| Although long lost relatives turn up in soap operas | | | | 'find' their relative; or perhaps hopefully trying to |
| with impressive regularity, this doesn't usually | | | | find the phone number of a distant relative who |
| happen in real life. Instead, you are left to think | | | | might know the last but one landline of the lost |
| 'what happened to...?' and long to find out. Years, | | | | relative. These weren't tempting scenarios unless |
| even decades go by and still that unresolved | | | | you were either very scholarly or very sociable. |
| question nags away at the back of your mind. | | | | But thankfully today, finding long lost relatives |
| They could be living around the corner or on the | | | | requires surprisingly little effort and expense. The |
| other side of the world - you simply don't know. | | | | Internet supports a handful of companies who will |
| Although genealogy has become a popular pursuit, | | | | help reunite family and friends. In the earlier days |
| with hordes of people keen to find out about their | | | | of the World Wide Web, people-finding search |
| ancestors, finding living relatives hasn't enjoyed a | | | | techniques were available, but not really that |
| similarly high profile. Perhaps this is because it can | | | | effective. Recent developments now allow some |
| be a more sensitive topic. In the case of lost | | | | companies to help you find relatives by using their |
| fathers and mothers, there may have been | | | | multi-source databases. Some of these allow |
| painful decisions made decades previously; lost | | | | instant access to Electoral Rolls and the better |
| brothers and sisters may have been separated; | | | | companies update these regularly. |
| lost aunts and uncles may have been the victims | | | | At this point it is tempting to see if there is a |
| of a now forgotten family feud. | | | | 'free' option - because so much on the Internet is |
| Other cases are more straightforward. | | | | free - but in the case of people searching you |
| Much-loved neighbours moved house and gradually | | | | really get what you pay for. |
| communication faltered and fell away; or perhaps | | | | The only other option left for you to consider is |
| a cousin married a foreigner and the distance | | | | what you will do when you have the name and |
| gradually became too much of an issue and | | | | address of your long lost relative? That must be |
| letters faltered - then stopped. Their relatives and | | | | an incredible and even daunting feeling, but at least |
| friends continued to say 'I must write to | | | | it is one that can now be arrived at swiftly and |
| so-and-so' but never found the time, and as time | | | | efficiently. |
| goes by it becomes harder. Suddenly, the relative | | | | If you have a long lost relation that you have |
| or friend is 'lost'. | | | | always thought about finding then go ahead and |
| Most people, at this point ten years ago, will have | | | | search online. They are probably thinking about |
| imagined themselves in a dusty library with an | | | | you too. |
| electoral roll in front of them, valiantly trying to | | | | |