If you are conducting a search for someone you are in good company. Trying to find a person has become very common. Millions of people conduct these searches annually. It is the increase in these numbers that is alarming – 20% annually.
If you are just starting out on your search you should begin by assessing what category of search you are in. People who simply want to find someone with whom they have lost contact – like a school mate or working associate have it pretty easy. When you need to get into past history or are chasing someone who is eluding you – divorcees, criminals, debt owed, then it gets more difficult. When in doubt, use a people finder.
For searches in the first category – lost contact – start with email address and phone numbers. You should get a hit one several of these over time. If not or if you are in a hurry you should strongly consider one of the online People Finder firms that will conduct the search for $20-$40 and probably get you a hit in several minutes.
If your search is in the more difficult categories, especially those eluding you, then start by making a list of every piece of information you have on your target. List everything that can be of assistance to you in searching, including maiden name, military service number, SSN, all known addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, schools attended, etc.
Your actual searching should begin with the easiest ones first – i.e. online searches for email and phone. In the meantime start your detailed search process. What we are referring to here is the step where you examine everything in the life of the target person including schools, hobbies, jobs, and especially everything related to formalized ownership.
Formalized ownership means anything that States and Counties legally keep track of like real estate, automobiles, boats, planes, etc. This set of information will support searches through County and State databases in the areas where you believe it may return hits. Any revealing or detailed hits in this category will support the following group of search activity, called Direct Access Searches. Use the data referenced above to begin to search County and State files or related subjects. Record anything that looks promising but do not act on it except to conduct further searches. Definitely try an address search on by entering ‘address search’ in Google.
The following type search is called Special Interest. These include everything from College Fraternity association, religious affiliation, Military Service and everything else in this category. You can chase these online through the many online services and applied club and organization sites that keep members in contact.
The final category of your search activity is called Negative History. This includes anything illegal or code violations like unpaid taxes, etc. that are kept on State and County roles. This includes unpaid tickets, divorce records, foreclosures. What you are looking for here is both identity and verification of the same. If you turn up something in this category it will normally be of significant content. Getting a hit in this category will normally serve your search activities well in terms of producing valuable data. It will greatly contribute to your effort to find a person.
