Possible reasons why a family relative cannot be located.
Reasons:Please add to this list if you know of other reasons.
1. A relative left this country and never returned.No contact with any famiy in U.S.
2.Persons who marry several times in different states and are rarely in touch with relatives.
3.Individuals who purposely get name changes and dates of birth and may not keep in touch with relatives.
4.Adoptions.There are many instances where a child is sent to live with another family (kin or not) and the child may or may not have been legally adopted, but the child is then known by the surname of the Adoptee.
5.The father of the child dies when the child is very young.The motherremarries and the child is then reported on the census as the child of the mother's 2nd marriage. The child grows up never knowing anything about his real father and his real relatives because he never knew that his step-father was not his real father.Eventually, Y-DNA tests become available which proved the child was of the mother's first marriage.Also, other records become available to further prove the child was of the first marriage.The correct ancestry of the child would never have been known without the Y-DNA test.