when a person goes into witness protection, are the family member informed by the police of this or do they just disapear ? are they made to believe that they have died, are they allowed to say there goodbyes,? please help

It will vary by the program ( state or federal) and the level they go into the program. Most have to appear in court and testify against the person they know the information about, so basically the bad guys know he is alive and they don't fake a death but merely move and hide them.

In larger cases they are allowed to take their close family with them ( wife and children) But there is little good byes, they just go.

Now remember the majority of all of the witness protection people are criminals, and they will go to prison often for a while under a new ID because they don't get away completely free for their actions. So after they serve their time as one ID, they are then given another ID and moved to some safe area.

So in general the family will know they were arrested, and then just disappear in the system.

I am sure there has been the faked deaths like you see on TV but that would be the rareity I am sure.