Finding Living Relatives, Using Traditional AND Computer Based Genealogical
Research
By John W.
Konvalinka
Special Chat!
Genealogical Lecturer,
John W. Konvalinka, will be
a special guest in our chat room on Wednesday, March 6 from 9pm-11pm
Eastern Standard Time to discuss finding people, both on- and offline. Learn More About the Chat!
There are many reasons why families lose touch: issues of divorce,
remarriage, adoption; disagreements, or just “drifting apart” as family members
move/relocate away from each other. There are also many reasons why family
members may want to be back in touch with their near relatives.
We have found many successful ways of identifying, finding and making contact
with living relatives, using traditional genealogical resources and methods
leveraged by some new tools and techniques made possible through on-line
computer systems and the Internet. (In our experience, the Internet alone
usually cannot do the whole job; but it can be very helpful in making
traditional methods more productive, including helping to locate source
documents, “missing” relatives and other researchers.)
In this virtual lecture we will look at some of the new tools available on the Internet
and, through case studies, demonstrate how they have been used successfully in
conjunction with traditional research methods to help in identifying and
locating “lost” family members.
Three Possible Situations:
We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know
We are unaware of the existence of people who are our close relatives.
We Know Who; We Don’t Know If
We know of people who are out there (with our surname, perhaps.) We might even
know how to contact them. What we DON’T know is if they are related to us.
We Know That; We Don’t Know How
We know that we have close relatives out there. We do not know how to locate
or make contact with them.
Internet 'Locating' Tools: A Selection of 'Live
Leveraged Links'
Sites for Finding Specific Information Phone and Address Listings - A large
compilation of many (but not ALL) phone directories on The Internet. Some are
reverse-searchable. Limited to LISTED phone numbers. (An estimated 35% of US
phone numbers are unlisted/unpublished.)
If that doesn't work - consider paid or partially paid services: KnowX.com - a large collection of property
and other public records on the Internet. Ameridex Information Systems - a "database over
260 million names, 225 million with date of birth compiled from public
...sources" Also SSDI and database of 5 million military personnel. Requires $50
deposit and statement of intended use.
Some Favorite Search Engines
GenPageFinder -
“one-search access to millions of genealogical records across the Internet.” GenDoor - A new genealogy search engine;
seems fast and complete.
Meta Search Engines (Provide links, will do searches across many search
engines simultaneously) Search Engine Guide - Lists almost 4,000
search engines in a searchable subject index. FindSpot - Do advanced searches on many
popular search engines
Libraries and Related Sources Books we Own - “a list of
resources owned/accessed by individuals who are willing to look up genealogical
information and mail it to others who request it.” Family Tree Maker Lookups
- Volunteers who will do lookups on Family Tree Maker’s collection of CD’s The Genealogical Library Master Catalog
- “will
help you locate over 300,000 family histories, local histories and genealogical
sources at libraries and archives across the country.” [on 3 CD’s which must be
purchased.]
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