My family is gone but still in the game?

Hi, I have a problem. I was playing the sims 2 and something happened. I wanted to reverse it, so I closed the game without saving, but when i tried playing it, the game was saved. So i tried to do I don’t even know what… by taking out the lot and the characters out of the folder of the neighborhood. Then I tried putting them back but it doesn’t show anywhere in the game. The lot or the characters, like they’re gone. I thought I lost it so I started new family, but then one of the sims from my „lost” family appeared on the street. I was looking through all of the neighborhoods and I can’t find them, but they are still in the game. How can I get them back?