Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Searching for a Person in Mexico Can Cost You

One of the best ways to get help with your Mexico family genealogy is to ask a question. Jeanette from Alabama asks:
"i am searching for a person in Mexico and i search every were [sic] and places i search is charging [sic] to find... this person or his family." 
Jeanette provided several complete names of people, many with the surname Lucio. One key to asking for help is to always provide the city and state in Mexico where you believe these people are or were living. 

Another key to successful Mexico genealogy is when you list more than one person, always explain who these people are relative to the person you want to find. In this case, we could assume that all of the names are of people related to each other, and we'd probably be right. 

But it's always best to give as many details as possible including the relationship between the names you provide. You want your Mexico genealogy to come alive not just for yourself but also those who are working with you.

Jeanette commented that every place she looks for help wants to charge her. Free resources such as the Internet have limited capabilities to help you find someone in Mexico. In Jeanette's case, she wants to find people living in Mexico today rather than finding her ancestors. Information about most people living in Mexico is either not on the Internet or the information is so common you get too many results. For instance, let's say you want to find Juan Martinez and go to Facebook. You might find a thousand people with the same name and your particular Juan Martinez may not be one of them.

When the Internet fails, the other option is a company that offers a professional service because they have access to information that the public doesn't. So why is there a cost? This is like being sick. You can go online and find lots of advice, and a lot of it's good advice. But if you're really sick, no matter how much advice you find for free, you may have to go see and pay a doctor to get better. 

If you are like Jeanette and have been online and haven't yet found the people, then you now need professional help to find them. BUT before you go spending your money, be sure the company handles Mexico and not just U.S. Companies such as Intelius and LexisNexis only have information for people in the U.S., not Mexico. You want a company that will be able to help you find relatives in Mexico so you'll be writing about having fun with your Mexican relatives instead of searching for them next year.

Saludos,

Richard Villasana
Richard Villasana, The Mexico Guru
Find Relatives In Mexico

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