1. BACKGROUNDING INDIVIDUALS
PUBLIC DOCUMENTS
RESEARCH TIPS AND LINKS
Barbara Van Woerkom
May 9, 2012

2. 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

3. Bagley affair
• Nellie/Nelida
• Criminal conviction
• NPR Ombudsman
• Reporter’s response
• Photo by Eugene Richards

4. Public Records
Databases - $
TLO.com
Properties Records
Criminal /Civil Records
Phones/Email/Addresses
Trademarks
> Foreclosures
Liens
> Judgments
Bankruptcies
> Evictions

5. Search Engines
• Regulars, like Google, Yahoo, Bing
• DuckDuckGo
• Google Advanced search - focus in with
“Domain” and “Site” search functions
• Images

6. Search the News
Locations for news media My Public Library’s Databases
• Advanced Google news
• Patch.com
• Blogs
• local newspapers websites
• Local TV news websites
• Your public library’s
research databases –
ProQuest, Gale, EBSCO

7. 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

8. 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.

9. 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

10. 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