Family tracing service
"Each and every day I think about my son and look for him on the street. When the phone rings I think, ‘Is it him?’ If he has no desire to see me I will accept it, but the pain of not knowing is unbearable.”
- Yvonne, mother of a missing child
The Salvation Army Family Tracing Service works nationally and internationally to re-unite families who have become separated.
If you have lost contact with a family member, we may be able to help you locate them through our networks in more than 100 countries of the world. (Of course, if you have serious concerns for their safety, you need to contact the police.)
Across Australia, we register over 2,000 new searches each year, and more than 75% of those are successfully closed.
- Conditions
- Making a request
- How long will it take?
- Reconciling families
- Other services
- Costs
- Confidentiality and privacy
- Contact details
Conditions
Because of the large number of enquiries we receive, there are limitations on the service we are able to provide:
- We are only able to search for adult members of the immediate family - ie. parents seeking adult children, adult children seeking parents, brothers and sisters seeking siblings, or grandparents, aunts and uncles seeking family members.
- We do not accept enquiries for persons, or from persons, under 18 years of age.
- The aim of the person searching must be to be reunited with their family.
We are NOT able to help with:
- Family tree/genealogy searches.
- Adoption searches unless the adoption was in NSW or Qld
- Searches for legal reasons, e.g. serving divorce documents
- Searches for friends
Making a request
Step 1: If you live in Australia, please contact The Salvation Army Family Tracing Service state office nearest to you. If you don’t live in Australia, please contact Salvation Army headquarters in your country.
Step 2: We will assess your request and, if we think we can help, send you a detailed application form so you can provide all the information we require.Please note that you’ll need to provide identification to prove you’re related to the person sought - for example, a copy of your birth certificate.
Step 3: When we receive your completed application form, we’ll examine the information and if we are able to accept the search you’ll receive a reference number. Quote this number, along with your relative’s name, when contacting us about your search.
The Salvation Army reserves the right to refuse any search application. Back to top
How long will it take?
Searches can take a few days or a few years so we are not able to guarantee a time frame. We’ll keep you informed about the outcomes of our investigations as news becomes available.
Reconciling families
While locating missing persons can be simple, uniting estranged family members is often a difficult and sensitive process. Often there are complications that must be sensitively worked through and we will assist with this and play an advocacy role if required. In some cases, people do not want their location revealed and this must be respected. However, over 75% of people who register a search are successfully reunited with their family member. Back to top
Other services
Crisis contact
The Salvation Army Family Tracing Service may be able to help people reach relatives at times of special need or medical emergency.
Post adoption
The Family Tracing offices in Sydney and Brisbane may be able to assist with some post-adoption searches, especially if the child was born in NSW or Queensland or in a Salvation Army maternity hospital.
Ph. (02) 9211 0277 Fax. (02) 9211 2044 Back to top
Special Search Service
The Sydney office has government funding to provide a ‘service of last resort’ to search for adult people who were separated by NSW State Government intervention. This separation could have occurred because of adoption, committal to care orders, foster-care, being made a ward of the state or being placed in a children’s home as a child.
Ph: (02) 9211 0277; (02) 9211 6491; 1300 667 366 Fax: (02) 9211 2044
Email: SpecialSearchServiceNSW@aue.salvationarmy.org
Costs
The Family Tracing Service does not receive government funding so a basic donation is requested. Each state and country will suggest an amount, depending on your circumstances. If there is a need for a search method that requires an additional cost for you, we will inform you before incurring any such costs. No search will be refused because of an inability to pay. Back to top
Confidentiality and Privacy
All avenues of search available to The Salvation Army Family Tracing Service are strictly confidential and will not be divulged.
The Salvation Army complies with the National Privacy Act and the Privacy Principles. The personal information we collect is used only to search for a missing family member and the privacy of both parties is respected. Your personal details will only be provided to another organisation for confidential search purposes. Of necessity, the application form may be copied and sent to other Salvation Army Family Tracing Service offices interstate or overseas.
For a detailed copy of the Privacy Statement please contact The Salvation Army Family Tracing Service.