How can I find a long-lost relative living in England?

June 16, 2009 2:01 AM

Trying to track down my uncle, who lives somewhere in England.

My grandfather died this morning, and I have been asked to try and find my long-lost uncle to inform him. All I know is that on oldfriends.com he says he lives in London, but I have no more details. Online phonebook and electoral roll searches require a location, or for me to go through a lengthy process and pay money. What other routes can I follow?

I don't consider this a matter of life and death (he estranged himself from the family and swore never to come back to NZ, so I don't expect him to jump on a plane in any case), so I'm not willing to expend money or a great deal of legwork on finding him. I'm hoping there's a website I don't know of, or a phone number I can call in the UK that could help me.

posted by tracicle to human relations (12 comments total)

If he is in the phone book any London mefite will be able to look him up; I can, although I'm out of London till tomorrow night, but if you memail me his name I'll have a look on Thursday. Maybe someone else will step in before that. If he's not in the phone book, I dont know how much more you can do without paying for someone's time
posted by criticalbill at 2:14 AM on June 16

I've got a few hours to kill before heading off to University; post or MeMail his last name and I'll see what I can do.

FYI, The Electoral Roll is free except for current year.
posted by Mutant at 2:26 AM on June 16

Pipl.com searches the "deep web" and has a look across other social networking sites etc, which may give you a few more clues.
posted by slightlybewildered at 3:01 AM on June 16 [1 favorite has favorites]

That's a great site, slightlybewildered. No more luck than I already had though.
posted by tracicle at 3:06 AM on June 16

BT has an online phonebook lookup, which as far as I know is free to use, though it might not work from outside the UK.
posted by altolinguistic at 3:56 AM on June 16

here is a fixed link to BT
posted by altolinguistic at 3:57 AM on June 16

"London" appears to be a precise enough location for the BT phonebook...
posted by altolinguistic at 4:25 AM on June 16

Your long lost uncle is definitely still alive? If you suspect he might not be then a search of the register of marriages, births and deaths might be worthwhile.
posted by rongorongo at 4:42 AM on June 16

You could put an announcement of the death in The Times (or paper he's more likely to read), with a note requesting he get in touch. That does require him (or his friends) to be the sort who scan the obituary pages.
posted by Coobeastie at 7:17 AM on June 16

The Missing People Foundation in the UK has a family tracing service for cases where " a person may not be at risk, but where there has been a breakdown in family relationships and you are no longer able to contact the missing person". It seems like it is set up for this kind of scenario.
posted by tallus at 10:33 AM on June 16

The General Register Office has a service called TraceLine that I used to track a missing friend. There is a fee of 30 pounds though so might not be worth it to you. The email contact I have is: [e-mail] and postal address: P.O. Box 106, Southport, PR8 2WA. Phone: [phone] and Fax: [phone]. (I offer all this because I couldn't find a web presence in a quick search).

You give them as much info as you have, tell them why you are looking and they track the person down. Then they will offer to forward a letter for an additional 10 pounds if the person is willing to be contacted.
posted by agatha_magatha at 11:14 AM on June 16

I'll help if I can (am in the UK). mefimail me
posted by nunoidia at 12:08 AM on June 17