Soul Searching: Q&A with The Locator's Troy Dunn

Q: Why can't we ignore unfinished business?

A: Trying to walk away from "unfinished business" is like starting a bath and then walking away from it. If you wait too long for closure, it will eventually spill over into other parts of your life. That's when it gets messy. Closure in one area of your life will often bring serenity to other aspects of your life. Do not wait another day to start the cleanup.

Q: How can someone start their own search for a lost loved one? What kinds of resources are available, and how can a person access them?

A: The very first step everyone should take when searching for a lost loved one is to make themselves more findable to that particular person. So Step 1 is to list yourself on a registry. I have built the fastest-growing free registry in the world, and it is at TroysList.org. Simply register yourself and whomever it is you want to be reunited with. This mutual consent database will match you up if/when the person you seek is also seeking you.

Another one of my favorite techniques for locating people is to use the data contained in death records, obituaries and genealogical records. These three massive data piles all contain wonderful leads on the relatives of the recently deceased. So when seeking a living person, try and start by looking for a relative of the person you seek, who is of age to logically be deceased. Find his/her obituary, and you will likely stumble onto a record of all living relatives, which may include your lost loved one (or at least someone who can lead you to your loved one).