History Main / SearchingForTheLostRelative

* The first part of ''Killer and Healer'' shows Doctor Chen Yuzhi going to Hong Kong to find his missing sister.

* ''Film/TheGirlWithTheDragonTattoo'': Henrik (and to a lesser extent, Martin) have never stopped looking for his great-niece/his sister, Harriet, who disappeared 40 years ago. [[spoiler:She is discovered to have run away after Gottfried and Martin raped her, and is eventually reunited with Henrik after Martin's death.]]

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda'':

* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'': Barney used to believe that Creator/BobBarker though he grows out of it. Later on, he finds out that "Uncle Jerry" who used to bring him on trips when he was young is actually his real father. [[spoiler:When Marshal's father passed away]], Barney decides to find his real father. When he finally meets him, Barney is upset that his father had another family. But he and his father eventually reconcile.

* In the middle of ''Series/{{Westworld}}'' Season 4, Frankie Nichols joins forces with Bernard who she believes is the only person who can help her find her father, Caleb. Unfortunately for her, [[spoiler:Caleb died 23 years ago after failing to stop Hale's plan of controlling humanity and gets resurrected many times as a host who gets subjected to many tests by Hale. By the time Frankie finally reunites with her father in the penultimate episode, she's confused about his youthful appearance until Caleb tells her that he's a host and his mind is slowly breaking down just like the rest of his copies. In the end, Caleb tells his daughter to leave him and Frankie has to tearfully accept that her father's gone]].

* ''Fatal Frame'' series: In this Japanese survival horror series, some entries have a character whose motivation is this:
** In ''Fatal Frame 1'', teenager Miku Hinasaki braves the haunted Himuro Mansion to find her older brother Mafuyu Hinasaki.
** In ''Fatal Frame 2 (Crimson Butterfly)'' and its remake, ''Deep Crimson Butterfly'', Mio Amakura searches the whole game for her twin sister Mayu, who got lost in the forgotten All Gods' Village.
** In ''Fatal Frame 3: The Tormented'', one of the side characters, Kei Amakura, travels to the Manor of Sleep in his dreams, trying to find his lost niece, Mio Amakura.
** In ''Fatal Frame 5 (Maiden of Black Water)'', [[spoiler:Miu Hinasaki]] is searching for her lost mother, [[spoiler:Miku Hinasaki]].

* This is the whole premise of ''VideoGame/SilentHill'' (1999): writer Harry Mason searches every nook and cranny of deserted resort town Silent Hill for his missing (adoptive) daughter, Cheryl.

* The major conflict of the third volume of ''Manga/TheDemonGirlNextDoor'' is Momo trying to find her AdoptivePeerParent Sakura. [[spoiler:It turns out Sakura [[SealedInsideAHumanShapedCan sealed her core]] in Yuko's body.]]

* ''Manga/FairyTail'': Natsu is introduced in the series looking for his missing adopted dragon father Igneel, with his goal throughout the majority of the series is trying to find him. They do meet up again during the Tartaros arc with TheReveal that Igneel was literally inside of Natsu all along, unfortunately for Natsu their reunion is short-lived as Acnologia kills Igneel not long after reuniting with each other.

* In Creator/RobThuman's ''Literature/{{Chimera}}'', the protagonist is searching for his long-lost little brother and eventually finds him...[[spoiler:except it turns out to be a different person altogether, his actual brother is dead, and he adopts the other kid as a new little brother.]]

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* In Creator/RobThurman's ''Literature/{{Chimera}}'', the protagonist is searching for his long-lost little brother and eventually finds him...[[spoiler:except it turns out to be a different person altogether, his actual brother is dead, and he adopts the other kid as a new little brother.]]

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* Jarod of ''Series/ThePretender'' spent the major part of the series searching for his family, who he's been separated from since the Centre got him. Moreover, Miss Parker is searching for clues about her mother. [[spoiler:Even though they find clues pointing to definite answers, they are never able to effectively meet them. Jarod does meet his father, but gets separated from him again]].

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* ''Fanfic/GrowingUpImpish'': Striker's assassination gigs are revealed as his way of funding his hunt for his missing little brother, [[spoiler:Moxxie]], who vanished after their parents were killed in an extermination. Once he realizes that [[spoiler:he almost killed said brother]], [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone he is horrified with himself]].

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* ''WesternAnimation/{{Anastasia}}'':

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* In Creator/RobThurman's ''Literature/{{Chimera}}'', the protagonist is searching for his long-lost little brother and eventually finds him...[[spoiler:except it turns out to be a different person altogether, his actual brother is dead, and he adopts the other kid as a new little brother.]]

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* Jarod of ''Series/ThePretender'' spent the major part of the series searching for his family, who he's been separated from since the Centre got him. Moreover, Miss Parker is searching for clues about her mother. [[spoiler:Even though they find clues pointing to definite answers, they are never able to effectively meet them]].

* In Creator/RobThurman's ''Literature/Chimera'', the protagonist is searching for his long-lost little brother and eventually finds him...[[spoiler:except it turns out to be a different person altogether, his actual brother is dead, and he adopts the other kid as a new little brother.]]

Searching for the LongLostRelative can be the main theme of a fiction, with the main character investigating to get clues enabling them to know where exactly this relative is. The adventure can be highly emotional, especially if the relative is someone very near of the character, with the protagonist dealing with the absence of the disappeared and how the meeting will proceed.

SuperTrope to GeneHunting; also related to FathersQuest, which often involve a father searching for a missing and endangered child.

* ''Manga/FairyTail'': Natsu is introduced in the series looking for his missing adopted dragon father Igneel, with his goal throughout the majority of the series being trying to find him. They do meet up again during the Tartaros arc with TheReveal that Igneel was literally inside of Natsu all along, unfortunately for Natsu their reunion is short lived as Acnologia kills Igneel not long after reuniting with each other.

* ''Manga/MadeInAbyss'': The inciting incident and majority of the plot revolves around Riko searching for her long lost mother.

* ''Anime/MyHime'': Mikoto Minagi was sent to Fuuka by her dying grandfather to locate her long lost brother. Eventually, she finds him. It's [[spoiler:Reito Kanzaki]] but by the time she finds him he [[spoiler:has suffered a GrandTheftMe to the series' BigBad, The Obsidian Prince, since he was RaisedAsAHost]]. They're able to become proper brother & sister at the end of the series.
* Both Nadia and Jean of ''Anime/NadiaTheSecretOfBlueWater'' are searching for their lost parents, the former for both (along with her homeland she doesn't even know) and the latter for his father, who diseappeared while navigating (his mother having died years ago).

* ''Anime/ThreeThousandLeaguesInSearchOfMother'': Marco, an 8-year-old Italian boy, looks for his missing mother through Argentina.

* ''Fanfic/GrowingUpImpish'': Striker's assassination gigs are revealed his way of funding his hunt for his missing little brother, [[spoiler:Moxxie]], who vanished after their parents were killed in an extermination. Once he realizes that [[spoiler:he almost killed said brother]], [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone he is horrified with himself]].
* ''Fanfic/NotTheIntendedUseZantetsukenReverse'': In ''Game of Cat and Cat'', it is mentioned that after Julius went missing and discovered by a farmer, Julius' family did go to look for him, but the farmer assumed the worst (seeing that a bunch of foreigners in expensive clothes were looking for a battered comatose teenager) and led them away, resulting in Julius' family assuming he's dead for 35 years.

** On the flip side, Anastasia's grandmother, the Dowager Empress, has spent 10 years searching for her by the time of the film, but has become so jaded by the long string of imposters claiming to be her granddaughter for the reward that she's ready to close up shop by the time Anya comes along.
* In Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'', Miguel ends up in the world of deceased ancestors, and tries to find one of his elders, who appears to be the famous musician Ernesto de la Cruz.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Storks}}'': [[TokenHuman Tulip]] was raised by the {{Delivery Stork}}s for basically her whole life, after an incident with her assigned stork destroyed the beacon containing her intended address. One of Tulip's main motivations in the film is [[OrphansOrdeal finding out where her intended family lives]].

* In ''Film/FantasticBeastsTheCrimesOfGrindelwald'', Credence Barebone seeks out answers about his long-lost wizarding family, following rumors that he might be Corvus Lestrange, Leta's long-lost brother. Leta, however, insists that the rumors aren't true [[spoiler:because she [[MyGreatestShame accidentally caused Corvus 's death]] as an infant. Credence, however, does discover the truth about his family -- he's a ''Dumbledore'', not a Lestrange]].

* ''Film/{{Popeye}}'': This was the titualar sailor's whole reason for arriving in Sweethaven, searching for his long lost father after two years at sea. As it turns out Poopdeck Papi is secretly the [[BigBad Commodore]] squeezing the townspeople of taxes while his minion Bluto abuses his power to get Olive Oyl to marry him. Fortunately despite his cantankerous and greedy nature, Poopdeck still harbors love for his son, and undergoes a HeelFaceTurn in time to help Popeye unlock his spinach based powers.
* ''Film/ShangChiAndTheLegendOfTheTenRings'': After the Ten Rings come after his pendant, Shang-Chi seeks out his sister Xialing, whom he left behind when he fled China and their megalomaniac father as a teenager, because she carries the other pendant and he believes the anonymous postcard he got in the mail was her cry for help. [[spoiler:It turns out their father had sent the postcard to lure both of his children together so he may bring them (by force) back into the fold.]]

* In "The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo", first volume of ''Literature/MillenniumSeries'', Hendrik Vanger hires Mikael Blomkvist to search for his missing grandniece Harriet. [[spoiler:She's well and alive in Australia, fleeing from an incestious serial-killling brother]].

* ''Literature/{{Safari}}'': The plot of the book is Mansfield hiring Frank to help him find a lost cousin of his named James Oglethorpe somewhere on the Rhodesia-Mozambique border. Oglethorpe is believed to have been dead for two years after a plane he was on crashed in the area, and Mansfield want to find him so he can confirm he's alive and keep both of their inheritances from going to a charity. [[spoiler:They ultimately find him in a supply store, having taken over from the original owner after he died. He's also been selling guns to the natives in the area. When Mansfield finds him, Oglethorpe is wary of the story, and is certain he actually came to turn him over to the authorities regarding him pushing someone out of a window and killing them. Thus, he has Frank and Mansfield thrown into an old mine shaft.]]

* The main plot of ''Series/JejakSuaraAdzan'' is Dimas' journey to find his older brother, Dika, who were given up for adoption by their mother when Dimas was a baby, at his regretful mother's request before she undergoes a heart operation.

** In a twist, [[spoiler:Ingrid]] searches for two women who could act as a ReplacementGoldfish duo for her two deceased sisters, since it was prophesized to her that she'd succeed in that search. However, it's revealed that there is a ProphecyTwist, and she ends up finding closure for her past quarrel with her ''actual'' sisters and gets reunited with them in a TogetherInDeath scenario.

** Nick in ''Series/PowerRangersMysticForce'' is looking for his real parents (he was adopted). His mother turns out to be the team mentor Udonna, but her husband Leanbow is brainwashed as the evil Koragg. Near the end of the season, he gets rescued, and becomes the final member of the team as the Wolf Warrior.

** Jenny Barnes is searching for her sister Isabelle, abducted in Paris by a cult and will ''always'' find her. The only difference is whether she will be alive and in one piece...[[FingerInTheMail or several]].

* ''VideoGame/{{HAAK}}'': One of the first missions in the game is "Brother, Where Art Thou", which involves [[PlayerCharacter Haak]] looking for his brother, Baak.

** The main plot of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' is kicked off when the King Roc mistakenly flies off with Link's sister Aryll, rather than its intended target Tetra. Link convinces Tetra to take him along to where Aryll is being held, which leads into an even greater quest.

* ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'': The plot of the first game involves Luigi going to his new mansion, which he won in a contest he didn't enter. Mario went first, and Luigi followed that night to meet up with him. Unfortunately, Mario is nowhere to be seen, and it turns out the mansion is haunted by tons of ghosts. After meeting Prof. E. Gadd, the professoe informs Luigi he saw Mario go inside the mansion, but didn't come out. So, armed with the Poltergust 3000 and the Game Boy Horror, Luigi must scour the mansion, suck up the ghosts inside, and locate his missing brother.

* ''VideoGame/TheSimsMedieval'': When you create a Sim, you can assign them the trait of Hopeful Orphan, which gives them interactions related to this, where they?re able to ask others for possible info on their family. The game has no way for these Sims to ever actually find their family, but they can obtain mementos of their relatives which can be used for a quick and easy way to increase their mood.

* ''VideoGame/YandereSimulator'': According to the Headmaster tapes, Ichiko Saikou, the daughter of the founder of Saiko Corp., Saisho Saikou, refused to inherit Saikou Corp. after graduating from Akademi Academy and prefered to dedicate her life to search for her missing twin sister, even though there are no known reports of said twin sister existing, with her only other sibling being her younger brother Ichirou. [[spoiler:Fun Girl's dialogue, if enabled via editing the Fun.txt file, imply that ''she'' is Ichiko's missing twin sister from another timeline in which Saisho erased her from history via a machine that cannot be replicated, [[ISeeDeadPeople and apparently Ichiko is the only one who can hear her]]]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/JayceAndTheWheeledWarriors'', Jayce and his friends look for Audric, his scientist father, through the space. His search is more than missing a lost-long parent, because Jayce and Audric need to reunite in order to join the two halves of the Root, a magic medallion able to defeat the armies of [[PlantPerson vegetable mutants called Monster Minds]].

* ''WesternAnimation/SabansAdventuresOfOliverTwist'' is a very free adaptation of Dickens' book. In it, Oliver looks for his mother, from whom he was separated accidentaly.
* ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'': In "Omi Town", on Chinese New Year's Day, Omi tries to look for his family and finds a village inhabited by people that look similar to him. His parents aren't at all what he expected. [[spoiler:Except everybody turns out to be a robot disguised as Omi's relatives]].

If the family member is a parent and they're in danger, it's overlapping with ParentsInDistress.

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* ''Anime/ThreeThousandLeaguesInSearchOfMother'': Marco, an 8 years old Italian boy, looks for his missing mother through Argentina.

* ''[[ComicBook/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheSearch Avatar: The Last Airbender --The Search]]'' centers around Zuko's search for his long-lost mother Ursa, which was teased [[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender at the end of the original animated series]]. In addition, [[ReluctantPsycho his sister Azula]] forces him to take her too, by reading and burning up the only evidence of their mother's whereabouts.

* This is the whole premise of fairy tales classified as tale type ATU 400, "The Quest for the Lost Wife": the protagonist marries an enchanted princess or maiden of supernatural origin, loses her due to his own actions, and goes to look for her. E.g, European tales "Literature/TheSwanMaiden", ''Literature/TheBlueMountains'' and ''Literature/SoriaMoriaCastle''.

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** On the flip side, Anastasia's grandmother, the Dowager Empress, has spent ten years searching for her by the time of the film, but has become so jaded by the long string of imposters claiming to be her granddaughter for the reward that she's ready to close up shop by the time Anya comes along.

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* In ''Film/FantasticBeastsTheCrimesOfGrindelwald'', Credence Barebone seeks out answers about his long-lost wizarding family, following rumors that he might be Corvus Lestrange, Leta's long-lost brother. Leta, however, insists that the rumors aren't true [[spoiler: because she [[MyGreatestShame accidentally caused Corvus 's death]] as an infant. Credence, however, does discover the truth about his family -- he's a ''Dumbledore'', not a Lestrange]].
* ''Film/TheGirlWithTheDragonTattoo'': Henrik (and to a lesser extent, Martin) have never stopped looking for his great-niece/his sister, Harriet, who disappeared forty years ago. [[spoiler:She is discovered to have run away after Gottfried and Martin raped her, and is eventually reunited with Henrik after Martin's death.]]

* ''Film/JoeDirt'': Through the use of flashbacks, the titular character spends much of the film recounting his (mis)adventures while trying to find and reunite with his family who abandoned him at the Grand Canyon when he was eight years old.

* ''Film/ShangChiAndTheLegendOfTheTenRings'': After the Ten Rings come after his pendant, Shang-Chi seeks out his sister Xialing, whom he left behind when he fled China and their megalomaniac father as a teenager, because she carries the other pendant and he believes the anonymous postcard he got in the mail was her cry for help. [[spoiler: It turns out their father had sent the postcard to lure both of his children together so he may bring them (by force) back into the fold.]]
* ''Film/Shazam2019'': Since Billy Batson got lost from his mother when he was a small child, he has been looking for her and running from the social services and foster groups he is sent to. [[spoiler: He eventually finds her, just to learn that his mother abandoned him on purpose because she was too young, single and no longer could take care of a small child. She doesn't want to have anything to do with him in the present, either, and he finally understands he already has a warm family with his foster parents and the other abandoned kids they took in.]]

* In ''Life and Other Inconveniences'' by Kristan Higgins, Genevieve's favorite son disappeared as a child. Since no body was ever found, she believes he is still alive and spends the rest of her life searching for him. When her great-granddaughter Riley finds out about it, she joins the search. [[spoiler: Eventually the body is recovered-- where it would have been found earlier had Genevieve not ended the search for a body because she was so certain he wasn't dead.]]

* ''Series/Dark2017'': Charlotte as a teenager in the 1980s would like to know who her parents are, but the one she asks about, [[spoiler: her non-biological grandfather]] H.G.Tannhaus doesn't know it either, and by the time we see her in 2019, she seems to have settled with never learning about them. As it turns out, [[spoiler: Charlotte was born in 2041 to Noah and Elisabeth, which makes Charlotte [[MyOwnGrandpa her own granddaughter]] and subsequently brought by her adult self and the oldest self of Elisabeth to 1971 and grew up there as Tannhaus's "granddaughter".]]

** In ''Fatal Frame 5 (Maiden of Black Water)'', [[spoiler: Miu Hinasaki]] is searching for her lost mother, [[spoiler: Miku Hinasaki]].

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'': In "Tails's New Home," Sonic seeks a new place for Tails to stay because he doesn't want the fox to get hurt staying with him. After several disasters, the two discover a fox couple looking for the son they lost, laying claim to be Tails's actual parents. Once alone though, Sonic realizes the two are lying because they continually referred to his friend as Tails, [[spoiler: rather than his real name; Miles.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'': In "Omi Town", on Chinese New Year's Day, Omi tries to look for his family and finds a village inhabited by people that look similar to him. His parents aren't at all what he expected. [[spoiler: Except everybody turns out to be a robot disguised as Omi's relatives]].

->''I want to know who I am. And I?d rather die trying to find out that live not knowing. He?s slipping in and out. My parents, tell me about my parents.''

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* Film/It2017: Bill Denbrough's main motovation during the remake is to find his 'missing' brother, Georgie. [[spoiler:Georgie was actually eaten by [[MonsterClown Pennywise]].]]

* ''Film/ShangChiAndTheLegendOfTheTenRings'': After the Ten Rings comes after his pendant, Shang-Chi seeks out his sister Xialing, whom he left behind when he fled China and their megalomaniac father as a teenager, because she carries the other pendant and he believes the anonymous postcard he got in the mail was her cry for help. [[spoiler: It turns out their father had sent the postcard to lure both of his children together so he may bring them (by force) back into the fold.]]

* ''Series/Dark2017'': Charlotte as a teenager in the 1980s would like to know who her parents are, but the one she asks about, [[spoiler: her non-biological grandfather]] H.G.Tannhaus doesn't know it either, and by the time we see her in 2019, she seems to have arranged with never learning about them. As it turns out, [[spoiler: Charlotte was born in 2041 to Noah and Elisabeth, which makes Charlotte [[MyOwnGrandpa her own granddaughter]] and subsequently brought by her adult self and the oldest self of Elisabeth to 1971 and grew up there as Tannhaus's "granddaughter".]]

** The whole First Curse gets cast as one of the chief parts of Rumplestiltskin's plan of [[spoiler:finding his son who fell through a portal to another world]].
** In a twist, [[spoiler:Ingrid]] searches for two women who could act as a ReplacementGoldfish duo for her two deceased sisters, since it was prophesized to her that she'd succeed in that search. However, it's revealed that there is a ProphecyTwist, and she ends up finding closure for her past quarrel with her ''actual'' sisters and gets reunited with them in a TogetherInDeath.
** [[spoiler:Maleficent]], once brought to life in Season 4, looks for her daughter, who got sucked into the Land Without Magic when she was only a baby.
* Jarod of ''Series/ThePretender'' spent the major part of the series searching for his family he's separated since the Centre got him. Moreover, Miss Parker is searching for clues about her mother. [[spoiler:Even though they find clues pointing to definite answers, they are never able to effectively meet them]].

* ''Series/TheSandman2022'': Rose Walker's parents divorced when she and her younger brother were young, but her father refused to relinquish custody of her brother, Jed, and the siblings were separated. As an adult, after her mother's death, Rose searches for her brother, who is in foster care, hoping to be reunited. Unfortunately, she is constantly blocked from doing so, [[spoiler:even after finding Jed in his dreams and getting his location]] she's forced to continue her search due to [[spoiler:the Corinthian's]] interference.