There are many reasons why you may not know where a relative is living. Perhaps you never met your biological father (or mother) and you feel the time has come to do so. There may have been a rift in the family a long time ago, and you want to know more about your cousins. You could have been very close to a relative at one time, but life moved you away from each other. It happens all of the time. If you know where to go online, you can find them again. Sometimes, they turn up very quickly.

For starters, the search engines like MSN Live Search and Google can be very helpful. Type in the name and see what comes up. With common names, you may get a lot of people that are not matches. If you have a good idea of where they may be living, try to add that location to your search. Make sure you have the right spelling of names, and use as many searches as you can. Each will give you something a little different in the way of results.

There are ways you can do what private investigators can do, but it is free of charge for you. There are some great web sites that you can try on your own, and each may give you what you want. Yahoo People Search is just one of these great sites. Type in the name to see if you can get a phone number, address, or email address. If you have an old phone number, see if you can find a reverse search through them.

The white pages can also be very helpful. These cover the entire US, so you can find more people who live further away. Type in the name to see if you can find anything. When you do get a hit, you may not be sure of having the right person, but you also get an address at times. That can narrow things down for you. Use that old number you have to use their free reverse search as well.

If you feel that you are getting nowhere, don't give in just yet. You can take an old phone number to a site that looks up and tells you who owns a phone number. They may not have come up through the white pages because the number is unlisted or a mobile number, but that will not be a problem with this site.