Finding my brother

"192.com was the last piece in the jigsaw," said Ruth 66, of Durham, who traced a sister, a dozen cousins, an aunt and a brother she didn't know she had.

"I was gobsmacked when I met my brother. It was very emotional. He looks just like me! We have exactly the same sense of humour. I took my daughter to meet him. We got on so well and spent hours chatting."

Ruth grew up in children's homes and was separated from her sister when she was eight. Abandoned at birth, all she had was the name of her mother on a birth certificate. By obtaining marriage certificates from the General Registry Office and trawling a variety of genealogy sites, Ruth started tracking the names of her relatives.

Her cousins were particularly difficult to find because they changed their names and then got married - effectively changing their names twice. Once she had a shortlist of probable names, she then had to match these to an address. This is when 192.com came in.

"At the end of the day, it's all very well knowing someone's name but you've got to know where they live, said Ruth.

"When you put the name into 192.com with a location, for example, Nottingham, the name just comes up. Sometimes it gives you an age guide and that really helps too."

Ruth also managed to find her aunt, who was also adopted. One of the cousins Ruth had tracked through 192.com told her the surname of the family the aunt had been adopted by. "Luckily I knew how old my aunt was," Ruth said.

192.com's ability to match names, ages and addresses is complemented by the site's access to the edited electoral roll. The edited electoral roll contains 24 million records dating from 2002 to 2010. Electoral rolls are often the best way to find living relatives. Where possible, the records on the roll are linked to Directory Enquiry records. To narrow down the search it's advisable to use additional criteria such as the person's likely age or the name of the person they may be living with, for example their spouse.

"I'm so pleased to have found my brother" said Ruth, "I'm still looking for my Mother, and I won't stop looking."