#7 I want to find people in Mexico. How can I do this with only a phone number?

I often get asked, "How can I find people in Mexico with only a phone number?" There is no website to find people in Mexico with only a phone number. Whether in Mexico or the U.S., finding someone with just their telephone number involves what is called a reverse look up. If you enter "reverse look up" in Google or Yahoo, you'll find dozens of sites. The problem is that none of these sites work for Mexico. Mexico decided years ago to block this feature. It is not the only country to take this position with regard to privacy protection. Years ago Spain passed legislation barring reverse look ups.

What you can do if you have a phone number from Mexico is search online to find the city code. Mexico changed their entire telephone number structure in 2001. All cities except for Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey now have a three digit area code and a seven digit phone number. The three cities above have a two digit city code and an eight digit phone number.

So look at the number you have. If it starts with 001 or 011, ignore these numbers. The next numbers should be 52, Mexico's country code. Focus on the following next three digits. Click here to check the area code of many popular Mexican cities to find out from which city the call came.

Of course, if you have a telephone number and really want to know who it belongs to, you can always call and find out.

When your real goal is to find someone living in Mexico and you are having difficulty locating them, then it's time to work with an expert so you can find this person as soon as possible.

Saludos,

Richard Villasana
The Mexico Guru
Leading expert and international authority on finding relatives living in Mexico


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Mexico genealogy research using registro civil

Someone who is trying to find family in Mexico recently asked how to access the registro civil in Mexico. The goal for most of my readers is to simply find and be united/reunited with family in Mexico or friends they have lost touch with. Most of my readers aren't really looking to do long term Mexico genealogy research on genealogy web sites or going to genealogy societies and meetings.

But for you readers who are genealogists and who have to find this relative or friend so you can start your Mexico genealogy research, you may have thought about tapping into the registro civil, the government agency that stores the government documents of the residents in their town.

So why would using the registro civil be an issue? It sounds simple. Just call them up or better yet go to their web site, tell them who you want to find, give them your credit card information (there is a charge), sit back and wait for the document to come in the mail. The hard truth is that we can only wish it worked this way, and it doesn't.

Check back next week as we continue to address this issue in Registro civil: Not easy Mexico genealogy research.

Saludos,




Richard Villasana
The Mexico Guru
Find Relatives In Mexico

There are five top challenges stopping people from finding someone living in Mexico? Subscribe to get our FREE Special Report and find out what those challenges are.

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

Finding Someone In Mexico - Misspelling Mexican Cities

Another challenge to finding someone living in Mexico is with the spelling of the names of Mexican cities. You’ll need to make sure you are not misspelling the city name as this small mistake will limit your search. It’s important to know with certainty, the city and state of the person you are looking for. One person was trying to find the city of Colipa. However, the name of the city was Copila. Some of the letters were changed around. Maybe it is spelled with an “o” instead of an “a” or it has two “l’s” when it should be a “t”. Be sure that you are clear on the city and the state and their correct spellings.

Let’s say that you have discovered the complete name of the person you want to find and you have verified to the best of your ability the city and state where this person is now living in Mexico. You are now at the door and ready to enter to find this person. Now where do you go with this information? And what do you do if you have tried everything and you feel you have as much information as you will ever have, but it’s not quite enough?

Both situations lead us to the final challenge #5 . . . be sure to read next week's blog.


Do you know there are five top challenges stopping people from finding someone living in Mexico? Subscribe to get our FREE Special Report.


Richard Villasana
The Mexico Guru
Family & Friends Found!


Want to have revealing information on finding someone in Mexico come directly to your Inbox? Subscribe now at Find Relatives In Mexico.

Finding Someone In Mexico - What If They Are Female?

What if the person you are looking for is a female in Mexico? I want you to know up front that it will be more challenging. Most females are going to be living with their father, an uncle or another male relative until they are married. Because of this, women will rarely have accounts, such as utilities, placed in their name. Females are not going to be paying the electricity or water bill or buying property. If the female is married, this may increase the difficulty of finding the person even more. When women marry, they usually drop their maiden name (the second name). They will then retain their father’s last name but they will be addressed by the last name of their husband’s father. This is quite similar to how women change their names when they get married in the U.S.

If you do not know the city and state and do not know who she has married, then the chances of finding her are very slim but not impossible. You can still search for this person by locating her relatives. A point to keep in mind is that your success in finding someone depends on the information you have and where you will be using it.

Next week . . . Getting the correct spelling.

What are the five top challenges stopping people from finding someone living in Mexico? Subscribe to get our FREE Special Report and we'll tell you!


Richard Villasana
The Mexico Guru
Family & Friends Found!


Want to have revealing information on finding someone in Mexico come directly to your Inbox? Subscribe now at Find Relatives In Mexico.

Connecting With Someone In Mexico - Sorting Through Your Information

If you've been following these blog posts (and I hope you have), you now know what to do and what you need to find someone living in Mexico.

You may be wondering how to sort through the information that you have. You may have found some great information but you just do not know what to do with it. We’ll start by putting the information into context. You may be able to move ahead with the information you presently have or you may need to organize your information and fill in the gaps.

Let’s say that you talked to all of the relatives that you can think of and you came across a last name. Maybe you do not have the second last name, but you know the city and state where they were born. Here’s how to begin.

There are thirty one states in Mexico. Just as in the United States, or any other country, there are little towns and villages and then there are big cities. If you have someone you believe is living in Mexico City and you only have one surname and it is Martinez, your chances of finding this person are remote to impossible. Mexico City is one of the largest cities in the world. Martinez is the fourth most popular Spanish name. There are thousands of people in Mexico City with the surname of Martinez. It would be virtually impossible to find someone with just the surname Martinez. That is why it is so important to have both last names.

On the other hand, if you have only one surname but it’s a name such as Alvarado and they are living in a small town, you could have success in finding them without having more information. Alvarado is not nearly as popular a name as Martinez. If you have a small town, it’s often true that anyone with the same last name is probably a relative. Many times I have located people with the same surname that turned out to be a relative of who I was looking for. So even if you don’t have a complete name, if the person is living in a small town or rural area, you may be able to use your information right now to find this person.

Next week . . . what if the person is a female?

There are five top challenges stopping people from finding someone living in Mexico? Subscribe to get our FREE Special Report and find out what those challenges are.


Richard Villasana
The Mexico Guru
Family & Friends Found!


Want to have revealing information on finding someone in Mexico come directly to your Inbox? Subscribe now at Find Relatives In Mexico.

Press Release: Unique Web Site Connects Hispanics to Family in Mexico

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Richard Villasana
Tel: (619) 379-7862
E-mail: rvillasana@FindingRelativesInMexico.com
Website: http://www.FindingRelativesInMexico.com

Unique Web Site Connects Hispanics to Family in Mexico

CHULA VISTA, CA (October 2007) – Where there once was despair and disappointment, there is now help and hope thanks to a unique new Web site specially created to reunite families and friends from north and south of the Border. The Web site, www.FindRelativesInMexico.com is the labor of love of nationally recognized Hispanic businessman Richard Villasana who developed the site because he saw that many Hispanic families had become separated from their families in Mexico. Hispanics were abandoned with no experienced organization able to locate their families in Mexico.

Many foster agencies and child services from around the country have contacted Villasana as well as attorneys for child custody cases when the case involves a parent living in Mexico. His company has helped over 3,000 clients find mothers, birth fathers and other relatives in Mexico.

Villasana is a professional speaker whose recent presentation on Mexico Family History helped kick off Hispanic Heritage Month in Austin, Texas and was a guest speaker at the Latino Film Festival earlier this year in San Diego.

With Hispanic Heritage Month already halfway through (September 16 - October 15), Villasana has seen an increase in web hits of over 300% from people in Mexico coming to his new site. The site is so popular with Hispanic speaking people that Villasana will be launching a Spanish version of the site soon.

One customer claimed, "I was speechless. I dialed one of the numbers you gave me and I was talking to my son's grandmother. I've been looking for his Mexican relatives for three to four years."

Villasana has also written a book titled, The Insider's Guide to Doing Business in Mexico, and several articles including his most recent in CRM Magazine about the U.S. Hispanic market. He has also lectured in the U.S. and Mexico on international marketing and is President of The Mexico Guru. The company provides training and seminars to businesses wanting to increase sales and profits to Mexico.

Villasana is available for interviews and can be reached at (619) 379-7862; or email: rvillasana@FindRelativesInMexico.com; Web site : http://www.FindRelativesInMexico.com

Finding Someone In Mexico - A Word About Mexico Phone Numbers

A lot of people have more information than they think they do. You may only have a phone number. I can’t tell you the amount of people who had a phone number and contacted me because the number no longer worked. I was able to help these people by explaining what may have happened to cause the phone number to no longer function.

In late 2001 Mexico changed their entire telephone system to a more standard format much like telephone numbers in the U.S. or most of Europe. All but three cities now have a three-digit area code and a seven digit telephone number. Because of their large populations, Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterey now have a unique two digit area code.

So if you have a number for a relative or friend who is living in one of these three cities and that number has seven digits, you will now need the ten digit number. What the Mexican telephone company did is add a “5” to the beginning of the old seven digit numbers. If your number was previously 223-4455, it is now 5223-4455. Let’s put this together. The Mexico country code is 52, the city code for Mexico City is 55. Your number would look like this: 52 (country code) 55 (Mexico City code) 5223-4455 (new eight digit number) or 52-55-5223-4455.

The same process was applied to Guadalajara and Monterey. Guadalajara numbers were transformed to 33 (city code) and another “3” was added to the beginning of the old seven-digit numbers. For Monterrey, numbers were transformed to 81 (city code) and another “8” was added to the beginning of the old seven-digit numbers.

What is relevant for you right now is to organize your notes and focus on finding the two key pieces of information you want to have to ensure you have the best chance of finding the person you are looking for in Mexico. You want to discover the complete name of the person and the city and state where they were living and may still be living. You may have to go back to people you already talked to. Remember that now you know what information you want to discover so you can move to the next step.

Do you know there are five top challenges stopping people from finding someone living in Mexico? Subscribe to get our FREE Special Report.


Richard Villasana
The Mexico Guru
Family & Friends Found!


Want to have revealing information on finding someone in Mexico come directly to your Inbox? Subscribe now at Find Relatives In Mexico.