New Online: Public Records Guide from US DOJ Libraries (via Government Info Pro)
Once again, Marie Kaddell has posted another gem on her Government Info Pro blog that will be likely become a very useful guide for many online researchers not only those in the government information community.
The title of the document is, "'Public Records Resources Online: How to Find Everything There Is to Know About "Mr. X.'" and comes from the U.S. Department of Justice Library. Marie thanks Jennifer McMahan, Supervisory Librarian, 1425 NY Ave. Library for "sharing" this resource. The ResourceShelf team would also like to thank Jennifer for making it available and of course a tip of the hat to Marie, for putting it online.
+ Summary of public records on Mr. X ...
+ His social security number is ...
+ He was born / died ...
+ He was married / divorced ...
+ He lives / lived ...
+ He owns / is licensed to drive ...
+ He is a licensed ...
+ His corporate affiliations ...
+ Information about his companies / charities ..
+ His court records and filings ...
+ His Web site / E-mail address ...
+ He went to college ...
+ Information about him in the News ...
+ His voter registration & campaign contributions ...
+ Information about him on the Web ...
+ and more...
Important: Some of the databases listed in the guide are available to everyone on the web while others are fee-based and only available to certain groups of users. So, make sure you check before suggesting one source of another to a user.
Free Public Records Directory is one of my favorite sites. I like it because you choose a state, then a county from the drop down menu at the top and it links you to public records databases for that county. It also identifies which counties are near the one you're looking in, if you want to try surrounding counties.
Next, Marie acknowledges SearchSystems.net and while the individual databases are still available (more in a moment) the site has numerous links to use fee-based Intelius content. Remember, some basic Intelius content is free but to access the full record you'll have to pay up. For example, you MIGHT be able to find a persons age, current location, previous cities where they lived and relatives for free. But caveat emptor please and even more so since this info is free.
Premium content is, as expected, fee-based. While the underlying, "criminal court, corrections, inmate, parole, want, warrant, and sex offender databases" might be free, you will have to pay to get to the directory to find it. That's just a portion of SearchSytems premium content and services.
The good news is that the once fee-based SearchSytems.net public records locator APPEARS to be free again. For example: here's a list (with links to the databases) for Orange County, CA.
Finally, Marie suggests NetrOnline for public assessor, tax info, and other public records data. We couldn't agree more. This directory is also a long time ResourceShelf favorite.
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