NYC Homeless Man Finds Daughter Through Twitter: Lessons to Help You Find Family in Mexico

By now you may have heard about the New York City homeless man who found his daughter through Twitter. Daniel Morales is part of a program for the homeless who were given cell phones. He set up a Twitter account and has been tweeting about life on the street. Just today, he reported that he has been contacted by his daughter whom he hasn't seen in 11 years!



So how can his story help you to find someone in Mexico? Here are three important steps he took that helped his daughter find him.

• He let people know that he was looking for his daughter.
• He posted her name.
• He posted a photo of what she looked like when she was 16 years old.

One of the challenges with using social media is that often people do not give their full name. So if you are looking for Jose Martinez, there could be hundreds, if not thousands of people with that same name. That's like having a list of a thousand people and having to go through each one asking them if they are your Jose Martinez. If Daniel had only tweeted the name of his daughter, she probably would never have found him.

Another problem is that often there are no photos that you could look at to help you know if a particular person is the one you want to find. Daniel was smart because he put a photo online of his daughter, Sarah, so she could see it.

And finally, Daniel listed his cell phone number. You'll have to decide if you want the world to have that number since you could have that same cell phone number for the rest of your life. But by listing his cell phone number, Daniel made it easy for his daughter to connect with him.

The important lesson for you to take away is that it is possible to find someone through social media. Now this story takes place in the U.S., but you, too, may be able to find someone in Mexico through social media. However, you may discover that the family member you want to find in Mexico doesn't have a Twitter account or hasn't put up any personal information that will help you identify them as that special person you want to find.

Social media isn't a magic bullet for all of us to find family in Mexico, but you should check it out. In a week or so, you could be sharing with your friends (and maybe the world) that you have found a relative or friend. However, if you feel you need more help, especially for Mexico, you should get advice from a company that has the expertise to find family in Mexico.

Saludos,


  Richard

Richard Villasana
The Mexico Guru
Find Relatives In Mexico

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To Find Family in Mexico, Know the Person's Name

A little while ago, a young woman emailed me asking for help to find her birth father in Mexico. Sometimes, for whatever reason, family members aren't too helpful when someone wants to find a birth parent. These people often come to us for help to ensure that they have good quality information such as the correct spelling of names of the relative they want to find.

In this young girl's case, she provided us with what appeared at first glance to be a complete name for her birth father. One of the last names was spelled "Tintos." We work with several databases that have the origins of Spanish names from Spain to Chile. Tintos did not appear anywhere.

This doesn't mean that it's not possible that Tintos is incorrect. But my experience has been that if a name doesn't show up in these databases of Spanish names, there's a good chance that the name is misspelled. We wrote back to the young girl and asked her to check her source to verify the spelling of this unique surname.

When we got her reply, she also made an interesting comment that I want to share with you. For privacy reasons, I'm changing the name a little, but she wrote that Juan was the first name and that Escarra was the middle name and that Tintos was the last name.

Here are a couple of important points. First when we got back her response, she had changed the order of the names. Originally, she had written us for help to find Juan Tintos Escarra. Now she wrote that she wanted help to find Juan Escarra Tintos. She also thought Escarra was a middle name.

As I've written in past blogs, very few Mexicans have middle names. Many Mexicans, especially women, have two or more first names such as Maria del Carmen or Juan Carlos. Some may choose not to use their first names so Maria Guadalupe may be known to her friends as just Guadalupe or even Lupe. On the other hand, I have a good friend named Juan Carlos who always goes by both names.

Escarra is not a first name. It's a last name also called a surname or apellido in Spanish. If the name order that the young girl wrote in her last email is correct, Escarra is the last name (apellido) of the father of her birth father and Tintos is the last name (surname) of his mother.

It's very important when you are looking for family in Mexico that you know the person's complete name and the correct order of the surnames. It makes a huge difference if you are doing Mexico genealogy or trying to find a relative whether you are looking for a person with the surnames Escarra Tintos compared to Tintos Escarra. If you get the order incorrect (and this happens more often than you may imagine), you could spend years searching a family tree that has nothing to do with the person you want to find.

If you are unsure of your information, have an expert check it. We can usually spot issues in seconds, save you years of wasted time, and put you on the right path so you can find family in Mexico.

Saludos,


Richard Villasana

Richard Villasana
The Mexico Guru
Find Relatives In Mexico

Want to have revealing information to find family in Mexico come directly to your Inbox? Subscribe now at Find Relatives In Mexico.

PS. Be sure to leave your comments. The more you share with us, the better we can help you find family in Mexico.

Want to find family in Mexico? Don't exclude potential relatives

A client had asked me to locate a few relatives for their Mexico genealogy search. The last name was Hernandez Garcia. After I send the client the results, they asked why I would include listings of people with the last names Hernandez Garcia. The client felt they had provided all the names of the immediate family members so there was no reason to identify anyone else with the same last names.

In his book, "Finding Your History Roots", Dr. George Ryskamp, a family genealogy expert, explains that one of the key principals to locating someone is to work on family groups. When looking for someone in Mexico or doing a Mexico genealogy search, you also want to identify those people who have the greatest probability of being a relative of the person you want to find. You have no way of knowing if such an individual who could be a second cousin or distant relative has the information you want unless you add them to your list and contact them.

Anyone who is in the same city and has the same last names is a probable relative. Excluding someone from your search simply because you feel you have the entire list assumes your list is complete. Most of us have heard the problem with assumptions. Even if the person is in a neighboring city, if they had the same last names, I would definitely include them in my search to find someone in Mexico.

When you are trying to find family in Mexico, be sure to include anyone who has the same last names as the person you want to find. This individual is a quality candidate and a potential relative and should definitely be part of your search. Don't overlook any possible leads. That could be the person holding the key to your Mexico genealogy search.

Saludos,


Richard Villasana

Richard Villasana
The Mexico Guru
Find Relatives In Mexico

Want to have revealing information to find family in Mexico come directly to your Inbox? Subscribe now at Find Relatives In Mexico.

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#2 Know the Mexican states to find family in Mexico

From the numerous emails I receive, it's apparent there are general misunderstandings about the Mexican states, the capitals and what makes a proper address. It's important to know about the states if you want to find people in Mexico.

Most capital cities have the same name as the state. For instance, the capital of the state of Puebla is Puebla. This is properly written as Puebla, Puebla. (There are state abbreviations, but I'll save that for another time.)

So what does it mean if you have an address with Puebla, Mexico? That's a good question. An educated guess is the address is/should be Puebla, Puebla Mexico. But when it comes to finding someone in Mexico and especially if you are going to pay for specialized services or resources, you really want to be certain what the proper address is before you start spending your money.

If possible, ask the person who gave you the address to verify the information. Maybe they left out a vital piece of information such as giving you both the city and state name. In some cases, the person may not know there is a difference and was simply passing on the address as they received it.

This may appear to be a minor issue, but it's not. I just received an email asking for help. The city and state the person gave me is Puebla, Edo. de Mexico. There is no city named Puebla in Edo. de Mexico so it's very likely the correct city and state is Puebla, Puebla. If this person hadn't asked for expert advice, he may have continued searching for months thinking Puebla, Edo. de Mexico was a good address. It can be the small things that stop you from finding a person in Mexico.

If at all possible, you have to verify your information is correct. This is one of the reasons why finding family in Mexico, a mother, birth father may require the services of experts who know the ins and outs of addresses and so much more.

Good luck on your search.

Saludos,


Richard Villasana

Richard Villasana
The Mexico Guru
Find Relatives In Mexico

Want to have revealing information to find family in Mexico come directly to your Inbox? Subscribe now at Find Relatives In Mexico.

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