Try the search with the name in quotation marks – i. e. “John Doe” to narrow your search. If possible, include the person’s full name to target the search. A first, middle and last name in quotation marks will help you to know you are finding information on the right person.
Try searching on Google to see if you can find previous residences. Do both a standard Google search and a Google news search. Look on Facebook for past residences as well. Use the person’s phone number. People keep old phone numbers more and more frequently now, so if you have the number of the person you are investigating, you might be able to use the area code to discover one place he or she lived. Try a paid background search site. Many of these sites, like instantcheckmate. com, will return preliminary results for free, and these results usually include all known addresses for the person in question.
If that fails, Google and Facebook are often helpful when searching for date of birth.
Ask the librarian for help using these research databases if necessary. Enter as much information on your subject as possible. If he or she is a felon, a search will often return case information detailing his or her crime. Be aware that these databases do not include all criminal records. For instance, Lexis’s FINDER/CRIMNL database only has records from 37 states, rarely reaching beyond the year 2000. Westlaw’s CRIM-ALL database has records for 41 states, but not all jurisdictions in those states are represented.
The states that provide statewide records are Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Colorado, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Montana, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, New Jersey, Oregon, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Washington. Keep in mind that state wide reports can be incomplete. Failure of a county to submit criminal reports results in missed information on the report.
A variety of sites provide links offering free access to public records resources. Some useful sites include VirtualChase. com, SearchSystems. net, Public Record Sources, and Public Records Online Searches. [3] X Research source Do a web search for the county or city where the person lived, as well as the terms “criminal court records” or “criminal records”. If that does not work, try searching for the county along with “county clerk”. Enter as much information as you can regarding the person you are investigating. Case information is often coded and difficult to understand. Codes for felonies usually begin with a “F”, those for misdemeanors with a “M”.
Be aware that there may be a fee associated with non-web searches at the county level.
