Website of the UK government

Missing person resources

National Missing Persons Helpline is a UK charity dedicated to helping missing people and supporting their families. Support includes:

The Salvation Army Family Tracing Services is a service aimed to restore or to sustain family relationships by tracing relatives with whom contact has been lost. They can be contacted by calling, 0845 634 4747.

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The UK Police National Missing Persons Bureau (PNMPB) provides a central location for the exchange of information connected with the search for missing persons both nationally and internationally.  The main function of the PNMPB is to:

• cross match missing persons with unidentified persons
• retain information on long term missing persons in the UK and UK citizens missing abroad
• manage the missing kids website in the UK
• support UK police forces regarding missing persons
• answer general enquiries from the public and press on missing persons
  

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• Missing Kids website (opens new window) Opens new window

Runaway Helpline, 0808 800 70 70, is a confidential helpline dedicated to children and young people under the age of 18 who have run away from home or care, or who have been forced to leave home. The helpline offers advice and information to support and enable you to make a decision about what you want to do next.

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There are many websites devoted to tracing missing persons, some covering particular localities and specialist areas. Probably the best approach is to go through a portal site such as Cyndi’s List, which provides links to a large number of other sites concerned with locating missing people.

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Other useful websites include Missing You, which offers a “post and read” message facility and look4them; this website provides a joined-up service of nine UK organisations all involved with tracing missing persons.

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It’s also a good idea to make the most of the local press. Put up notices in your local newspaper and check back through old issues – all newspapers will have an archive you can access.

Check electoral registers

If you have an address on the last location of your missing relative, you can try searching the relevant electoral registers. They may help you to establish how long a person lived at that particular address.

The disappearance of a family member from the registers often means that they have moved home, married or died. A full set of Electoral Registers for the UK since 1947 is held by the British Library, who also have an incomplete collection for earlier years.

You can also contact the Family Records Centre who provide access to records and advice.

• Find your local council
• Family records website Opens new window

Search the birth, marriage and death indexes

Try searching the General Register Office's (GRO) indexes. The indexes can be seen free of charge at the Family Records Centre but many county record offices and local libraries also hold sets on microfiche. Copies of birth, marriage and death certificates can be ordered at the Family Records Centre, or online. Birth, marriage and death certificates should have addresses that you can check in the relevant electoral registers.

If you suspect that the person you are looking for may have died, it is also worth trying the indexes to wills kept at the Principal Probate Registry Search Room, London. Even if you have not been successful in finding an entry in the death indexes it may be worth checking the will indexes as the missing person may have died abroad on holiday or business, or while on duty with the armed services. The Family Records Centre holds a set of will indexes from 1858 -1943.

It is also a good idea to check for a possible change of name. Nowadays most changes of name are done by deed poll, using a solicitor, and no centralised records are kept unless the change of name was enrolled in the Supreme Court. In recent years only small proportions (less than 5 per cent) of changes of name by deed poll have been enrolled.

Information about changes of name enrolled within the last five years can be obtained by writing to the Royal Courts of Justice in London. Enrolled changes of name over five years old are held by The National Archives at Kew.

• Find your local council
• Family records website Opens new window
• National Archives Opens new window

Using a tracing service

There are many tracing services available, particularly on the internet. Some websites offer to carry out research for a fee and care needs to be taken to establish that the service being offered is run by persons experienced in the area of research in which you are interested.

More useful links

• Crime justice and the law