How do you find out distant relatives e-mails for free?

Question

when you havent heard nor seen them in over 10 years?

Answer 1

Start with your close relatives and hope someone has kept in touch with great aunt Martha. There are no reliable e-mail directories.

Answer 2

If you're talking about distant relatives in general (i.e. not a specific person you've lost touch with), then type in the name of your common ancestor and the word genealogy into google or yahoo like this

"Laverne DeFazio" genealogy

It will probably take you to some genealogy forums where that ancestor has been discussed.  Nine out of ten times it's a descendant (i.e. a cousin of yours, though probably distant) who's leading the discussion, and usually they have a linked email address.

If it's an exact person, try looking for them on MySpace (if you know that, for example, they live in Atlanta, you can search just for people named Henrietta who live in Atlanta) or in White Pages (which sometimes has email, but very rarely) http://www.whitepages.com

Answer 3

Start with a "base" ie, a cousin, etc that may know where they are, and build a network.  

Please don't rely on email... there are thousands of persons who don't have computers or email.  The more elderly ones (often the ones you most want to connect with) are least likely to use email.

www.peoplefinder.com and www.zabasearch.com are good online address directories, although some records ARE out of date.