Records Search Options

TruthFinder

4.8 / 5.0

Police, court, and bankruptcy-related record search option.

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Intelius

4.7 / 5.0

People search with reverse-phone, address, and contact lookup tools.

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What to use for i search people

The National Archives states that its records generally do not help locate living individuals and are usually decades old.

Use identifiers that reduce false matches

  • Verify the person. Treat the matching name as a lead until other details agree: compare name spelling, date of birth, source jurisdiction, and filing or booking number so later review can reproduce why the match was accepted.
  • Keep dates attached. Treat historical addresses as dated evidence rather than current-location proof. This prevents an old record from being presented as a current residence claim.

Search for a fact, not for a universal person profile

Start with the event or fact you want to verify and choose the public record that would create it. A court filing, property event, vital event, or historical record can each answer a different question, so keep those records separate as you build the person history.

If you have a name and a court-related place: use USA.gov’s court directory to identify the relevant state/local court before choosing its case search. In Delaware, for example, CourtConnect accepts person name, business name or case type for civil dockets and can show judgments and case activity. Start with the name, then use the court, case number and date to test the match. This example is Delaware civil coverage, not a nationwide people index.

If you have a property address instead: first confirm its county. Greenville County, South Carolina, offers a concrete two-step route: the Register of Deeds instructions send an address-only clue to Real Property to find the owner name, then use that owner or previous owner name, or a deed book/page, for the recorded-document search. Stop at what that dated property record establishes; it does not locate an occupant.

If you know a Delaware profession or license number: choose Individual in DELPROS License Look-Up, select the profession and enter a name or partial name, or use the known license number. Open the result number and View More Info; APP or L2K entries are not yet fully issued licenses. If the clues do not identify the same person, keep the result unresolved rather than combining unrelated records.

Current-location search versus historical research

Build a source timeline

Keep a simple chronology of source, date, place, and event. That helps prevent older information from being mistaken for current information.

Choose a record-specific route

Move from the people-search question to the specific record that could answer it. Different records answer different parts of a people-search question.

Authoritative next stops

Official federal navigation source; United States

USA.gov - Local Governments

USA.gov helps locate state and local government offices; it is navigation evidence rather than substantive proof about a person.

United States