How to Locate Lost Relatives

Whether you've lost touch with a family member because of adoption, a family rift or simply time and distance, there are many free and lost-cost resources available to help you locate your lost relative. To do so, it is helpful to know your relative's full name, date of birth, place of birth, parents' names, schools attended and cities where he or she has lived.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Looking for Family

1. Search public records databases. Records of marriage and divorce as well as property and criminal records are accessible to the general public. They can be accessed for free through each jurisdiction's courthouse and registrar of deeds. Large public libraries may also have public records holdings.

2. Contact your relative's alumni associations. If you know the schools that your lost relative attended, contact their school alumni association. These groups often maintain databases with information such as physical address, email address and phone number.

3. Use the Social Security Death Index. If you are searching for an older relative who may have passed away, the Social Security Death Index will allow you to search for her by name at no cost. If your relative is deceased, you will be able to access her Social Security number, date of death and last known address.

4. Contact the Salvation Army's Missing Persons Service. For a $50 processing fee, the Salvation Army will conduct a search for missing relatives. This service is limited to people who are looking for living adult relatives who are estranged for reasons other than adoption or parental abduction.

Adopted Relatives

5. In the case of adoption, request information from the agency that handled the adoption. If your lost relative is a parent, child or sibling and you live in an open adoption state, you may be able to request contact information for the person from the adoption agency that facilitated the placement. Extended relatives such as grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins may not access these records, however.

6. Also in adoption cases, you can turn to state and private adoption registries. Adoption registries allow adoptees and their families to search for contact information using basic demographic information such as birth name, current name, date of birth and place of birth. Many of these databases are accessible at no cost.

7. Request a court order to open your relative's adoption file. If you do not live in an open adoption state, you can access closed adoption files only by order of the court where the adoption was finalized. To request that the file be opened, you will need to file a petition with the court and attend a hearing, where the judge will evaluate the merits of your case.

References

• Access to Adoption Records
• Introduction to Public Records Research
• Missing persons services

Resources

• Social Security Death Index Interactive Search