How do you find a family member that you never met and no almost nothing about?
My mother often wonders if her father is still alive. She never met him and has very little information about him. He would be at least 80 years old or maybe older...
It would be nice to find out about him but the world is so big sometimes.
Looking for a long-lost relative? How to begin a search--you'll find it's a lot like the hobby of genealogy--tracking down family history. read more
There are organisations who specialise in helping people to track down relatives. Some of them do ask for payment. But there are other websites that are free, that will give you great tips on how to start looking.
I'm from the UK, but a colleague I worked with a few years ago, found a cousin she hadn't seen for twenty five years, just by following the advice from a free website - I think she put into the search box on Google, something like: 'how to trace lost relatives', and loads of sites came up, as I said, most of them were free. It took about three months to trace him and she worked at it on her days off, but it was worth it. She is still writing and talking with her cousin today.
I have managed to find cousins I previously knew nothing about, but whose names I dug up during my family history research. They have been all over the world - UK, USA, Canada and Australia. The world is big, but the Internet is making it smaller. In some cases it can be as simple as Googling a name. Others take more time and effort.
Try newspaper notices (it's worked for me!), Social Security database (may show up if he is deceased), and telephone directories. There are online databases (paid) that you can use to find people or organisations like The Salvation Army who (in the UK at least) will help you search for living relatives.
Very best of luck to you.
I have searched a name and found a friend that I had lost touch with. You never know.
Their names would be listed in phone books online.
Search, search, search and don't ever give up! A cousin that lived with us disappeared for thirty years. For twenty five of those years I searched for him through the internet. Bit by bit I got more information. I finally came across an obituary for his mother (who had divorced my uncle which led to us losing contact with my cousin) This obituary led me to the names of her brothers and sisters. By searching each and every person listed on the obituary, I came across a genealogy website that was being run by one of her brothers. It had a "contact me" button and I began talking with me. He was able to give me enough information to finally be able to find my cousin. We were able to have him come and visit two months before his father (who had lived with my mom for health reasons) passed away....
Just don't give up - it is rewarding when you finally find the person you are searching for!
Take the information you have and look into census records. Look into death and obituary records next. If nothing is found there check into military records if he was ever in the military. If all that fails put a family tree on Ancestry and wait to see if anyone sends you messages, I had several contact me. I have information I would never have found otherwise. Good luck. and above all, be patient.
If you live in the US, the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) is completely free to search online on a few different websites. It's worth a shot looking up, to at least be able to check if he has died or not.
You can find one here:
http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/ … h_ssdi.asp
You'd be surprised how much information you do have that can get you started in the right direction. If you know where he grew up, even if it's the state (which can be a little more challenging), you can conduct searches on first names if you have any sibling information on him. There are a lot of out-of-the-box methods to track people down. Sometimes, depending where he lived, old newspapers may have articles that mention him - old school promotions, sporting results, community activities, etc.
Don't give up!
I am looking for my cousin James Hoillage from Basingstoke Abby Road his age is over 50 got kicked out of house in his early 20 and never been seen since that day
I just recently found my birth mother, because I needed to find out my birth information, so I could get my birth certificate for the first time in my life. My journey was a painful one, but in the end, with a lot of hard work, I was able to get my birth certificate. Once I found a few of my family members names, I searched a number of different free genealogy sites and was able to trace my entire history on my birth fathers side of the family clear back to the early 1500's, and found the potential to go back even further.
So if your mom can remember any names of her aunts, uncles, cousins, etc, that's a good place to start your search. Once you find history on them, you might be able to connect the dots from there. If I can be of any help please comment and I can message you an email address. Best wishes.
by H C Palting 4 years ago
What would you do if a family member only contacts you when they want something?Would you keep a sibling at arm's length if they exhibit a pattern of contacting you only when they want something? Why or why not?
by DommaLeigh 11 years ago
If a family member broke into your house and robbed you, what would you do?When a family member does you wrong you are torn on what to do. Do you just let it slide? Do you confront the person? Do you start a family feud? Do you call the cops? What do you do? So If a family member broke into your...
by Sophia Angelique 12 years ago
I don't know about you, but through the years I've met a lot of people on the web. We've talked on the phone, even skyped, emailed, sent gifts, etc. We've gotten to know a lot about each other and, although we've never met, we've connected in a deep way.And then when they pass, because we're not...
by William Thomas 12 years ago
This question is for poker players. I know almost nothing of the game, but tell me: how...important would you say one's ability to "bluff" is relative to the cards you actually have in your hand? Furthermore, do you see any similarity between poker and the stock market (as distinguished...
by Audrey Selig 10 years ago
How to control passive aggressive family member who sends husband to his parents begging for money?They are retired and live on pensions.
by Lady_E 8 years ago
Would you take a family member to Court, if they could not repay a debt owed to you?(I can’t because it could ruin our relationship.)
Copyright © 2024 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2024 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |