Hello I am a new subscriber to this list..... My name is Jan and I live in Brisbane Australia.. The reason for joining the Washington List is that I am trying to find a living relative......and I am hoping someone on the list may be able to point me in the right direction. My Relative... left Australia in 1958 and we were told went to Washington...........for several years he kept in contact with the Family..........then the Family here in Aus...... moved house and Gran passed away and the contact just dropped off.... I have through the "white pages on line" found a phone number in "East Wenatchee" for someone with the same name.........BUT no street address.... the site gives further information on the persons listed.......such as approx age...........which is correct for my reli... it also says for a FEE a birthdate of this person can be supplied........this would confirm but wonder how this information can be connected to the phone number... I would prefer to write to the person concerned rather than ring...........after all these years they may not wish to make contact with the family and with a letter ... they can just bin it if they don't want to make contact.....This would be disappointing but understandable.. QUESTION 1. has anyone used the "More information Site " connected to the White pages site...and how often are the "White pages "updated........? 2. If so is it a reliable site........ if you pay for the search do you get the information they say they have.?? and is the payment secure....?? 3. Is there some other way to get the street address for this Person...? 4. If I wrote to My Reli.... Care of the East Wenatchee Post Office.... do you think the letter would be delivered...? Any Help would be appreciated...... If my Reli wants to make contact....I dont want to loose too much more time.......They are not getting any younger... Cheers Jan In Sunny Brisbane...

----- Original Message ----- From: "Doug & Jan Stapleton (by way of Cyndi Howells <cyndihow@oz.net>)" <stapleton@iprimus.com.au> > I am trying to find a living relative...... > left Australia in 1958 to Washington > I have found a phone number in "East > Wenatchee" for someone with the same > name.........BUT no street address.... > it also says for a FEE a birthdate of this person can be > supplied........this would confirm but wonder how this > information can be connected to the phone number... > QUESTION > > 1. has anyone used the "More information Site " connected to the White > pages site...and how often are the "White pages "updated........? > I don't know which site is advertising, but chances are they have no more information than you have available. They sometimes send you a listing of everyone with that name in the US, something you can get online anyway. Much of the time all they have is the listed phone numbers CD Rom. If it is an unlisted number...they don't have it either. As far as a Date of Birth...I very much doubt it. If you want to try for a DOB, go to http://anybirthday.com and plug in their name and zipcode. I have found a good number of people I know being listed. But, far more aren't. If you used the various online methods of getting the address via phone lists...i.e. Switchboard.Com and the phone number is there but not the address; that is the way the consumer has it in the phone book. > 2. If so is it a reliable site........ if you pay for the search do you get the information they say they have.?? and is the payment secure....?? See Above. > 3. Is there some other way to get the street address for this Person...? There are other local online websites such as county recorders office and county treasurer (property taxes), but Chelan County, WA does not have one. Also most are address search vs name search. > > 4. If I wrote to My Reli.... Care of the East Wenatchee Post Office.... > do you think the letter would be delivered...? > It depends on the Post Office in most cases. Some, especially in the smaller towns, will process and forward, but Wenatchee...I doubt it. > I would prefer to write to the person rather than > ring...after all these years they may not wish to make > contact with the family and with a letter ... they can just > bin it if they don't want to make contact.....This would > be disappointing but understandable Ok, you send them a letter and you hear nothing, does that mean they threw the letter away, or never got it. Does it mean they're not interested in family, or don't know who you are...or never got it. Call them, talk to them. If they're not interested, they'll tell you and you'll know. Or if phone costs are a problem, have someone call them locally or within Washington, let the person tell them about you, that you're interested in contact and here is your email address, address, and phone number. Did you try to find an email address for this person? I am a Criminal Investigator US Gov't and have used Internet for finding people; and for genealogy finding lost cousins. But, once you have an address, a phone number, or email address...give up the search and contact them directly. Snail mail is soooo unreliable and with so many unknowns...such as did they get the mail? Ron Bestrom