Need to get a person's cell phone number. It's probably an iPhone.

• First things first: I'm not a stalker and I won't do anything illegal. I've found the person who is almost certainly my birthmother. I need her cell phone number. I believe it's an iPhone. I also have an iPhone, for what it's worth.Please note: this question is not about whether it's a good idea to contact this person. Nor is it about whether I should contact her via an alternate method. It's not on Facebook or LinkedIn. Free directory sites like switchboard.com give an old, now disconnected landline, even though she remains at the address associated with that number. She may, like me, have abandoned landlines in favor of using her cell exclusively. I've paid to get basic info from sites like Intelius and Radaris. They have only the landline. Only her defunct landline appears in so-called celll phone directories I've found online. I know her credit reports and utility bills would contain her most recent phone number(s), but I have no legal way to get them, and I'm not asking for them. I don't know anyone who knows her phone number, or that has any in person way of getting it. Are there library-held databases that could help? Little-known websites? iPhone apps? (I've found none.)

• Answer:

  This is very happily resolved, I'm pleased to say. I have spoken to my birthmother, and much joy was had! I never did find her cell. Yes, I did call the defunct landline but the recorded message had no forwarding number. In my sleuthing I turned up an acrimonious divorce and some court cases that made me realize she might have a damn good reason to actively suppress her phone number. She didn't suppress it (merely switched to cell only), but that's what I began to think. So I bit the bullet and sent her a message on Facebook instead. I thought she would take days or weeks to answer, if ever. It took her an hour and a half! And her answer was kind, loving, and full of all her contact info. We spoke for over an hour last night. She's funny. She apologized for my being so short. We'll be meeting on Saturday. She told her other kids about me years ago. She thinks they'll be thrilled. She's thrilled. I'm thrilled. Much joy was had, Metafilter!