The Locator: A Step-By-Step Guide To Finding Lost Family, Friends, And Loved Ones--Anywhere, Any Time [Paperback]

Troy Dunn (Author), International Locator Inc. Staff (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2000

As seen on national television, Troy Dunn and the International Locator, Inc./BigHugs.com now make available for the first time all of their secrets for finding lost friends, family, and loved ones--anywhere, anytime.

If you are one of the nine out of ten people looking for someone in your past, you need the information in this book:

How to search successfully on the Internet
How to obtain essential government records
How to gather all-important adoption records
How to access millions of public records FREE
How to make effective phone calls
How to write letters that get a positive response
How to decide where to look, when, and why
How to be sure that your reunion will be as rewarding as it can be

The Locator not only provides all the above information, but also includes sample documents that indicate where crucial information might be "hidden in plain sight"; sample letters to follow when making those all-important contacts; a complete listing, including addresses and telephone numbers, of all essential agencies throughout the world; information on how to get help from the International Locator itself.


As Dunn has said, if you know the name of the person you're looking for, he's not lost, he's just misplaced. If this is the case, THE LOCATOR will help you find the one you've misplaced as quickly as possible. But even if you don't know the name of your lost loved one--if you're an adoptee or the birth parent of one--THE LOCATOR will show you how to work within the system, cut through the red tape, and put together all the clues you'll need to find the person you've lost.

Troy Dunn walks you through the process, from the day of decision until the final phone call, explaining what questions to ask yourself and others; how to keep records; what agencies, organizations, and government offices to contact; and how to word telephone queries and letters to receive the best results. Extensive appendixes provide the names, addresses, and phone numbers of all the agencies you will need to contact, throughout the United States and around the world. And, most important of all, Dunn includes a wealth of actual documents, indicating how to read the disparate information they provide, and put it all together until the puzzle is completely solved. -->

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Troy Dunn is founder and president of International Locator, Inc./BigHugs.com in Cape Coral, Florida, the largest licensed investigation agency in the United States specializing in missing persons. He will be familiar to television viewers from his many appearances on such programs as "Sally Jessy Raphael" and "Unsolved Mysteries." Since its founding a decade ago, International Locator, Inc., has reunited thousands of people in all fifty states and many other countries.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Getting Your Feet Wet

Here is what you need to do in order to search successfully:

Be persistent.

Be patient.

Be creative.

Turn over every stone--no piece of information is too small; nothing is insignificant.

Keep these four things in mind at all times. You have to view your search as a process of elimination. When you acquire an important document only to discover that it contains no new information, you are still one step closer to your reunion: You've eliminated one more possibility and narrowed your search effectively. If you've tracked your subject down, located his or her phone number, and made that final call--only to discover that the name is the same but the person is someone else entirely--you're still a step closer: That's another lead checked off, another avenue exhausted. You have to keep at it and stay positive. With persistence, patience, creativity, and attention to detail, you'll eventually find your person. Trust us, we've done it thousands of times.

Start with a Name

There are two parts to every search. The first part is getting the name of the person you are looking for; the second part is actually looking for (and locating) the person. If you are trying to find a long-lost relative, an old friend, or anyone you have previously known and since lost contact with, you probably already have his or her current or previous name. This means that you've won half the battle before you've even begun!

If you are adopted, you probably do not know the name or names of your birth parents, and your search will have to start at the very beginning. With that difference in mind, this first chapter provides two overviews: first, an overview of the basic approach when looking for someone whose name you already know; second, an overview of the basic approach when looking for an adoptee or birth parents.

Throughout the book, and throughout your entire search, keep these words in mind: The easiest way to move forward in locating people is to go backward in time, tracing them from their beginnings. This is the first principle of locating. As you will see, the fastest way to find people is generally to go back to the family, friends, and places they knew earlier in their life. Of course, it isn't always as easy as it sounds to track down this kind of information, but The Locator will help you go backward in time in both the simple cases and the hard cases.

Searches: The General Approach

As mentioned above, some parts of The Locator are written from the perspective of the adoptee or birth parent, since those are the worst-case scenarios, where little or no information is available. If you are embarking on a nonadoptive search, you'll have to pick and choose which information applies to your case and which doesn't. As you read this book, however, you'll find that almost all the techniques are the same. We strongly suggest that you read everything in the book, because you can find ideas and techniques from all sorts of searches that will apply to your own unique situation.

Nonadoptive searches usually involve one or more of the following: old friends and relatives, lost loves, deadbeat dads, missing children, and people who are or were in the military. Brief introductions to each situation's specific techniques are covered in chapters four through seven, but the general techniques from all of those chapters apply to your case as well, no matter who you are or whom you're looking for.

It will be hard for you to imagine just how much of a head start you have over adoptees and birth parents, who usually don't even know the names of the people they're looking for. However, there are some cases where you may be looking for an old friend, a family member, or a person important to you, whose name you don't know. Maybe your mother never told you your father's name. Maybe you're working on a family tree and you know you have a second cousin but can't find any references to her in your family's albums or files. Maybe you want to find a doctor or fireman who helped you once but never knew who the person was. There are thousands of possible scenarios where you may not know the person's name; in those cases, you'll want to follow some of the adoption techniques as well.

We also suggest that you look over the "useful terminology" section on page 4. Most of the specialized language refers to adoptions, but some of it will explain things you'll need to know about in a nonadoptive search too. You should at least remember that there's a glossary there so you can refer to it later on if you come across a term you don't understand.

Adoptive Searches: The General Approach

Every search is different. Right now you are in a unique situation, looking for a unique person. However, it is also true that every search is similar to all the searches that have gone before it, and there is much to learn from the experiences of other people. Learning from their achievements is what this book is all about.

There are numerous ways to approach any given search, but in all cases, the first step is to find the birth name of the adoptee and the full names (or partial names if the full names are unavailable) of the birth parents. Later on, we'll go over many of the ways you can track down these names and tell you what to do after you know the names.

But for now, instead of moving forward to tell you what steps you'll be taking in the future, let's move backward to the adoption itself. It's important that you have a real-world framework for locating your child or birth parent, to give a sense of order to something that most people see as a random series of events. We can't stress this enough: You're not alone in your search; many others have made the same journey, and, with persistence, they have succeeded. You will too.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Main Street Books (February 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385494521
• ISBN-13: 978-0385494526
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 9.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,173,061 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars terrible book, April 12, 2011

By 

a consumer (PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Locator: A Step-By-Step Guide To Finding Lost Family, Friends, And Loved Ones--Anywhere, Any Time (Paperback)

This book is next to useless, unless you have done absolutely nothing in your search. Most of the info in it can be easily found by any beginner by searching the 'net. If you see it and are impressed, it means you have not done serious searching yet.

I believe this is a re-vamp of an older version which credited Troy Dunn and Virgil Klunder which sold for the outrageous price of several hundred dollars... back around the time he had the pay per minute "talk to a search expert" phone banks, and charged $1500 per search. Troy is now on TV in an emotionally manipulative reunion program.

Whatever the price is for this book, save yourself the money, get online and learn to search yourself and with a support group. You'll learn more and have more money in the long run.

5.0 out of 5 stars The Locator, October 10, 2011

By 

Anissa - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Locator: A Step-By-Step Guide To Finding Lost Family, Friends, And Loved Ones--Anywhere, Any Time (Paperback)

Although I haven't finished the entire book yet, I think it'll be very helpful in locating the person I am searching for. The techniques are very good ideas and tell you everything from how to get started down to making contact and actually meeting for the first time. It was delivered to me practically the next day!

5.0 out of 5 stars the locator, May 9, 2011

By 

sadiegirl - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Locator: A Step-By-Step Guide To Finding Lost Family, Friends, And Loved Ones--Anywhere, Any Time (Paperback)

The Locator is an excellent source/guide for adoptees searching for birthparents. The locator provides examples of letters to be written to obtain information you might not otherwise get if you mention adoption. They even offer their services for searching if you hit roadblocks. Also The Locator suggests websites to try. I ordered a used copy and it was in excellent contition. If the need arises again I will order from Amazom.com.