There isn't anything that can replace family. Friends may value more to you at a point in your life but things would not stay the same and there will be circumstances where you will find your family staying by your side and looking after you no matter how awry things go. Keeping your family close provides you with a strong support system and somebody you can easily rely on.

Doing a free people search is the first thing you should try when you want to get back in contact with a long lost relative or family member of yours. This becomes a lot easier if your family member has won an award or has any other achievement that is worth being chronicled. Some of the websites that would certainly be of much help are familysearch.com, lostcousins.com and ancestors.com. Google is undoubtedly one search engine you can easily rely on and you can search people by entering their first name along with the family's surname. People search online would certainly give you plenty of material to work with.

There are official lists that include details and contact numbers which are listed by the government for helping people in general, you can try going through the lists in accordance with district as it might prove to be of much use.

You can also free people search belonging to your family by using the social networking website as almost everybody uses such websites for staying in touch with their friends and family. If you do not wish to use help from internet then you can talk to your other relatives that might know the people you are looking for. It is quite possible that somebody from your extended family might have an idea about the relative you are looking for. You may even find this the easiest method to begin with as most of the strongly bonded families never lose touch with each other.