Family is an important part of anyone’s life, whether they still live at home or they haven’t talked to their family members in many years. Either way, family members have had a part in changing everyone. However, you may have a family member who you loved and cared for when you were younger, but you fell out of contact with, perhaps because they were a very distant relative you only knew as a child, because they had a falling-out with the rest of your family, or even if things have just gotten busy and you never reached out to them.
If you’re looking for a relative that you’ve lost contact with for a while, or maybe one you’ve never actually met but have heard of, there are plenty of ways to do it. Here are some of the easiest and simplest.
Ask Around
This might seem like a simple step, but it’s one that doesn’t always cross people’s minds. Even if your lost relative is estranged from the family, you may find people who have kept in touch with them, even very infrequently. You may also find that some people know a previous address, or heard they were recently involved in something that you could easily use as a jumping-off point.
If you have any family friends who knew your relative, they can be helpful too! Try to track your lost relative as far as possible simply by asking around. Use social media sites, ask for phone numbers, really anything that can help you get to the next person. It’s important to note that you may end up in a long telephone line, where one person will refer you to another who will refer you to another and so on. Just keep at it!
Tell People You’re Looking
Especially if a family member isn’t really estranged, they’ve just kind of been lost, it’s not unlikely that someone will talk to them in passing and just not think much of it. Maybe they’ll see a social media presence that they think may be that family member, but because they’ve moved on, they won’t do anything about it.
If you tell people you’re looking for this family member, they’ll be more obliged to remember, and then to tell you if they find something that reminds them. Whether it’s an old photo that reminds them where that relative moved or a phone number they found in an old flip phone in their basement, you’re more likely to get some kind of concrete knowledge if people know what your goal is.
Don’t just keep it a secret; get it out there! You should be excited to find family members that have been lost for so long, and it’s a great idea to get the family that you know involved in this journey, too. More than likely, they’ll love to reconnect after so long.
Comb for Information
If you’re looking for anyone, you’re going to have to put together a lot of information, like you’re a detective on a case. Everything people can tell you about this person is a clue, and you’re not going to be able to find your relative unless you can put all the clues together and home in on them — a job that’s not easy, which is why so many people are never able to reconnect with their family.
The unfortunate fact is, it’s very hard to find a relative. It’s not always a question of will, either; plenty of people desperately, desperately want to find someone who was dear to them, but don’t have the resources or knowledge necessary. So what do you do when you don’t have the resources of a detective agency, but you still want to find your relative?
Thankfully, PeopleFinders does have the resources of a detective agency, and they’re bringing it to you in a simple, cost-effective manner. Ask around your family to find their full name, city, and state, and plug it into PeopleFinders’ simple people search tool. In less time than it would take to search a social media site, you’ll have public records information in a user-friendly format that will all but bring you to their door.
Finding a relative again after many years is one of the most exciting experiences that you can go through, and everyone deserves to be able to reconnect with their loved ones. If you only have the most basic of information, and you aren’t able to piece together the crumbs you find through friends and family, you can use PeopleFinders for a simple, easy experience that uses whatever you have, paltry as it might be, to give you the information you’re looking for.
