If you’ve lost touch with your adult daughter either through a falling out or through an unfortunate event such as drug addiction or an abusive partnership, you might be wondering if it is possible to find your daughter again. In most cases, you may be able to make some kind of contact with your lost daughter, but you will need to know how to get started and whether or not this is a good idea.
Of course, finding your daughter is a highly personal situation, so keep your motivations in mind and think about the realities of contacting your lost daughter before you get started searching with our steps below.
Considerations Before Looking for Your Daughter
There are many reasons that you may be trying to find your daughter; we list some of the most common reasons below that cause individuals to lose contact with their daughters.
- You may have given your daughter up for adoption when they were young and now want to get back into contact with them.
- You had an argument or falling out that led to a no-contact situation.
- Your daughter is or was the victim of an abusive partner who isolated them from their family.
- Your daughter is struggling or has struggled in the past with drug or alcohol addiction, something that can cause them to separate from their family and lose contact.
When you start to look for your daughter, you should remember the impacts of what reaching out to them might mean. Keep in mind that in some situations, your daughter will not want to regain contact with you and might refuse to communicate even if you do find them. Also, in the case of adoption, your daughter might not want to meet or learn about you.
You should also understand the reality that finding your daughter might be more painful if they are in an unpleasant situation with substance abuse or an abusive partner, and discovering them might cause more heartbreak.
That being said, if you want to find your daughter just to check in and make sure of their whereabouts, or you want to attempt a reconciliation, you should try. Just make sure that you understand that reaching out and finding your daughter could go either way, depending on your relationship.
Steps for Finding Your Daughter
Once you’ve decided to look for your daughter, you can start proceeding through the steps below. Make sure to try each step when you look for your daughter instead of giving up after one, as you never know where you might find information that may allow you to regain contact with them.
Gathering Information
The best initial step to take when searching for your daughter is to gather all the information you know about them—this can include looking over any known social media accounts. Next, note any alternate names that your daughter might use, and write down any possible phone numbers. During this step, you can reach out to mutual friends and family members who might still be in contact with your daughter, but be aware that they might relay that you are looking for them back to your daughter.
Additionally, you can go through social media to see if there is any mention of your daughter’s whereabouts or last known location. You can also utilize address forwarding services via USPS to see if she still lives at the same address or has moved.
People Search
A people search is one of the most convenient ways to track down your daughter. Using an online search tool, you can input your daughter’s names or any potential names they might be using and have information returned to you in an easy-to-read report.
The information you might find includes past or current addresses, contact numbers, any known relatives, friends, social media accounts, and potential workplaces. You can then use this information to try and reach out to your daughter.
Phone Number Lookups
A phone number lookup is another helpful way to find your daughter. Simply input the potential phone number for your daughter into the search tool and allow it to pull up basic information about the owner of the number, such as their addresses, known friends, or social media accounts. A phone number lookup is helpful when you aren’t sure of the name your daughter is going by or if the people search doesn’t pull up the exact information you need.
Private Investigator
Hiring a private investigator can be a more costly way of finding your daughter, but it can be helpful if you need to seriously track down your daughter and be sure of their whereabouts or safety. A private investigator typically costs between $100 and $200 an hour. However, they can take the stress of searching for your daughter off of you and may have access to certain information databases that the general public doesn’t.
What Should I Do if I Find My Daughter?
If these steps have helped you find your daughter, you may be wondering what to do next. Remember that your next steps regarding communication and what to say are highly situation-dependent, and you may want to think about what to say to your daughter. A therapist or discussing the situation with a close loved one can help you decide how to go about your next steps. However, it’s crucial that you don’t try to force anything or rush a connection, as this can have negative results.
Find My Daughter Today
Finding your daughter can be overwhelming, and you may not even know where to start. However, you can work your way through our simple steps to narrowing down your daughter’s whereabouts and contact information. Make sure that you keep the realities of reaching out to an estranged or long-lost daughter in mind, and be prepared to give her space to warm up to the idea of communication—or a relationship—if you manage to make a connection.
