Tracesmart’s new Names Directory has seen a dramatic increase in users, predominantly within social network site Facebook – where the directory is accessed via the “My Name” application. The facility, which was launched in December, enables users to discover statistical and geographical information relating to their name. The database contains 1.5 billion names from the electoral roll 2000-2009 and the application is free to use within Facebook or via the Tracesmart website.

Tracesmart are extremely pleased with the response to their new online search tool, “We have been very encouraged by the feedback from individuals who have used the Names Directory,” says Owen Roberts, Communications Manager for Tracesmart. “We believe a third of our consumer traffic is directly attributed to this new search function, it’s great that the application has become such a popular tool.”

The United Kingdom has a wide range of different and unusual names from all over the world, and these will inevitably appear on the electoral roll. An increase in the popularity of genealogy has resulted in many new researchers getting familiarised with the diverse spelling of similar sounding names. Commenting on this, Sarah Lawrence – Tracesmart’s Customer Service Manager noted, “This new database seems to fascinate many people. It offers help for those trying to find relatives and friends as it can assist with the spelling of names – it’s essential to get the spelling right when conducting a people search.” Tracesmart’s Names Directory also lists alternative spellings, helping researchers with often difficult names.

However, the most common reason for using the Names Directory is to explore how popular an individual’s name is. The database ranks the names in order of popularity; it will also predict how many other people in the UK have the same name and display their possible location.

Tracesmart is currently developing additional systems that will improve the visitor experience, and increase the profile of family research to a wider audience.

Janice Patterson from Banff, Scotland

Congratulations Janice! We hope you enjoy using this fantastic portable music player.

The Tracesmart Register free prize draw continues this month, with July offering a chance to win a HP Photosmart C4580 printer.

This all-in-one printer will produce superb quality photos using the latest technology in home printing. The built-in wireless technology means that all the family can link up to one printer and benefit from its super quick printing speeds. You could even bring your family tree to life by using the scanner to import old photos and documents, and print off your work for future generations.

Tracesmart this week announced the winner of their inaugural Father’s Day Campaign competition. The £100 M&S gift voucher on offer was won by Janina Clarke and was presented to her in time to celebrate the finding of her father on the forthcoming Father’s Day. The online people search specialists have reported a wave of visitors to their site since the competition was launched almost a month ago, reflecting the campaign’s success.

The aim of the campaign was to reunite as many fathers as possible with their offspring, whilst also promoting the ease by which people are able to find missing relatives using the company’s online search facility. Tracesmart has previously helped thousands of families to be reunited – their online people search service enables consumers to search the edited electoral roll for family or friends within the comfort of their home.

The chosen winner was selected from a shortlist of successful searches; Janina and her sister had been searching for their father for many years. Their parents had separated when they were young, and the girls grew up not knowing their father’s whereabouts or how to find him. The Tracesmart customer service team regularly uncover stories similar to this, and sympathise with those involved.

Sarah Lawrence, Tracesmart’s Customer Services Manager explained, “We were contacted by several individuals who had decided to carry out a trace in time for father’s day. Janina provided sufficient information to start a trace and following an address search which utilised information from her grandfather’s death certificate, we were able to locate Janina’s father, Ronald. The searches were all performed on the Tracesmart website, clearly demonstrating how the site can be used effectively to find relatives or friends.”

“I’m surprised that the information was found so quickly, and it didn’t cost very much either,” Janina commented, “Someone suggested that I use a private investigator to find my father, which would have cost me a few hundred pounds, so I’m delighted to have found my father without spending too much. Thank you to Tracesmart for making this possible.”

In addition to helping reunite fathers with their children, the campaign has also seen traffic and visitor numbers to the Tracesmart site increase significantly, supporting the company’s continued growth despite the current economic climate.

Within three months of launching their affiliate program, Tracesmart are experiencing higher than predicted returns from their new campaign, which aims to drive internet traffic and further build their customer base. The results are even more pleasing for the people tracing company considering the current economic conditions.

Tracesmart provides an online people search search facility which enables visitors to trace family or friends via the electoral roll, or locate people they have lost contact with via a simple address search. The recently launched affiliate program works alongside the company’s other marketing activity, to further promote these services. The program is delivered and administered by the award winning Deal Media Group, a leading online marketing company which offers a platform for affiliate sales networks, referral tracking and productivity reporting to many major UK companies.

Matthew Hopkins, Internet Marketing Executive explains, "Tracesmart's affiliate program operates by generating income from people looking to find relatives or friends. The affiliate partners agree to display a Tracesmart banner within their website and, in return, they are remunerated when they refer a visitor to Tracesmart who goes on to make a purchase. This practice is common among many companies aiming to increase their company profile and website visitor numbers. The results to date are extremely encouraging."

Having recognised the importance of accessible research tools, Tracesmart developed their database and search facility to provide users with a reliable means to trace people. This ability to perform an electoral roll search from the comfort of one’s own home, has caught the imagination of many website owners, who have in turn become Tracesmart affiliates and are driving the success of the campaign.

"We are always looking for new ways to engage with our target audience, and affiliate programs make it possible to reach a larger number of potential customers," comments Owen Roberts, Tracesmart's Communications Manager, "Tracesmart's search facility has helped many families and individuals and we are confident that visitor numbers will rise even further thanks to our new affiliate program."

David Boiston from Morpeth

Congratulations David! We hope you enjoy the events you attend using the giftcard.

In June the Tracesmart Register free monthly prize draw will offer you the chance to win a Sony Portable Digital Media Player. This handy MP3/MP4 player contains an ample 16GB memory and has a fabulous 2 inch screen for watching videos and viewing pictures. The player also allows you to listen to FM radio, and with a huge 40 hour battery life this portable device will keep you entertained for days on end!

Tracesmart, the online people search providers, will be joining in the Father’s Day celebrations on 21st June this year, by helping families to find relatives. Tracesmart are offering visitors the chance to win a £100 Marks & Spencer gift card to put towards a reunion party, if they find their missing family member using the Tracesmart database.

Last year, the company ran a hugely successful ‘Missing Person’ campaign, and researchers at Tracesmart were able to reunite more than one hundred individuals. A number of those who contacted Tracesmart for assistance are now in contact with their fathers or children. They will be looking forward to Father’s Day this year, and spending the day together for the first time.

Tracesmart’s campaign will aim to raise the profile of online searches and demonstrate how simple people searches can be, as Owen Roberts, Tracesmart’s Communications Manager commented,

“Here at Tracesmart, we realise that some people will need extra encouragement to kick start their search. So we want to offer our full support and assistance to those people who are constantly putting off this important trace, which could change their lives.”

One of the families Tracesmart recently reunited after 30 years apart was Debra and her father Daniel. Debra’s parents were young when they had her and her brother, and must have found it difficult as the marriage dissolved and Debra’s mother took her young family to Scotland. After years of wondering how to find her father, Debra found Tracesmart online. Debra contacted the Missing Person campaign team and asked for help to find her father, who she had not had contact with since she was two years old. She filled out a form, and included all the information she knew about him. The initial people search found no definite results, as her father’s name is not unusual. The researcher decided to find Daniel’s siblings, so a birth search was conducted and a sister, Lucy, was found. It was necessary to perform a further search, using marriage records to find Lucy’s married name. The contact details for Debra’s aunt were then located via an electoral roll search. Debra subsequently wrote a letter to her aunt, and within days she heard a response.

The family have now been reunited and Debra says “I love being able to talk to my Dad now, and he is glad that I found him, so thank you Tracesmart, as I couldn’t have done it without you.”

The Father’s Day campaign kicks off on Thursday 21st of May, with the winner of the £100 Marks and Spencer gift card being chosen on Wednesday 17th June and the result being announced the following day.

Please be aware that the names of the people mentioned in this story have been changed at their request.

The same agency would love to hear of more successful reunion stories, and are eager to hear of anyone else with similar stories of reunited families after years spent apart. Some agencies and publications offer attractive cash rewards for reunited stories, so if you have a story to tell that involves a Tracesmart people search please contact us and we’ll help you get it published.

If you would like help with your search to find relatives or have a success story that you would like to share, please contact missingperson@tracesmart.co.uk

Tracesmart private customers will receive a new look newsletter from the online people search website this month, as a result of a revamped email marketing campaign. The online tracing facility has enjoyed continued growth since the website launched in 2004, with approximately 10,000 trace and address search requests performed every day.

The company has helped to reunite thousands of families and friends, many of whom may not have had contact for several decades; a large proportion are found instantly through a simple electoral roll search. Tracesmart has simplified the tracing process, taking the hassle away from family researching, which can quite often be daunting for new users.

"The customer service team here at Tracesmart assist visitors with different enquires ranging from an in-depth trace to a straightforward postcode search," Sarah Lawrence, Tracesmart's Customer Service Manager explained. "We hope this new look newsletter will stimulate many customers who may have abandoned their people search, to come back and try again, after all, our database is updated every day."

The new look email, which will be distributed to all subscribers, includes news stories and tracing tips to help individuals conduct a successful people search. The ever changing facets of marketing practices have seen a shift in the way companies communicate with their customers. Tracesmart has implemented many of the industry standards with the aim of attracting new visitors and increasing the popularity of family tracing.

Tracesmart historically corresponded with customers both through the post and via email, but are reducing the use of surface mail wherever possible. The people search specialists are eager to meet green guidelines and reduce their carbon footprint in line with government targets. "Tracesmart are working closely with 'E-shot', an email marketing company, ensuring correct procedures are implemented and employed", commented Owen Roberts, Tracesmart's Communications Manager. "They have over ten years e-marketing experience, and we are confident that Tracesmart will benefit enormously from this new campaign."

Mark Oborne from Bristol

Congratulations, we hope you enjoy filming your family and friends with this handy compact camcorder.

The Tracesmart Register™ free prize draw continues this month, with May offering a chance to win a £100 Ticketmaster Giftcard.

Use the voucher on a range of events from pop concerts to sports events. Use the voucher to buy tickets for a range of events from pop concerts to sports matches. Treat your family or friends to a day out, or indulge the special person in your life to a surprise outing. Whether you're into music or sports matches, this Giftcard will entertain anyone!

Following the conclusion of the second 'Missing Live' series, Tracesmart can look back on a job well done as they once again volunteered their services to the production company, offering their people search facility and further providing case study examples for the program.

The BBC 1 early morning broadcast raised awareness of the nation's missing people, making live appeals for individuals to come forward with information. Tracesmart were more than happy to assist and the online people search company made two separate live appearances during the series, which was viewed by over 1 million people daily.

The programme makers, Leopard Films, work closely with the police and the charity Missing People, to report on cases that require the help of the general public. Some cases have been open for many years; others that were featured involve people who have vanished very recently. Viewers are urged to contact the helpline with any information that may help find those that have disappeared.

Last year, the program introduced heart-warming stories involving families that have been reunited after a considerable time apart. As specialists in this field, Tracesmart were invited back for the second year running to discuss how to find relatives and friends. As Tracesmart's lead family researcher, Louise Hewlett was interviewed by the BBC's Rav Wilding on the subject of people tracing, further adding a brief introduction to online family searching using the electoral roll.

This year, a reunion transpired that involved a viewer of the first series - Julie Cook wrote to Missing Live, asking for help to find her cousin, Clement Jackson. The letter she wrote was given to Hewlett live on air, with the hope that Tracesmart could help trace Clement. When Louise returned to the office and performed a name search on the Tracesmart system, she located him immediately. Ms Cooke was ecstatic and also relieved to hear that Clement had been located, after searching for him for nearly 40 years.

Louise commented, "It was lovely to meet Clem and Julie in the studio. It's rare for me to meet the families we are able to help through our online people search facility, so I was delighted to be able to share the experience with them. They were both very grateful to Tracesmart for reuniting them, and could not believe the trace was completed after a single name search."

Owen Roberts, Tracesmart's Communications Manager added, "There is no doubting the importance of this series, it's vital to highlight the plight of the missing, and it's great that we at Tracesmart can help as much as possible. We do hope the BBC will re-commission another series."

In line with Tracesmart's corporate social responsibility charter, the company has aligned itself with leading adoption agency and charity, AAA-Norcap. The synergy that exists between the two organisations made the charity an obvious recipient of Tracesmart's sponsorship and support. AAA-Norcap is a specialist adoption support agency, offering those involved in adoption cases tracing assistance to find relatives and an intermediary service; it also holds the longest established UK adoption contact register.

The charity, based in Oxfordshire, was established more than 25 years ago to provide a nationwide service, supporting and guiding adults whose lives have been touched by adoption. Tracesmart supplies online people search and address search facilities – which are driven by the electoral roll and various other datasets – but is not registered to provide an intermediary service in adoption cases. However the company is occasionally approached by individuals with the need for an adoption related search, and when such tracing enquiries occur they are referred to AAA-Norcap.

Locating people lost through adoption is not a simple clear-cut procedure; it needs to be approached very carefully as the outcome of the search could have far-reaching consequences for both the searcher and the searched; good reason for Tracesmart to call on the experience of AAA-Norcap when such an enquiry arises. As part of the sponsorship program, Tracesmart will feature AAA-Norcap case studies on its website in the 'Success Stories' section, which is the home of a campaign to highlight the effectiveness of the Tracesmart's online people search and address search facilities. Stories provided by the charity can be remarkable and very moving.

Owen Roberts, Tracesmart's Communications Manager, commented, "We are very pleased and proud to be able to sponsor AAA-Norcap, who provide an invaluable service to people affected by adoption. The ongoing sponsorship will further strengthen the relationship between our two organisations, and has provided the added benefit of AAA-Norcap being able to assist a few of Tracesmart’s customers too. Both organisations really do complement each other."

Miss Kelly Glover, London

Congratulations Kelly, we know you are going to enjoy this prize, which will keep you entertained with your music and videos on the move.

The Tracesmart Register™ free prize draw continues this month, with April offering a chance to win an exciting new Flip F260B Ultra Series Digital Camcorder.

This camcorder is small in size yet big on capability, with a 2GB memory it can store up to 60mins of video footage. The small design and simple buttons makes the product exceptionally easy to use - family home movies will never be the same again!

This week saw the return of Missing Live, the BBC’s daily, early morning program highlighting the plight of missing people in the UK. Following Tracesmart’s involvement in last year’s series, the online people search company were once again invited to participate in the month long series as specialists, in this instance, to help find relatives online.

Thursday’s edition of Missing Live featured the remarkable story of reunited brother and sister, Ron Chancellor and Anne Smee. The siblings were unaware, until very recently, of each other’s existence and only became reunited following Anne’s exhaustive research on the internet. An incredible 65 years after Anne was orphaned when her mother sadly died giving birth, she was reunited with her long divided blood family.

Tracesmart’s Louise Hewlett met up with Anne and Ron on set and was interviewed by Missing Live’s Rav Wilding on the subject of tracing. Louise is a seasoned people tracer, utilising Tracesmart’s online people search and address search facilities to find relatives and friends. Due to her experience, Louise was able to extol the virtues of online people searching in general, relaying how easy and inexpensive searching the electoral roll can be. The Electoral Roll is a key source of information in any tracing facility and Tracesmart has combined this data with state of the art web technology to become one of the UK’s leading providers.

Missing Live also champions the tremendous work of the charity, Missing People. The organisation proactively campaigns on behalf of relatives of missing people in their quest to find answers, nationally publicising the missing individuals. Tracesmart in turn supports the charity’s great work and also provides Missing People free access to its people search and address search facilities.

Following the live broadcast, Louise Hewlett commented, “Missing Live does a great job of communicating the problems associated with people going missing and the ensuing dilemmas and worries that follow for all concerned. If we at Tracesmart can do our little bit to help, highlighting services such as ours, then all the better.”

Tracesmart is again to be featured in the series at a later date as the program follows a successful missing person case study researched and concluded by Louise herself. Missing Live is broadcast weekdays at 9.15am on BBC1.

Tracesmart, the UK's leading online people search facility continues to go from strength to strength despite the economic conditions, as the company sees year on year growth approaching 25%. Tracesmart provides a quick and easy way to search the electoral roll to conduct an address search or people search and thousands of their customers have been able to find relatives or long lost friends using the service.

This week Tracesmart will launch its new affiliate program whereby partners or affiliates will promote the company's service by way of banner advertising on their respective websites and receive commission based on sales attributed to their banner link. The aim is to attract as many websites as possible to sign up to the program to increase the company's brand awareness and drive traffic. It will, in addition, generate income for our affiliate members, as leads are converted into sales.

Matthew Hopkins, Tracesmart's Internet Marketing Executive and Affiliate Manager commented, "This affiliate program is an important development for our people search, address search and electoral roll search facilities. This project will help deliver my key objectives over the next twelve months and we are hopeful of witnessing further sales growth from our online people search service."

Hopkins added, "Following exhaustive research, online marketing company, Deal Group Media or 'DGM' were chosen to deliver and administer the project on our behalf. DGM is probably the UK's most experienced affiliate network, specialising in affiliate and search engine marketing. It’s important to get the right partnership in place to manage such a key program as this."

The internet has become a far bigger proposition nowadays, becoming a key consumer authority, a means of discovery, research, reference, discussion and help. For many, the internet is now the first port of call for many activities including people searching and genealogy and Tracesmart are proactively tapping into it.

Affiliate marketing has become an essential channel for driving customer growth. As broadband penetration and consumer online spending continues to rise, so does the importance of a successful affiliate program. The online sector is changing dramatically as traditional TV and radio revenue declines. The online medium is taking the lead as a new generation of consumer is emerging, influencing the significance of affiliate marketing.

Owen Roberts, Tracesmart's Communications Manager stated, "We are confident that the affiliate program will significantly add value, to help promote our services, generate brand awareness, and increase traffic to our online people search facility, and ultimately boost sales. It's an exciting period for us at the moment."

David Fairclough, St Helens.

Congratulations David, we hope this prize keeps you on the right track, and helps you with your future journeys.

The Tracesmart Register™ free prize draw continues this month with the chance for you to win a desirable new iPod Nano 8GB.

This stylish portable music player is the latest addition to the Apple company product sheets, updating the previous model with even more features.

The colour screen allows viewers to watch movies, music videos and photos through a high resolution screen, all the while providing excellent picture quality.

Success Stories is the second Tracesmart campaign which aims to raise awareness of how simple it can be to locate lost friends and relatives. Last month, Tracesmart concluded their ‘Missing Person' campaign, which ran for a year and climaxed with a reunion between two sisters after more than 40 years apart. However, whilst the two campaigns share common objectives, they utilise different means to achieve their goals; the Missing Person campaign saw Tracesmart researchers locate missing loved ones; the Success Stories campaign will be driven by successful reunions supplied by members of the general public, who used Tracesmart people search tools to trace their lost loved one. Louise Hewlett, Communications Executive at Tracesmart, explained how the campaign will work,

"When people log on to the Tracesmart website they have access to an abundance of useful information such as current and historic Electoral Roll records, and birth, death and marriage indexes, which, coupled with our intuitive tracing tools such as the address search, allow users to find relatives and friends quickly and simply.

By publishing reunion stories which were facilitated by Tracesmart, but ultimately achieved by a Tracesmart user, we will highlight how easy it can be to locate someone you have lost contact with."

Tracesmart have a lot of confidence in Success Stories, due to the success of the Missing Persons campaign. As well as being received well by the general public, the media also embraced the idea. In addition to being featured in a variety of newspapers up and down the country, reunions that were made possible by the campaign also featured on the BBC's 'Missing Live' programme and ITV's 'Alan Titchmarsh Show'. Owen Roberts, Communications Manager, commented on how this historic success bodes well for the Success Stories campaign,

"The Missing Person campaign really struck a chord with both the general public and media alike; this helped us considerably in our mission to raise awareness of how easy it is to trace a missing loved one.

I believe that the Success Stories campaign will be even more popular, as it will highlight how simple it is for real people to locate lost loved ones themselves."

Wendi Fitton recently contacted leading people search company Tracesmart to help her trace her long lost sister, Christine, who was only seventeen when they were last together. The sisters were reunited for the first time this week, after recently being found using Tracesmart's online electoral roll search facility. The company, based on Cardiff Bay's waterfront, launched their website in 2004 and have assisted countless people to find relatives and friends via their online electoral roll searching service.

Christine and Wendi were separated following the tragic loss of their mother when Wendi was only three years old. The sisters did not share the same father as a result of a second marriage, and following their mothers' death, they were sent to live with separate family members. Wendi was able to provide some basic information, and after a marriage search was performed to find her current name, the researcher then carried out a people search using the electoral roll to find possible addresses.

Christine was eventually found by Louise Hewlett, Tracesmart's trace and PR co-ordinator, "I was very excited about being a part of their first meeting since I found Christine a few weeks ago. Many people contact me hoping to find relatives or friends, and I'm thrilled to have been able to find Christine following such a long separation of nearly 35 years."

Tracesmart has been instrumental in numerous family reunions, and as part of their Missing Person campaign they have raised the awareness of how easy it can be to find relatives and friends. Throughout the past year Tracesmart has organised several high profile reunions that have featured in the local press, and some have even featured on national television. The company were delighted to be the first online people search facility to publish and make available the 2009 edited electoral roll. This new data will ensure Tracesmart customers are searching the most up to date records available, ensuring customers do not waste time searching incorrect information.

"Tracesmart aims to provide our customers with the most current and accurate information available to help them find relatives or friends,' says Owen Roberts, Tracesmart's Communications Manager, "We intend to raise the profile of Tracesmart through these reunions which will result in many more families taking steps to find missing people and end their years of sadness."

Mrs Sabrina Tedford‚ from Ormskirk

Congratulations, Sabrina, we hope you enjoy picking out new items for your home.

The Tracesmart Register™ free prize draw continues for another year with February offering the chance to win another fantastic prize, a TomTom ONE Classic SatNav system.

TomTom are the market leaders in satellite navigation systems and offer their users simple to follow on screen directions. With this handy slim device, you will be able to plug it in and commence your journey within minutes.

To be in with a chance of winning simply join the Tracesmart Register™ online and enter our free prize draw. If you have previously entered there is no need to re-join, you will be submitted into each and every following month’s draw.

Steve Orah is celebrating this week, after meeting his mother for the very first time thanks to leading people search experts Tracesmart. The company has assisted those looking to find relatives or long lost friends since 1999 and has quickly become one of the most widely used online tracing facilities. The run up to the recent holiday season saw the site experience a predicted influx of visitors, keen to scour the electoral roll and utilise the address search facility to update address books and reconnect with lost relations.

The reunion was orchestrated by Tracesmart who recently appealed for individuals to contact them for assistance with their people search. Tracesmart have helped thousands of people to find relatives, many of whom have been separated as a result of a family breakdown or arguments. Steve Orah's parents split up when he was very young, and his father took him to live in Nigeria in 1973, and that was the last time he saw his mother, Victoria. A simple online search using the marriage records available on the Tracesmart website, found a positive match for his mother. This result allowed a people search to be performed, but with her new married name. His mother, Victoria, was found on the 2009 Electoral Roll living in Somerset with her new husband. The Directory Enquires database was searched simultaneously with electoral roll records, and a telephone listing was available. Victoria was contacted by her overjoyed son, Steve, within minutes of learning the details. The whole family are now planning a large reunion, with relations flying over from America to meet Victoria and catch up with the many years they have missed.

"This reunion was made extra special for our team because we could tell how much it meant to Steve" comments Louise Hewlett, Tracesmart's lead researcher, "after speaking to him on the phone, it was clear from the way he was speaking how emotional he felt. We are delighted to have been a part of this reunion and look forward to helping other families in the same way." The Missing Person campaign launched by Tracesmart last year, has helped reunite a great number of individuals who were unaware of how to find relatives. The project aims to raise awareness of the online people search facility, and also how easy it can be to find a missing person. Many of these success stories were featured in local press articles and some have appeared on national television.

"Tracesmart has been instrumental in many fantastic reunions during this past year, and we have been overwhelmed by the response to the Missing Person campaign," comments Owen Roberts, Communications Manager for Tracesmart, "Our online people search facility is an extensive database, which is easy to use and inexpensive. We hope many people will use it to find relatives and make 2009 a year to remember."

Congratulations Andrey, we hope this portable DVD player is an asset to any journey you undertake this year, and keeps you entertained during breaks away.

The Tracesmart Register™ free prize draw continues for another year with January offering the chance to win another incredible prize, a £100 IKEA Gift Card. The voucher can be used at any IKEA store, either against a large amount or use it to purchase smaller items. Your purchase can be used to brighten up or update any room in the house - a new look for the New Year!

To be in with a chance of winning simply join the Tracesmart Register™ online and enter our free prize draw. If you have previously entered there is no need to re-join, you will be submitted into each and every following month’s draw.

Once again Tracesmart has helped to reunite a brother and sister. They were, until now, apart for more than forty years and the story is made even more special as ITV picked up on the successful trace, and helped organise a special surprise reunion for The Alan Titchmarsh Christmas Show. Tracesmart are a formidable force in the people search arena and have assisted numerous media channels with heart warming reunion stories similar to this. The show is to be broadcast at 6.30pm on Sunday 21st December.

Originally, Dave Bower from Australia contacted Tracesmart asking for help to find his sister, who was sadly separated from the rest of the family nearly forty years ago. Linda, his sister was found to be living in Eastbourne, which meant that Dave and his wife and sons had a very long way to travel. The reunion was made possible by ITV who were themselves looking for families to reunite and surprise for The Alan Titchmarsh Christmas special.

Tracesmart has helped thousands of families to find relatives and assisted the public in their people searches. Visitors to the website can search people using the current 2009 electoral roll. Many of those who subscribe to the website will be looking to find relatives who they may not have seen for a decade or more. A simple address search can sometimes result in a match being found instantly, other searches may take a little longer, for instance, if the subject has moved out of the area or has changed name. Tracesmart has a dedicated customer service team and an online instant messenger support, which is free to use, both helping to make the search to find relatives less stressful.

Louise Hewlett, who assisted with the surprise reunion said, "We were delighted that ITV wanted to help reunite one of our success stories. Without their help the reunion between the siblings may have taken a lot longer, when considering the cost of flying and the distance between them."

A great deal of interest has arisen from various stories that Tracesmart has helped orchestrate, and this has further raised public awareness of how easy it is to perform a people search and ultimately find relatives or friends. Owen Roberts, Tracesmart’s Communications Manager was keen to comment on the good publicity, "The main purpose behind the campaign is to help people find relatives and share their story with different media agencies. This has resulted in many more people finding the special person in their life, and possibly being able to spend their first Christmas together in many years."

Cardiff based company Tracesmart, is the first online people search facility to make the 2009 edited Electoral Roll available to the general public. To ensure their customers have access to the most up-to-date records available, Tracesmart has uploaded the new electoral data in record time this year, easily out-manoeuvring the competition and significantly benefiting their loyal customer base.

The Electoral Roll plays a pivotal part in assisting people who are looking to find relatives or friends that they have lost contact with. As the most accurate annual snapshot of the UK adult population available, the Electoral Roll is one of the foundations on which Tracesmart's people search facility is built.

When a trace is conducted using one of the Tracesmart websites many tools, such as the address search or friend finder, the results provided are collated from various sources, now including Electoral Rolls from 2003 to 2009 and the company's unique Tracesmart Register. Visitors to the site can choose which datasets they query during their trace, or alternatively they may choose to search through all available records. The new Electoral Roll data sits alongside the previous years and Tracesmart customers can choose to only search the most current electoral roll search if they so wish.

Paul Weathersby, Technical Director, commented "Being the first online tracing facility to provide 2009 electoral information reinforces our commitment to provide the most up-to-date and accurate data. We continually strive to ensure that our customers experience high positive result rates when attempting to locate someone, the accuracy of data an individual has access to when tracing can make all of the difference"

To maintain the accuracy of the new electoral data, Tracesmart will be refreshing it on a monthly basis from January 2009 with Rolling Register updates. Amendments made through Rolling Register updates amount to almost 150,000 records per month and ensure that electoral information supplied by Tracesmart is as accurate as possible.

Highlighting the importance of the Electoral Roll in tracing, Tracesmart's Managing Director, Michael Trezise noted, "Tracesmart's main priority is customer satisfaction and that means we have to acquire and provide the highest quality of data. This provides our customers with the confidence that the results they obtain are current and correct. My roots are in tracing and I appreciate the provision of accurate data is key – this is the reason why we want to be the first to offer the new records."

Michael Taylor had never met his father, David, until they were reunited for the first time last week. The father and son met each other on Michael’s 25th birthday, making the occasion even more special. Michael initially contacted Tracesmart in response to the company's Missing Person Campaign which has been running since March, and has helped to reunite many other families in time for Christmas.

The campaign has seen a mixture of family circumstances; all involving people looking to find relatives, many with no idea of how to perform an electoral roll search. Tracesmart has a dedicated team of researchers, each working individually on a search, providing excellent support for those hoping to find relatives. Michael had thought about searching for his father for many years, and especially since he recently became a father himself. He had never attempted a people search before and was unaware how to find relatives using the internet, but he was able to provide enough information to the researcher, who in turn found a positive match instantly through Tracesmart’s simple to use people search. Mr Dibben confirmed his details with the researcher, and was overjoyed to hear that Michael was trying to find him. The reunion was made even more extraordinary as Michael and David were found to be living in the same town, only two miles apart! Michael commented "I'm still in shock, I've been walking around town all these years, and my Dad may have passed by many times. We now meet up regularly and are planning to spend out first Christmas together, which is going to be fantastic."

Tracesmart aims to raise awareness of how easy it can be to be reunited with a missing person, and hope that new visitors will log on and try for themselves. Many will be missing a family member or friend this Christmas, which, in a large number of cases can be avoided through an instant people search or address search to check the details are up to date.

"We at Tracesmart are delighted to have helped Michael, and to be involved in reuniting many other families and friends, and especially at this time of year, when Christmas celebrations will highlight the importance of finding those who are missing. We hope to assist even more visitors to find relatives this year and hopefully make this festive season extra special," added Owen Roberts, Tracesmart's Communications Manager.

Mrs Louise Paemen of Abingdon

Congratulations Mrs Paemen, we hope that you get hours of satisfaction from this exciting handheld console.

The Tracesmart Register free prize draw continues in December with another fantastic prize. This month we are offering subscribers the chance to win a Philips Portable DVD Player.

This stylish portable DVD player supports both CD’s and DVD’s, displaying movies on a 7” LCD screen with stereo sound. Offering excellent playback times and remote control this item is perfect for whiling away the time on long journeys.

To be in with a chance of winning, simply join the Tracesmart Register online and enter our free prize draw. If you have previously entered there is no need to re-join, you will be submitted into each and every following month’s draw.

Tracesmart has launched a new website on behalf of ‘Searching for a Memory’, a voluntary tracing service run by Gill Whitley. The organisation is sponsored by Tracesmart, the leading online people search facility, and consists of Gill and a team of three other tracers working from home; their aim is to help find relatives or friends for people who have no idea where to start.

Gill, the founder of the service, has been tracing families since 1998 and since then has helped thousands of people hoping to find relatives. The new blog style website will allow visitors to share with Gill as she posts her success stories, and post comments or questions live on the site allowing her to reply personally.

The blog has been created as part of the collaboration between Tracesmart and the ‘Searching for a Memory’ team, an alliance which began early in 2008, and has been flourishing ever since. The union was formed with the aim of becoming an exceptional team in the people search arena, mixing the experience of the research team together with Tracesmart’s extensive online people search facility. Tracesmart’s Missing Person campaign launched in February of this year, with the intention of raising the profile of its vast electoral roll search facility, resulted in countless enquiries and in some cases, the information offered by the person searching was very limited, consequently it became beneficial to refer the trace to Gill and her team.

Gill commented, “I started Searching for a Memory in recognition of my late mother-in-law, who had been estranged from my husband for 34 years. I found her 11 months before she died, and thought as a tribute to her I would continue tracing to help other people find their loved ones. Over the years I would like to think I have had a great deal of success. I have used various resources during this time, but none better than Tracesmart’s excellent online address search and people search facility.” Gill added, “The facility makes tracing so much easier compared to the earlier days and can very easily be used by anyone.”

Tracesmart’s Communications Manager, Owen Roberts, commented, “The ‘Searching for a Memory’ website has been created by our in-house technical team to help Gill, we are very pleased to be able to facilitate and help Gill and her team because of the excellent voluntary service they provide. I anticipate many people will interact with the new website, and enquire with Gill for help with any Missing Person search, with the hope people will also share their success stories or questions with each other on the blog.”

November signals the beginning of a new career for some, as Tracesmart announce further expansion of their IT workforce. The technical department, based at their waterfront headquarters in Cardiff Bay, has recruited three new team members as a result of escalating workloads arising from increased demand for their people and name search services.

Tracesmart has continued to invest heavily in their product range following the acquisition of the 2008 Electoral Roll in April, and visitors to the site can now access close to 300 million records. These enhancements have been a resounding success as the website has seen a sharp increase in visitors – prompting the company to expand their technical team. The IT department has recruited two web developers and a software analyst; the primary role of the web developers will be to improve and expand the range of services on offer and assist in the maintenance of existing tracing services; the software analyst will work on the planning and production of specifications for all new products, developing bespoke product ideas for their ever expanding portfolio.

The team is headed by Technical Director, Paul Weathersby, who as well as producing and developing Tracesmart's flagship people search facility, has established a committed and extremely competent IT department. Weathersby comments, "We are growing as a company and experiencing an influx of new customers, so we need more IT staff to maintain our high level of service. We are always looking for new ways to enhance our customers experience through value added services that complement our existing product range and to facilitate this it is necessary to expand our technical team."

Further to developing consumer services, the new recruits will also be working on Tracesmart's corporate service suite. The new employees are part of a recruitment drive that has already seen the company double in size in the recent months, with numerous departments continuing to expand their workforce to handle the ever increasing demand for their services.

The growth of the company has been endorsed by Tracesmart's Managing Director, Michael Trezise, who comments; "The rapid rate of recruitment throughout the last year can be attributed to the continued growth of our key products and services, and heightened media interest. Tracesmart continues to be the leading suppliers of tracing services to consumers and businesses alike; from customers needing a simple address search or a missing person search, to large financial institutions requiring assistance with data cleansing or asset reunification projects; the range of services we provide are endless."

Harry Sheppard of Bordon, Hampshire

Congratulations Harry, we hope that this prize will be a welcome addition to your home entertainment system.

The Tracesmart Register free prize draw continues in November with another amazing prize – this month we are offering subscribers the chance to win a Nintendo DS Lite.

This brilliant state of the art hand held computer console is the perfect prize for people who like to be kept occupied on long journeys or just want something to do whilst waiting for a bus or on the tube. Nintendo offer a huge range of games for these consoles including Brain Training and Cooking Guide as well as classics like Super Mario.

To be in with a chance of winning, simply join the Tracesmart Register online and enter our free prize draw. If you have previously entered there is no need to re-join, you will be submitted into each and every following month's draw

Tracesmart have announced that they are once again enhancing their people search facilities and customer experience by opening up their names database. The unprecedented move will see over 10 trillion name variations being made available to users; this will greatly assist individuals who are trying to find relatives or friends but have minimal related information to hand.

As market leading suppliers of online electoral roll search facility services, Tracesmart understand the requirements of its customers and visitors to their site. In many cases, users trying to trace individuals will have a limited amount information relating to the trace subject and/or incorrect details. By opening up their name database to the general public, Tracesmart are able to provide a multitude of possible variations of the information provided such as different spellings and similar names – through this service users will be able to search people even if they do not have the exact information, and save time in the process.

“Following several discussions surrounding the customer journey, we made the bold decision to open up our names database with a view to optimising our customers tracing activity. Our in-house programmers and web developers have been working diligently to make this project work, testing the system rigorously and envisage it will be live in the near future” Paul Weathersby, Technical Director explains.

In many cases people who are searching for a missing person will simply key the subjects name into a search engine in the hope of finding a little bit of information about them and their whereabouts. Opening up the names database will help these users who are not even on the Tracesmart site as there is a strong possibility that the page relating to the name the individual is searching for will appear in search results; this in turn could lead them to the Tracesmart site and bring them one step closer to locating the person.

Tracesmart's managing director, Mike Trezise, is always seeking new ways to help his customers optimise their tracing “It has become evident to us that whilst some users are successfully completing traces with one people search, others have to use many credits to find the result they need. Offering up supporting information at no extra charge - with a view to helping customers locate individuals quicker - demonstrates our commitment to providing the best value for money people tracing tool available.”

]]> http://www.tracesmart.co.uk/latest-news/?id=861 http://www.tracesmart.co.uk/latest-news/?id=861 Search Enhancement Fri, 24 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0100 Tracesmart, a major leader in online electoral roll search facilities, announced they have been granted the licence to hold the directory enquires database in house and have fully integrated it into their services. The database, also known as OSIS, has already been incorporated into their online people search facility and is housed within their secure data centre. The list contains all listed telephone numbers in the UK and will improve the speed at which people can obtain telephone numbers for a missing person such as a lost friends or relatives.

Previously British Telecommunications Plc was the only organisation to hold a database of phone listings, with the exception of other licensed phone operators. This meant that many residential numbers were being left out, and as a result it was decided that changes were needed. In 1999 a subdivision of BT, The Directory Solutions Unit (DSU) was set up as an independent body to oversee the collection of listings from numerous sources including BT, cable companies and mobile phone providers. To date the DSU oversee OSIS and provide database licence holders a daily file update of between 30,000-100,000 new, deleted or amended records.

This daily update of OSIS information means that the Tracesmart system will have improved performance – as such telephone listings offered to Tracesmart's customers carrying out an address search will be guaranteed. Paul Weathersby, Tracesmart's Technical Director commented, 'Following an in-depth security audit, which ensured our systems were strong and secure enough to hold this type of data, we are delighted to now be granted direct access to the OSIS data.'

Obtaining accurate telephone numbers when carrying out a people search is an essential tool that allows for instant communication with lost friends or relatives – therefore the OSIS data offers Tracesmart's customers better value for money as they won't have to waste time or money using outdated contact details.

Increasing performance is a key part of Tracesmart's commitment to its customer base as Mike Trezise, Managing Director of Tracesmart, commented,"I know firsthand how utilising accurate data is paramount for successfully finding people and as such Tracesmart constantly aims to supply its customers with accurate, instantly accessible data in order to ensure they get the results they need when trying to find relatives find relatives or friends. As a company we are committed to constantly upgrading and improving our service offerings and new data acquisition is a key part of this process.'

Mr John Hughes of Derby

Congratulations John, we hope that you enjoy whatever you choose to buy!

The free prize draw continues in October with another amazing prize. This month we are offering entrants the chance to win a Sony DVD Recorder.

This beautiful, slim line DVD recorder is one of the leaders in its field. Offering excellent recording quality and supporting a range of formats, this recorder is also easy to use and will be a stylish addition to any home.

To be in with a chance of winning, simply join the Tracesmart Register online and enter our free prize draw. If you have previously entered there is no need to re-join, you will be submitted into each and every following month’s draw.

The production team is eager to feature emotional or uplifting reunited stories on the show as part of their Christmas programming. The Alan Titchmarsh Show broadcasts on the ITV network in the afternoons, and is presently in its third series. The programme infuses real life stories, celebrity guests with everyday advice, and topical subject matter. The show also features a new debate everyday that is examined and discussed with guests which viewers are encouraged to participate. The Christmas shows will aim to feature some of the families that Tracesmart are able to reunite and also appeals for assistance with traces that may require the help of viewers.

"Tracesmart, are regularly contacted by individuals needing help to find relatives or friends, and they are amazed that through a simple address search using our electoral roll search facility they find the missing person is still at the same address," comments Louise Hewlett, the PR and Trace Co-ordinator at Tracesmart.

Previously, Tracesmart has helped with stories for the hugely successful BBC daytime programme 'Missing Live'. The series followed the work of the police and the charity Missing People in their efforts to uncover the whereabouts of hundreds of individuals every year. The programme makers also wanted to feature family reunions that had recently taken place, and highlight the difficulties some individuals encounter as they search to find the missing person.

Owen Roberts, Tracesmart's Communications Manager commented, "Christmas always brings heartwarming stories to our screens and Tracesmart has always helped develop these stories more than most, so we are delighted to assist The Alan Titchmarsh Show. With our powerful people search facility we are confident of being able to reunite people and bring happiness to thousands who have long lost friends or relatives."

If you would like to be reunited with a missing person and would like to be featured on The Alan Titchmarsh Show please email louise@tracesmart.co.uk

Carmel Thornton of Wolverhampton

The monthly prize draw continues in September with another cracking prize. This month we are offering entrants the chance to win £100 of Amazon.co.uk vouchers.

Whether you want to use the vouchers to buy CD’s, DVD’s, or put towards a computer, Amazon.co.uk offers you a huge range of items to choose from.

To be in with a chance of winning, simply enter our monthly prize draw and join the Tracesmart Register. If you have previously entered there is no need to re-join, you will be re-submitted into each and every following month’s draw.

If you like happy endings then you will be pleased to know that Lisa Starret and her father, Thomas Critchley, have been successfully reunited after 21 years apart. The pair, unified in conjunction with Tracesmart’s Missing Person campaign, met for the first time yesterday in Blackpool, where Mrs Starret’s father now lives.

Mr Critchley and his daughter were reunited by Louise Hewlett, Tracesmart’s Public Relations & Trace Co-ordinator, as part of Tracesmart’s Missing Person campaign which enables people to find relatives or friends for free in exchange for their story. Explaining the background behind the reunion Hewlett remarked, “Lisa contacted Tracesmart looking to find her father whom she had never met. Her parents had split up when she was a baby and her mother moved to Belfast – that was 21 years ago.”

To aid Hewlett’s search Mrs Starret provided her father’s approximate age and a last known address, with this Hewlett conducted an address search using Tracesmart online – the UK’s most powerful people search engine which utilises information from datasets such as the electoral roll . Armed with the information Mrs Starret provided, Hewlett found one positive result and after verifying Mr Critchley’s identity telephoned Mrs Starret with the good news. Hewlett commented, “When I last spoke to Lisa she had travelled to Blackpool with her husband and children to meet her Dad. I believe they met for the first time yesterday.” As part of the information available through Tracesmart’s online people search facility, and via negotiations with Mr Critchley, Hewlett was able to facilitate the reunion by providing Mrs Starret with her father’s telephone number.

Tracesmart’s Missing Person campaign is overseen by Owen Roberts, Tracesmart’s Communications Manager. On the topic of the campaign and this latest reunion Roberts commented, “The Missing Person’s campaign has been a great success for Tracesmart and our reunited customers. Lisa and her father’s story is another example of just how easy it can be to track down a lost loved one using our search facility. The media has been keen to feature our reunion stories and hopefully it will encourage more people to start searching for their long lost friends or relatives".

Tracesmart is pleased to announce its recent alliance with 'Searching for a Memory', the voluntary tracing service associated with the Daily Mail's weekly column, 'Missing and Found'. The organisation was launched early in 1998, to assist those trying to find relatives or loved ones and with the support of Gillian Whitley and her team of researchers, it has since helped thousands of individuals to find missing people. A new website is at the design stage and will soon be launched, aiming to attract even more visitors trying to find their relatives.

The founder of 'Searching for a Memory', Gillian Whitley, has joined forces with Tracesmart to become a formidable team in the family research arena. Together they aim to raise the profile of people tracing using the electoral roll and other search facilities found on the Tracesmart website. Whitley says "I started Searching for a Memory in memory of my late mother-in-law, who had been estranged from my husband for 34 years. I found her 11 months before she died, and thought as a tribute to her I would continue tracing to help other people find their loved ones. Over the years I would like to think I have had a great deal of success. I have used various resources during this time, and through a recommendation from a friend, began to use Tracesmart for their excellent address search facility, there is no better search facility available online"

Tracesmart's people search engine holds 90 million personal profiles, and have recently added a further 1.7m dates of birth to the database which further enhances the simplicity of a people search. Tracesmart's Communications Manager, Owen Roberts, commented, "Due to the synergy that exists, our relationship has flourished over the past 6 months, and Tracesmart are proud to be sponsoring such a worthy voluntary tracing service. The team that Gill leads is dedicated to assisting those who contact them hoping to find their missing person. Together with their knowledge of family history and unlimited access to Tracesmart's services and products Gill and her team will be able to facilitate even more people"

Ms Jane Franklin of Cardiff

Congratulations Jane, we hope that the TV is a welcome addition to your home.

Our monthly prize draw continues in August with another outstanding prize. This month we are offering entrants the chance to win a Creative ZEN 16GB MP3 Player.

This state of the art, slim line MP3 player offers users 25hours of playback, memory capable of storing up to 8,000 songs, FM Radio and 2.5”inch LCD screen. With this fabulous gadget in your pocket, you’ll never be bored on a long journey again.

To be in with a chance of winning, simply enter our monthly prize draw and join our Tracesmart Register. If you have previously entered there is no need to re-join, you will be submitted into each and every following month’s draw.

In order to raise the profile of tracing and also reunite family and friends, the Missing Persons campaign offers individuals the opportunity to search people they are out of contact with, free of charge, by a professional tracer in return for sharing their story with the world. Heavily promoted through their flagship people search website, Tracesmart.co.uk, the campaign has prompted a multitude of people from all over the world to request assistance in their hunt for lost loved ones, the most heart-warming of which, in particular those who have been apart for most of their lives, were selected for this free tracing service.

The reunification stories have generated a lot of interest in both national and regional media, making headlines in the press, on television and online. Most notably the series Missing Live, which earlier this year was featured on BBC 1 every weekday for a month, picked up the story of Faye Jones who had been searching for her father, Ken Millard, for over 20 years. The story demonstrated perfectly how easy it is to locate a lost loved one – checking the electoral roll and conducting an address search on the Tracesmart website swiftly yielded a positive trace. Following a letter from Tracesmart, Mr. Millard immediately contacted them and they put him back in touch with his daughter.

Another father and daughter story also empathised how simple it can be to trace missing relatives and caught the attention of the press. Following their reunification after 27 years apart, Andy and Rebecca Bond were more than happy to share their story with both the Manchester Evening News and Derbyshire Telegraph. "I really didn't think anyone would be able to find my dad with that little information" Ms Bond commented in the Derbyshire Telegraph, "I had always thought about looking for my dad but never really knew how to go about it." The reunion took place just before Fathers Day, making the story particularly poignant and it featured both in print and on the web.

Lead Media Trace Researcher and one of the campaigns chief protagonists, Louise Hewlett, commented on how the campaign will be continuing, "Following 6 successful months, we are keen to keep the momentum up and assist those who visit the Tracesmart site hoping to find relatives. Initially, looking for lost relatives can seem a daunting task where in reality it needn't be. We hope that by continuing with this project we will not only be able to reunite more people, but inspire others to do it themselves."

Tracesmart, leading providers of online people search tools, have today announced the launch of optional extras which will allow both new and existing customers to tailor their tracing subscription packages, based upon their specific needs. These new ‘add-ons' will provide Tracesmart's users with further value for money, whilst also saving them time when conducting searches.

The new range of add-ons enhance the current subscription packages by offering those who are trying to find relatives or friends, the opportunity to define what elements they require in their package, dependent on the particular needs. Paul Weathersby, Tracesmart's Technical Director, explains further, "Our new range of add-ons will offer search functionality and subscription customisation that was previously unavailable. We understand that each and every customer has different needs and goals when attempting to trace individuals. For example we know that many of our subscribers will have a substantial amount of information relating to the person they are attempting to trace; in this instance they will likely only need access to basic search tools and the electoral roll datasets. On the other hand some customers will have minimal information relating to the missing person missing person they are looking for and will therefore need to access our additional datasets and higher level search tools, which is where the add-ons come into play."

The array of add-on options includes access to supplementary data such as the telephone directory and Tracesmart Register, as well as a collection of intuitive search tools which includes an age range filter and radius search. These tools and additional data will help individuals locate the person they are looking for even if they hold minimal information. For example, if a person was last known to be in Leeds, but have relocated to a surrounding town or village such as Pudsey, conducting a name search in Leeds will not locate them. However if the user has purchased the search radius add-on they can designate a specific radius, say 15 miles, which would then locate the individual. Conversely, if a user already knows the individual they seek lives in Pudsey, they would not need the radius search tool and could opt for the standard subscription package; this ensures that whatever the customer's specific needs they will be able to define the tools and data they have access to. Commenting on the launch of the customisable service, Mike Trezise, Managing Director of Tracesmart, notes why it is important to offer customers the choice, "As part of our customer satisfaction program we monitor user search trends. It has become apparent that whilst some users are able to locate individuals with just one search, others are using multiple searches to locate the party they are looking for. By offering the additional search functionality and data, our users can refine searches and save themselves time."

Mrs Shirley Ferguson of Bristol

Congratulations Shirley, we hope that you thoroughly enjoy whichever experience you choose.

The monthly prize draw continues in July with yet another incredible prize. This month we are offering entrants the chance to win a very stylish 15” LCD Flat Screen TV.

This slim line TV can either be wall mounted or free standing, making it the perfect addition to any home; whether it be in the living room, bedroom or kitchen. Never again will you miss your favourite programme because you have to make dinner.

To be in with a chance of winning, simply enter our free monthly prize draw. If you have previously entered there is no need to re-join, you will be submitted into each and every following month’s draw.

Father and daughter reunited by Tracesmart after 27 years apart featured in regional newspapers.

An emotional family reunion, made possible by specialist tracing agency Tracesmart, was featured in the Derby Telegraph and the Manchester Evening News for Father’s Day. Rebecca and Andy Bond were reunited following a 27 year separation. Even after this extended period, Tracesmart were able to search their extensive electoral roll database and reunite father and daughter within days.

Rebecca completed a straight forward application form, and provided the key information Tracesmart require when looking to find relatives. "I really didn’t think anyone would be able to find my dad with that little information" Becky commented in the Derby Telegraph, "I had always thought about looking for my dad but never really knew how to go about it." Rebecca was raised by her grandparents after her parents' divorce, and sadly her grandmother who she always regarded as her mother, passed away when she was a teenager. After having her own children, Rebecca started to think again about finding her father.

It was only when she started to look on the internet and entered missing person into a search engine that she found Tracesmart’s site. A researcher performed a people search using the latest electoral roll and through an address search Andy’s brother was found, who happily assisted with completing the trace. Within days the father and daughter were speaking on the phone, and a week later their first meeting in 27 years took place. They are already thinking about the future together as a family, including Rebecca’s five children and her extended new family of aunts, uncles and cousins she has now been able to meet for the first time.

"We are delighted that we have been able to reunite Rebecca and her father, Andrew, after 27 years. This is typical of the type of work we do here at Tracesmart but it's always satisfying to see such a happy conclusion to our search. Unsurprisingly the local press were keen to pick up the story and we hope their coverage prompts others who are looking for lost family and friends to get in contact with us," commented Owen Roberts, Communications Manager, Tracesmart Ltd.

Mrs Clair Renton of Sunderland

Congratulations Clair, we hope that this stylish radio will be a welcome addition to your home, office or garden shed.

The Tracesmart Register free prize draw continues in June with yet another wonderful prize. With summer just around the corner, we are giving away a £100 Red Letter Day Experience Voucher.

This voucher will entitle you to choose from hundreds of different once in a lifetime opportunities priced at a value of £100. For those of you who are feeling daring, why not try driving a Ferrari, Honda power boating, or even bungee jumping? Or if you fancy something a little more decadent and relaxing why not treat yourself to a spa day, sailing or a lunch whilst cruising along the Thames? 

To be in with a chance of winning, simply join the Tracesmart Register online and enter our free prize draw. If you have previously entered there is no need to re-join, you will be submitted into each and every following month’s draw

‘Missing Live’, BBC1’s early morning missing person programme, soon got wind of the story and were eager to feature the reunion. Faye and Ken were invited, along with Louise Hewlett from Tracesmart to the BBC studios in London to discuss the unfolding reunited story. The programme producers were keen to focus on Tracesmart’s successful missing person search.

‘Missing Live’, is broadcast every weekday from late April 2008 at 9.15am. The series is produced by Leopard Films on behalf of the BBC, working with the police and the organisation Missing People. The series features the stories of lost contact and reunited families as well as highlighting ongoing police investigations. The series is well received and has audience figures of approximately 2 million viewers.

Tracesmart is one of the UK’s premium online people search facilities and over the years has been instrumental in reuniting thousands of long lost family members and friends such as Faye and Ken. Tracesmart’s database is frequently updated and includes the recently released 2008 Electoral Roll information adding to the company’s exhaustive datasets.

Owen Roberts, Tracesmart’s Communications Manager, commented “We are very proud to be associated with the BBC’s ‘Missing Live’ programme. The programme has been very well received and there is an obvious need to promote the service we provide to the general public as we can transform a person’s life. There are countless people who don’t really know where to start when searching for a missing person, a recent Eastenders episode demonstrated the point as the soap’s storyline involved one of the characters performing an online search for an absent father, typing ‘Electoral Register’ on a search engine. Within seconds of the programme ending Tracesmart were inundated with visits to their website from people wanting to trace missing persons”. Owen added, “Faye and Ken is a typical example of the work we do here at Tracesmart. They are both extremely happy at the turn of events and can enjoy the future knowing they both now have each other”.

If you are the type of person who likes stories with a happy ending, then be sure to tune into BBC 1 for ‘Missing Live’ at 09:15 on Tuesday 13th May. Missing Live, which is produced by Leopard Films for the BBC, will be featuring the story of Ken Millard and Faye Jones, father and daughter who were successfully reunited by Tracesmart.

Following the separation of her parents when she was just a baby, Faye didn’t have any contact with her father. She began searching for him 19 years ago but it wasn’t until she contacted Tracesmart that she enjoyed any success. Louise Hewlett, the trace researcher who located Mr Millard, elaborates on how she helped reunite the pair, “Faye recently contacted us to aid in the search for her father. After providing us with his basic personal details I used our Tracesmart people search to easily locate him and acted as a go between in the initial stages. Both Faye and Ken were delighted to have been reunited, so much so that they have decided to share their story with the nation on Missing Live!”

As well as featuring Ken and Faye’s story, Missing Live will also be chatting with Louise about the tools and techniques she used to locate Ken. If would like to find relatives you can subscribe to Tracesmart and begin searching today!

Tracesmart are dedicated to providing their users with the most accurate data available. They are currently involved in a number of data acquisition projects, including the procurement of the Electoral Roll 2009, to ensure that year on year users of Tracesmart have access to the most up-to-date records available.

Andrew Clark, from Southampton

Congratulations Andrew, we hope that the SatNav will be a welcome addition to your car – helping you to avoid all sorts of navigational nightmares.

The Tracesmart Register free prize draw continues in May with yet another incredible prize - a DAB Digital Radio.

This fantastic prize will be an asset to any home, office or garden shed. With access to news, music, and talk radio stations both locally and across the nation, you’ll never be short of something to listen to. Powered by mains supply or battery, this radio offers stereo sound, the ability to link up your IPod or mp3 player and 12 preset channels.

To be in with a chance of winning, simply join the Tracesmart Register online and enter our free prize draw. If you have previously entered there is no need to re-join, you will be submitted into each and every following month’s draw.

"There are countless people who don’t really know where to start when searching for a missing person, it seems Eastenders has provided a subliminal solution and triggered a reaction. We are obviously very grateful to the BBC for inadvertently promoting our on-line service", explained Owen Roberts, Tracesmart’s Communications Manager. Over the years Tracesmart has been instrumental in reuniting thousands of lost family members and friends. The company continues to deal with increased traffic following the Eastenders’ episode and is well placed to deal with the additional demand for its services.

"With over 115 million records held in our extensive dataset collection, including both current and historic electoral register, birth, death and marriage indexes and our own proprietary dataset, the Tracesmart Register, we are the prudent choice when trying to trace lost friends and find relatives," comments Marketing Manager, Adam Smith. "A people search can be made when the scantest of information is held, even when the trace subjects’ personal circumstances have changed. For example using a combination of state of the art technology and official government records, our marriage search tool makes it possible to locate a female who has married even if you do not know her marital name. It’s this type of innovative tool that keeps us one step ahead of our competitors and our customers coming back.

"The volume of visitors to the Tracesmart site has remained high, with Sunday’s omnibus edition of Eastenders inspiring even more people to search for lost loved ones online. "Whilst the interest generated by Mondays’ episode alone was outstanding, the repeat episode on Sunday helped to ensure one of our busiest weeks on record. We hope that each and every person who visited the site has found success - whoever they are searching for." commented Roberts.

Brian Booth in Sheffield

Congratulations Brian, we hope your new TV provides you with hours of viewing pleasure.

The Tracesmart Register free prize draw continues in April with another exceptional prize - an RAC 200 Satellite Navigation system.

This brilliant piece of navigational equipment comes pre-installed with maps of the UK and Ireland to help you on your travels. Its 3.5”, easy to use touch screen display not only has voice guided directions but also 2D, 3D and night mode, making it virtually impossible for you to get lost - whatever the time,  day or night.

To be in with a chance of winning simply join the Tracesmart Register online and enter our free prize draw. If you have previously entered there is no need to re-join, you will be submitted into each and every following month’s draw.

The records themselves have been added to Tracesmart’s proprietary dataset, the Tracesmart Register, which now holds over 38 million records. "All of the records held within the Tracesmart Register, including the new 1.2 million date of birth records, have been gleaned from a range of data compliant sources to aid in the efficiency of tracing lost friends and increase the ability to find relatives. We constantly improve our service and enhance our dataset collection, and are currently undertaking a number of other data acquisition projects to ensure our customers have access the widest range of data available." notes Paul Weathersby, Technical Director.

When a people search is conducted, any results which have a date of birth will automatically be shown with their precise age. The addition of the age data will considerably enhance positive trace results, for example, if you are looking for a 44 year old John Edwards in any given town and 30 John Edwards are listed in that town but only one is listed with the age 44, then there is a high probability that he is the person you are looking for.

Whilst other people-search engines provide model age data, Tracesmart are proud to be the only one who use precise age data within their results. “Precise age records have a key role to play when attempting to trace people and greatly enhance our search tools such as the friend finder. The accuracy this data provides just can’t be achieved by those sites who simply use age ranges." comments Managing Director, Mike John Trezise. "The addition of these new date of birth records will not only increase our ever expanding dataset collection but will also allow users to easily locate the person they are looking for.”

*For Data Protection purposes, members of the public cannot view the date of birth. The precise age of the subject is calculated from the date of birth data and is displayed in the results.

Lesley Ross in Sleaford

Congratulations Lesley, log on to HMV or visit you local store to enjoy your winnings!

The Tracesmart Register free prize draw continues in March with yet another incredible prize - a 15” LCD TV.

This state of the art prize boasts a stylish 15” flat LCD screen, Nicam surround sound and remote control. Versatile fittings – it can be freestanding or wall-mounted – make this TV ideal for the kitchen, lounge or bedroom!

To be in with a chance of winning, simply join the Tracesmart Register online and enter our free prize draw. If you have previously entered there is no need to re-join, you will be submitted into each and every following month’s draw.

Tracesmart is currently offering an opportunity to complete a missing person search free of charge in exchange for the story being shared exclusively with Tracesmart in the media. Tracesmart could also financially support face to face reunions for high profile cases.

Owen Roberts, Tracesmart’s Communication Manager, commented, “We intend to highlight very newsworthy stories so there will need to be a special reason for us to feature the reunited individuals. We envisage commemorating a high profile get-together with free hotel accommodation and champagne reception to celebrate the reunion, so this really could be a fantastic opportunity”.

“Tracesmart really could change a person’s life forever, all searchers need to do is complete the online missing person application form and we could reunite long lost friends or family members within days”, Owen added.

Further information about this offer is available on the recently improved Tracesmart website where the enhanced features now make it even easier to locate a missing person online. The user friendly site will help assist even more customers in their people search using frequently updated electoral roll, postcode and land registry databases. Owen Roberts stressed, “We are very customer focused within Tracesmart, striving to enhance the end-user experience and to continuously improve our navigation system and powerful search engine technology, and we are now seeing significant growth in customer numbers”.

Lauraine Ling in Ringwood

Congratulations Lauraine, we hope you have an experience of a lifetime, what ever you choose to do.

The Tracesmart Register free monthly prize draw continues in February with another brilliant prize - hmv vouchers worth £100.

This is a brilliant prize whether you're into films, music or computer games. You can spend your vouchers as and when you like, on whatever takes your fancy, both online and in-store!

To be in with a chance of winning simply join the Tracesmart Register online and enter our free prize draw. If you have previously entered there is no need to re-join, you will be automatically submitted into each and every following month’s prize draw.