little confused......

[CAP1]

 ok....as some of you may or may not know...i think i've mentioned it before.......i really never knew my dad. he got gone when i was 2.  over the years, every so often, either me or my brother would look for information on the guy, because both of us thought it'd be cool to meet the guy at least once......

 well.....mom's here with me right now, has been doing some cleaning, and getting ready to go back to my brothers in florida. she found his social security number. so......i went and typed in his full name, and his social security number for a google search. i found him. it seems he died in 1995.
 now.....on one hand, having never known the guy, it doesn't much bother me at all.........on the other hand, he IS after all the reason i'm here. i can't find anything concerning where or how he died though. i'd kinda be interested to know how/where he died, but google isn't being very productive on either. not even a "last known address".

 still, not really sure how to feel about this, but definitely wanting more information.

[ToeTag]

First stop...who reported him as dying.  Then work your way back from there.  All of those records should be public.  Then find out who buried him in the paper work from the mortician.  There should be signatures and contact info there on the paper work.  Hope this helps.

[CAP1]

First stop...who reported him as dying.  Then work your way back from there.  All of those records should be public.  Then find out who buried him in the paper work from the mortician.  There should be signatures and contact info there on the paper work.  Hope this helps.

 when i googled it, it came up on faqs.org/people search. but it didn't have any info on his last known residence. i think he was born in west va, served at one of the nike missile bases here in nj, and don't know anything after that..........

 i think at this point, it's a curiosity thing.........i was told he was a heavy drinker when he was young...........

[guncrasher]

contact the social security administration.  also your birth certificate may have info if your mother listed him as the father, if he is listed you probably have a good chance of getting his birth certificate which would also list his parents and place of birth which would also be a good start.

I hope you find what you are looking for as I know how you feel.  my father also left when I was young except that I know where he lives.  but he's not interested in any kind of relationship as he's just waiting to die from alcoholism.  but that's life.

midway

edit:  I almost forgot one option that was recommended was to hire a private detective as they know more about how to find people.

[ToeTag]

I know you know this but it will likely start in the state that he died and you will have to work down to specifics from there.  State then town and it should speed up from there.

[bmwgs]

The first thing is to try and obtain a copy of the Death Certificate as mentioned above. 

Every state has a Bureau of Vital Statistics, though some call it a different name.  In most states you can simply do an online search on their website to see if they have a certificate and then for a fee you can have a copy mailed to you. 

A number of states are not Open Records states and you can not get a copy of a birth or death certificate without being a family member or fall under other criteria recognized by the state.

Start with the state you feel first he may have died in and start doing a search.  All you really need is his legal name and Date of Birth.  It may be time consuming because you will have to do the search state by state.  Here is W. VA Health Statistics Center  http://www.wvdhhr.org/bph/hsc/vital/birthcert.asp

Once you locate a Death Certificate, then you can take the information from there and start working backwards.  It can be a very time consuming process.

An easier, but a little more costly way is using is using an online search company like  http://www.zabasearch.com/ .  In the end it will cost you some money, but they are really pretty good.

Good Luck

Fred