How to Reunite With Relatives

Family reunions can be a joyous occasion

Walking down life's path often means losing touch with relatives along the way. This can be due to a parent putting a child up for adoption, family members moving away to distant lands, or simply because of an old, unfortunate disagreement. If you are thinking about reuniting with your estranged relatives and you want to start building bridges of communication, then there are various ways of doing it. It may even be simpler than you think.

Things You'll Need

• Telephone directories
• Contact addresses

Instructions

1. Use the Internet as a resource to help find a relative. Check out the social networking sites - Friends Reunited, Facebook or My Space. More and more people get connected to the Internet and join such websites which increases your chances of reconnecting to your relatives electronically. Reuniting via social networks makes it easy to stay in touch and to open the doors to a family reunion.

2. Find contact information another way if you have no success via the Internet. Check with other family members or old friends who may still be in contact with your estranged relatives. Ask them to pass on your contact details so your relatives may contact you. Ask to be given your relatives contact details, providing their permission is sought, alternatively. Check poll books or go online and check the e-poll book, as the public are free to access information contained on the electoral register.

3. Decide on how best to make the contact with your relatives - a telephone call, email or letter. If lack of contact was due to an argument, then tread carefully and say nothing that will refuel your old spat. Apologize for not contacting them earlier, ask how your relatives are keeping and be as chatty as you can be in your attempt to reconnect with your family. Send them an invite for a family reunion that you are hosting and see if they will accept your olive branch.

4. Planning a reunion with distant relatives takes time and needs organizing well in advance. Save money for the occasion to cover every aspect of the reunion - clothes, travel, hotels, spending money and a big reunion dinner -- to make it a special affair. Contact your distant relatives and try to maintain communication irrespective of the time difference. This is where the Internet and email can bridge the gap. Suggest a reunion and if the response is positive, then start planning your trip abroad for your reunion.

5. Looking to reunite with an estranged child or parent after an adoption, then the best way is to seek contact via the adoption agency who handled the case. Check out the Child Welfare Information Gateway which provides information on how best to make contact with relatives after adoption.

References

• Families Reunited:Members Package
• Child Welfare:Reuniting with Birth Relatives