best place o look for nans lost relatives

mirrorimage0

hi all

i was wondering where the best place was to start looking for lost relatives.

my nan lost touch with her dad when she was little due to her mum and him spliting up. she has always wondered what happened to him so thought i would try to find out.

we have his name but not sure if they were ever married, am waiting for er to find her birth certificate.

has anyone on here tracked relatives and how did they go about doing.

my nan is now 86 so we know her dad would of passed away but wondered about fining any reltives or half siblings.

thankyou in advance

3v3

Census online may be a good start once you have her birth certificate.

Mojisola

https://www.rootschat.com is a free site with a lot of helpful people who will advise and do some look-ups for you.

TonyMMM

I have traced families in circumstances like this (in my work as a genealogist). It is difficult, much more so than tracing a family backwards, but not impossible. You will need to be prepared to lay out some cost on birth/marriage/death certificates.... many of which may turn out to be the wrong family. You will need to build a complete family tree, starting with your nan's grandparents (start with the 1911 census) looking at her father's brothers and sisters and working out if they married and had children, and with luck you may find a living relative who knows about her father. Other things to look at are street directories & electoral rolls.

If you are really lucky, you may find someone has already researched the family and posted details on Ancestry - I'd start there.

You also need to be aware of the sensitivities involved, uncovering past family secrets can be upsetting for some and family you do find may not be interested. Many genealogists won't do work like this for that reason alone. If you want to employ professional help, you should look for someone who does probate research (heir hunting).

Good Luck

barbarawright

Assuming it's living relatives you're looking for, rather than family history, this leaflet from the British Library has some useful tips

http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelprestype/offpubs/electreg/traceliv/tracinglivingpeople.pdf

brightonman123

as above, maybe facebook too? be careful what personal info you share mind..

mirrorimage0

thanks for the replys, some great starting points here.

tonymm i understand what your saying about uncovering family secrets etc but i really dont think my nan is interested in actually meeting anyone sh never has been she just wants to know whatever happened to her dad. she is a very private person herself.

harrys_nan

Try Genes Reunited as well

patchwork_cat

www.ancestry.co.uk, 192.com , is possible. It depends if he had an unusual name etc. It may be hard if he moved away or had a common name.

pinetree

Hi freeBMD are good, hope this helps.

meritaten

this is a long shot - but it worked for me as my nan had an uncommon name. we knew she was informally adopted in 1906 and where she was born - so I just wrote to everyone in the phone book (in that area) , with that surname, asking them if they knew (her mums name) as the name had come up in my family tree. I wrote about 12 letters and got one reply! and soon found out why - this person knew that I must be referring to the illegitimate baby his aunt had, and that his aunt had married later, and even supplied her husbands name and all of her children! they also asked that I didnt enquire further as her children didnt know about my nan. I have complied with this as the guy gave me the info I wanted and I had no wish to upset anyone.

edit - the reason there was only one reply was that the person who answered me was elected spokesperson by 4 others I had written to! I assume the others either didnt know anything or wouldnt tell me if they did!