Book helps you find lost family, friends

SHAKING YOUR FAMILY TREE

"Friends drift apart. Families quarrel and separate. Babies are adopted. Years fly by, then loved ones want to find each other."

--- KATHLEEN W. HINCKLEY, author

By MYRA VANDERPOOL GORMLEY

Los Angeles Times Syndicate

When the holiday seasons of November and December roll around each year, most of us think about our families and friends and about those with whom we've lost contact. Whatever happened to your best friend in high school, your Army pal, old family friends, a favorite teacher, beloved pastor and those delightful next-door neighbors from the "old neighborhood"?

Regardless of your reasons for wanting to find someone, thanks to the information age, it probably can be done. However, locating a living person can be a lot like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack, particularly if they have a common name, or in the case of women, have married or remarried and changed their surname.

In Kathleen W. Hinckley's new book, "Locating Lost Family Members & Friends: Modern genealogical research techniques for locating the people of your past and present," she provides an outstanding guide to accessing and utilizing such sources as:

- Telephone and city directories.

- Birth and death certificates.

- Marriage and divorce records.

- Social Security Administration records.

- Licenses and registrations.

- Military records.

- Real estate transactions.

- High school and college records.

- Census records.

- Immigration and naturalization records.

Chapters include instruction for conducting research on the Internet and how to overcome common 20th century research obstacles, such as privacy acts and record destruction. Chapters encompass advice on finding information in church records, voter registration files and in court records --- even providing tips on locating information about prisoner records.

"By organizing your search, your efforts will be more focused and successful," Hinckley says. Her book includes a research work sheet to use to keep your research on track and organized. An appendix on Internet sites with the URLs will keep you clicking away as you discover the vast quantity or resources available online.

Everyone knows how to use telephone directories --- or so we think. However, the old days of when there was one official telephone book published by the local telephone company are gone. Today, we have the official directory plus unofficial directories created by commercial firms (using mailing lists and public records). They are published on paper, CD-ROM, microfiche and the Internet. Do you know the difference between a non-listed and a non-published telephone number? You will after you read the chapter on "The Telephone Directory," which includes excellent telephone directory research tips.

Hinckley is a Certified Genealogical Record Specialist (CGRS) who owns and operates her own research business and has located hundreds of living people for attorneys, heir searchers and adoptees. She currently is the executive secretary of the Association of Professional Genealogists (www.apgen.org/) and a senior member of the Professional Private Investigators Association of Colorado.

"Locating Lost Family Members & Friends," published by Betterway Books, of Cincinnati, Ohio (800-289-0963) is available in bookstores and online. It also can be ordered from Hinckley's Family Detective Home Page, www.familydetective.com/order.html, for $22 postpaid. This book will make a valuable addition to your personal library whether you are a neophyte detective in search of living people, a family historian or a professional genealogist.

Copyright 1999
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.