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I only have their first names, maiden names, and know that they were born in Victoria, Australia.

What is a way to locate these relatives?

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  • 4
    Do you know their whereabouts when you knew them? You may be able to obtain details from a school close by. Do you know their parents names> Perhaps use the phone book.
    – Ash
    Dec 3, 2012 at 3:36
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    I do not know where they were, other than a suburb of Melbourne. I think one of the parents to one cousin may have been a chemist.
    – Charles
    Dec 3, 2012 at 3:38
  • How many cousins? Have you tried Facebook?
    – Rusty Erpenbeck
    Dec 3, 2012 at 4:38
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    @Fortiter I agree that it possibly a duplicate but the range of answers varies quite a bit.
    – Site Designs
    Dec 3, 2012 at 11:20
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    @EzriJ.Rediker, IMO publishing names of and other info about living people is unacceptable.
    – user104
    Dec 8, 2012 at 10:14

2 Answers 2

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For Australia you should view the current Commonwealth electoral roll this would only be effective if your female relatives have not married and still retain the same maiden name.

If they do have different married names you may be able to visit the Family history center at the State Library of Victoria and view past electoral rolls on microfiche to find the last result with original madien names to narrow down when married and then view past newspaper announcements from that period.

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Your search is greatly complicated by the fact they are female, so may have changed their surname.

It's probably still worth searching the phone books: Telstra White Pages and Person Lookup AU. They may be unmarried, or may not have changed their name (although that is less likely for their generation).

The Victoria BMD registry does not have any recent data available to the public, their (paid) family history search only goes up to 1911 for births, 1942 for marriages, 1985 for deaths. It might be worthwhile checking the deaths on there, in case they died young.

If they died more recently, maybe there is an obituary at sites like obits.com.au or The Melbourne Age Obituaries.

I've had good success searching Google for the names of cousins, where the name is very unusual. They may have mentioned their maiden name, for example in a Facebook post. Try the name in quotes "Joe Soap" and also reversed "Soap, Joe" (the latter format is how they might appear on lists, such as a list of marathon race entrants).

Realistically though that's more useful for your generation, than your mothers generation. But I did find one 80+ year old relative mentioned in an online gardening club magazine (in Dutch), and others in golf club newsletters, so it's worth a try. Also look for them on Facebook - they may not be very active but their children may mention them.

Finally, they may have left Australia. You could look in the UK Phone Book or any other country where you think your family may have connections.

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  • Some are male. I will try your approach with a few a each sex. I am not too confident though, as previous attempts at obvious solutions have resulted in too many choices. The names are like David Brown, John Black etc.
    – Charles
    Dec 3, 2012 at 5:54
  • Yes, common names don't really work. On somewhere like Facebook, you may get clues if they have "friends" which happen to be the name of their brother, or sister, but that's a long shot.
    – Rob Hoare
    Dec 3, 2012 at 6:27

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