, address, and phone #, It sometime gives an age. Which would be very helpful knowing someone 55 yrs. old did not graduate in 94.
My update with the ring is that the owner still has not given me his address so I can mail it to him. I have been in touch with him thru email but without an address I cannot send it thru the phone line.
HH
Joe

 

[watercolor]

Nighthunter, congrats on your find and a bigger congrats on your
efforts on trying to find it's original owner

Within the the past 8 months, I've found two class rings that were lost
over 30-years ago. The owner of the first ring (a guy) was tracked down by
matching his two, inscribed initials with a class yearbook from the local
library. I "googled" his name (from the yearbook) and used the online white pages
to get a phone number. . . and it was him.

The second ring belonged to a girl from an out-of-state high school. The ring
had her full maiden name. . . which was much harder to track down. . . so a friend
I knew that subscribed to "ancestry.com" went into action and was able to
find a current address & phone for that name and it turned out to be her.

It's unfortunate that a lot of schools will not even respond. . . and even if you know
who the ring manufacturer was. . . they'll only keep records for a limited number of
years so most often, they will be of little help. But when you are able to return a ring
to it's owner, it's a wonderful experience that you'll never forget.

I would call the local library (genealogy section) in the school's town and explain your
situation. I'm sure they will take heart and possibly email you some names from the
school's yearbook that match the initials on the ring. Another possibility, if it's a small town,
would be to contact the local newspaper. . . a perfect human interest story.

Good luck!

 

[davew0710]

A friend of mine found a 1929 class ring a few weeks ago. He hasn't had time to go detecting since then, he's been spending all of his time tracking down the owner.
He's almost found her!! He's narrowed it down to one of two cemeteries

 

[Nighthunter]

Wow, thanks for all the advice, will try to get on this again and start finding more info on the owner. I'm sure he would like it back. Lots of good 'leads' to how to start looking for him, nice to have a forum to ask questions for answers that others have been through. Great site!!! Hope I can find him before he turns up like your buddys ring loser did, Dave!!

 

[pookie-princess of rust]

also u can check out www.classringfinder.com good luck on finding the owner

 

[Philvis]

You may want to check classmates.com or even Facebook for the graduating class of that year. That will probably be the quickest search method to try first. You can either find the person or post a message looking for info about the person with that initials. Before you go travelling hours away, try that way. Much easier and probably will be more fruitful.

 

[Joe(TX)]

........not as easy as it sounds......if the ring is old enough...............good possibility that the owner is dead and then you need to find the heirs..........if the ring belonged to a girl......most marry and of course change their last names..............if the town of the school can be found .........maybe the parents can be reached...............I know of some cases where the owner did not even care to send postage money to get the the ring back!!......Of course, this is up to the finder