How To Trace A Person
How to trace a person is some thing we can help with. This quick guide will show you how.
This article has been written by David Oates, I am the Head Researcher at Relative Connections, you can view my LinkedIn by clicking here. I am also the director of an adoption support agency which is regulated by Ofsted. My role in both companies is to help people to contact the people missing from their lives.
There are many ways to trace a person you have lost touch with, you can use a specialist people tracing service like ourselves, you can hire a private investigator or you can try and trace the person yourself. Here we’ll have a quick look at all three methods and see which one works best for you.
Using a professional service to trace a person
Furthermore as People Tracers we trace people for a wide variety of reasons, predominantly we work for people who are looking for long lost family members and old friends. We also locate debtors and ex-tenants. We also offer a general people finder service ideal if you are looking for someone who doesn’t fit easily into a category.
Here at Relative Connections, we specialise in tracing people, that’s all we do, we are not debt collectors, we don’t serve court papers and we don’t follow people around taking photos of them kissing their personal trainer. We trace people you have lost touch with. That means old school friends, biological parents, other family members, debtors, landowners etc.
CLICK HERE TO TRACE A PERSON TODAY
As a specialist people tracing company we are experts at what we do. We have access to people tracing systems that are not publicly available. We guarantee our search results to be 100% accurate and we can provide as much support as you need. You’ll be allocated your own researcher who will be happy to provide as much support and guidance you need. Especially in emotional situations, if you are looking for a birth parent for example. Likewise, if you are looking for someone and are not so emotionally attached, they’ll be professional and work effectively to get you the results you need.
Why You Should Use Relative Connections
We specialise in finding people for you with only small amounts of information and because of our amazing tracing systems we find 92% of people we search for.
We’ve reunited over 21,000 people in the last 14 years!
We have to be licensed to access such accurate and up to date data.
The main advantages of our service are
- The work is done for you. We order documents, research your person and present all our findings in a detailed report.
- The results are guaranteed – So we find your EXACT person.
- We support you throughout the whole process and help you make contact with your person too.
- Prices from just £548.
Using a Private Investigator
Next option for how to trace a person is to try a private investigator.
A private investigator can do many things, they are useful for people to know if you need to dig deep into someone’s life. They tend to do a lot of surveillance work so are very expensive but if you are prepared to pay and need answers they could be the perfect solution. We work to find someone’s address that is the primary information that you are paying us for. With a private investigator, you are paying for something else, they will tell you if someone is having an affair; they perform checks on employees and can come into your office if you have a thief.
The main advantages of a Private investigator are:
- They can uncover things other than an address.
- They can do surveillance work.
The main disadvantages are:
- The cost – they can be very expensive.
- Overkill – if you just want to trace someone then they will probably not be too good as you would be much better with a people tracer but if you do need photos or need to prove something they can be very good.
Do It Yourself People Tracing
Learning how to trace a person yourself is an uphill task, as there is lots you can do but also lots you can’t. We’re happy to talk you through the best ways to trace a person yourself but let’s just say from the off it’s not as easy as some people think regardless of what anyone tells you. That’s not to say you won’t be able to trace a person yourself but it can be costly and timely.
We know you are thinking that we’re trying to put you off so you will order our People Tracing service but we’re just trying to give you an honest assessment, if the challenge of being able to trace a person is as important to you as being back in touch with them, then you should definitely give it a go yourself.
If you are trying to do it on your own purely to save money, think again because your costs can be high and you might not make much progress anyway. As a quick example of this, on any online system, you choose to perform searches on you will be charged per search, we can do limitless searches as we are charged per month, thus you can waste lots of money trying to establish if you have the correct information.
Disadvantages Of Tracing A Person Yourself
There are a couple of reasons why it is difficult to trace a person yourself, we quickly discuss these and then we’ll give you some advice if you really want to try yourself.
The problems that a homemade super sleuth will come up against are…
- Lack of good information
- Cost per search on any online search resources
- No access to dates of birth
- No access to mobile phone numbers
These are the main things that if not enough to stop you tracing a person, might make things more difficult. Like we said though, if you are going to have fun looking for the person then it might be worth your while. Here at Relative Connections, we love tracing people. Tracing is a great way to spend a winters afternoon, searching old records is great fun and if you want to go down this road then please do but if it’s more important to just know where someone live then it might be better to use a professional company. You won’t be disappointed, if you’re considering ordering from us then read our success stories and see how others have benefited from our service.
Remember as professional researchers we can also access a higher, more accurate level of information as we are regulated and licensed to access it. This includes access to things like dates of birth which are an excellent way of confirming if you have found the correct person.
Ok so if you are still reading, we can presume that you want to trace the person yourself. No problem…
Top Ten Tips To Trace A Person
1. Write everything down, this could take a while so if you do it over three weekends then you need a reminder of where you got to the week before
2. Write down everything you remember about the person you are looking for, where did they work, when they were born etc.
3. Were they married, what were their family members called. Where did they live, where were they born etc. – All this will help you in your search.
4. Could they have married? If you are looking for a woman then search marriage records as they will be very useful.
5. If you know which town they live in and a 100% certain of their current name, try an electoral roll search, just remember it is edited.
6. 192 is a great way to get telephone numbers for people with the correct surname in the correct area. Give them a call they may know your person
7. Check death records, sad but could save you time and money
8. If you know which town the person lives in, visit the local council offices to access the unedited electoral roll. If you still can’t find them? Why not look for an easier to trace family member who can tell you where your person is?
9. Have you moved with the times? – Have you opened a free Facebook account? Over 1 BILLION people are on Facebook so it’s a great way to trace a person
10. Have fun and stay safe, keep the number withheld, don’t go meeting strangers and have fun. If you’re not getting anywhere and finding the search frustrating it might be better to try another strategy.
Bonus Tip
BONUS TIP – Create a listing on www.Missing-You.net – this website is a message board of people looking for people. It can really help you move forward with your search. It’s especially good if you are looking to trace a long lost family member or old friend.
Tracing people yourself can be a real buzz so if that’s what you are looking for then it is worth conducting your own enquires, if finding them is the most important thing then head over to our people finder page and we’ll be delighted to help.
More About Us
Relative Connections Ltd formed in 2008 as a specialist people tracing company. We locate people for a wide number of reasons for people throughout the UK. We work from an office in Leeds and if you wish you can see the key people who work here by visiting the meet the team page. If you would like to know more about us such as our address or our company number you can visit the contact us page of our website.
We hope you have got some value from this article, if you have any thoughts on how it can be improved then we would be pleased to hear from you with any feedback you may have. If you have enjoyed the article about tracing people then please share it on Twitter or like it on Facebook.
Thank you for reading our guide on How to Trace A Person