Former partner's place found by address search (11)
I believe the answer is:
exploration
'search' is the definition.
(exploration is a kind of search)
'former partner's place found by address' is the wordplay.
'former partner' becomes 'ex'.
'place' becomes 'pl' (I've seen this in other clues).
'found by' says to put letters next to each other.
'address' becomes 'oration' (oration is a kind of address**).
'ex'+'pl'+'oration'='EXPLORATION'
(Other definitions for exploration that I've seen before include "Travel for purpose of discovery" , "Process of investigation" , "Process of discovering new lands" .)