BACKGROUNDING INDIVIDUALSPUBLIC DOCUMENTS

RESEARCH TIPS AND LINKSBarbara Van Woerkom

May 9, 2012

Collect the Vitals

Get as many details as you can • Full name, nicknames, alternative spellings • Age, birth date, places of residence• Family members, spouses, kids

Check social media and vital record• Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Pipl.com, WhitePages.com• US Social Security Death Index and Vital Records

Bagley affair

• Nellie/Nelida• Criminal conviction

• NPR Ombudsman• Reporter’s response

• Photo by Eugene Richards

Public Records Databases - $

TLO.comProperties RecordsCriminal /Civil RecordsPhones/Email/AddressesTrademarks > Foreclosures Liens > Judgments Bankruptcies > Evictions

Search Engines

• Regulars, like Google, Yahoo, Bing• DuckDuckGo• Google Advanced search - focus in with

“Domain” and “Site” search functions• Images

Search the News

Locations for news media

• Advanced Google news• Patch.com• Blogs • local newspapers websites• Local TV news websites• Your public library’s

research databases – ProQuest, Gale, EBSCO

My Public Library’s Databases

Court Cases

• PACER – Federal District, Appellate, Bankruptcy $• Google Scholar – Federal Appellate, District, Tax,

Supreme, state legal opinions• Sex offender national registry• Courtreference.com – links to all courts by state,

county• Justia.com – legal blog search• BRB Publications – links to online court cases

Gateways to Public Records

• BRB Publications - public records publisher offering links to government agencies that provide free online access to public record information

• http://publicrecords.onlinesearches.com/ - Pick a state, at the top of the screen you can choose your county, find official records

• http://publicrecords.searchsystems.net/ - property, criminal, court, birth, death, marriage, divorce records, licenses, deeds, mortgages, corporate records, business registration, etc.

• http://www.statelocalgov.net/index.cfm - One-stop shopping for state agencies, city and county governments, by state or topic

• State Occupational Licensing Boards – through BRB• Portico - helpful collection of public records sites, particularly for

professional records and property records by county and city.

Business Records

• Company websites – Investor information/annual reports• SEC – search 10-K, DEF14A, full-text• Secretary of State business filings by state – BRB Publications

or search for your state plus terms: secretary of state business records search

• OSHA inspections – search by entity, state • WARN Act sites for each state - state Departments of Labor• Reynolds Center for Business Journalism - free seminars on

business information

Final words

• Practice with your own identity or significant other

• Be skeptical – verify• If you don’t see the record, it might not be

online – phone contacts and ask• Don’t get discouraged• Go forth and search!

Questions: bvanwoerkom@npr.org