Researching
Individuals
This
is a list of information available about individuals, and
sources for accessing the information. Some of the information
is easily accessible; other information requires access
to specialized databases.
The
list applies to a wide variety of individuals. High-profile
people, including celebrities, corporate executives and
politicians, have the most information available about them
on the public record. Less public individuals, including
low-level public officials (like clerks or cops) and unaffiliated
individuals, tend to have less informative public records
- but you'll be surprised what you can find on anyone:
Before
you begin your research, ask yourself what you need to know
about someone - and why?
For example:
-
Where/how can they be contacted?
- Where did they attend college?
- What is their compensation and/or salary?
- Do they or have they served on other boards?
- Do they have connections to industry groups?
- What did they do before?
- Are they married? To whom? Are they divorced? Do they have
children?
- With which political party do they affiliate?
- Who receives their political campaign contributions?
- What is their religious affiliation?
- With what organizations are they involved?
-
What hobbies are they active in?
-
What strong interests do they have?
-
Have they ever published?
-
Have they made any incriminating public statements? Or public
statements that can be used against them?
-
Do they have a criminal record?
-
Who on their staff should you be dealing with?
-
Who contributed to their campaign? Including in-kind contributions
and loans.
-
Are there any connections between contributions and how a
politician voted on a piece of legislation?
-
When are they up for re-election?
-
What is their voting record? Especially with issues of concern
to you.
-
On which committees do they serve? Do they hold any leadership
positions?
-
What past jobs have they held?
-
What does their spouse do?
-
Who voted (or not) for him/her in the last election (voting
patterns)?
-
Do they or their spouse own stock? If so, in which companies?
-
Other family connections? (where did the family money come
from?)
HOME
ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER
Sources:
Local
telephone directories FREE!
If you know the person's name and city.
Marquis
Who's Who FREE!
Available at public libraries. Contains biographies of well-known
people, including business people, scientists and public
officials.
KnowX
http://www.knowx.com
$
People Finder database searches residence and real estate
public records to locate individuals. Good option when the
phone book won't work. Search fees range from free to $1.50
per database. Charges for documents range from $1 - $7.
FEC-Info
http://www.tray.com/fecinfo/ FREE!
Database of all federal election campaign donations by individuals.
Search by an individual contributor's name. It will often
list the individual's address, which is typically either
their home or business address. At minimum, it will list
a contributor's city, state and type of work (often including
the company's name), which can narrow down searches using
other sources.
Lexis-Nexis
http://www.nexis.com
FREE!/$
Often available for free at libraries (especially law libraries)
or law firms, Lexis-Nexis is a massive research database.
Its Public Records library includes a people locator similar
to KnowX.
AutoTrackXP
http://www.autotrackxp.com/
$
AutoTrackXP is an expensive database that accesses "six
billion current and historical records on individuals and
businesses." Only professional investigators can subscribe.
It may be accessible through research organizations, private
investigators or attorneys in your network of supporters.
SALARY
for
corporate executives
Sources:
U.S.
Securities & Exchange Commission http://www.sec.gov/
FREE!
Publicly-traded corporations must submit certain information
to the Security & Exchange Commission (SEC) for the
government, investors and public scrutiny. This includes
revealing the salaries of top executives and board members.
Compensation tables are found in SEC form DEF 14A, the company's
final proxy statement. The SEC provides on-line copies of
these and other financial statements.
Free
EDGAR http://www.freeedgar.com
FREE!
Free EDGAR is a database of corporate Securities & Exchange
Commission (SEC) filings. You can search by company name
or ticker. Very easy to use.
Edgar
Online/People http://people.edgar-online.com/people
FREE!
EDGAR Online is a sister database to Free Edgar. It allows
full-text searching of SEC documents. Also, with its People
database, you can search SEC filings by a corporate executive's
name, or you can retrieve a list of all individuals associated
with a particular company.
ASSETS
businesses or stock owned, property ownership, deed transfers,
vehicles and boats
Sources:
KnowX
http://www.knowx.com
$
Asset database searches property, deeds and other public
records to locate an individuals' assets. Search fees range
from free to $1.50 per database. Charges for documents range
from $1 - $7.
Lexis-Nexis
http://www.nexis.com
FREE!/$
Often available for free at libraries (especially law libraries)
or law firms, Lexis-Nexis is a massive research database.
Its Public Records library searches property, deed and other
records to locate assets held by an individual.
AutoTrackXP
http://www.autotrackxp.com/ $
AutoTrackXP is an expensive database that accesses "six
billion current and historical records on individuals and
businesses." Only professional investigators can subscribe.
It may be accessible through research organizations, private
investigators or attorneys in your network of supporters.
COURT
PROCEEDINGS
divorce, bankruptcy, liens, judgements, criminal and
civil decisions
Sources:
KnowX
http://www.knowx.com
$
Asset database searches property, deeds and other public
records to locate an individuals' assets. Search fees range
from free to $1.50 per database. Charges for documents range
from $1 - $7.
AutoTrackXP
http://www.autotrackxp.com/ $
AutoTrackXP is an expensive database that accesses "six
billion current and historical records on individuals and
businesses." Only professional investigators can subscribe.
It may be accessible through research organizations, private
investigators or attorneys in your network of supporters.
Lexis-Nexis
http://www.nexis.com
FREE!/$
Often available for free at libraries (especially law libraries)
or law firms, Lexis-Nexis is a massive research database.
Its Public Records library searches property, deed and other
records to locate assets held by an individual.
DRIVERS
LICENSES
Sources:
AutoTrackXP
http://www.autotrackxp.com/
$
AutoTrackXP is an expensive database that accesses "six
billion current and historical records on individuals and
businesses." Only professional investigators can subscribe.
It may be accessible through research organizations, private
investigators or attorneys in your network of supporters.
PROFESSIONAL
LICENSES
physicians, real estate brokers, investigators, firearms,
etc.
Sources:
AutoTrackXP
http://www.autotrackxp.com/
$
AutoTrackXP is an expensive database that accesses "six
billion current and historical records on individuals and
businesses." Only professional investigators can subscribe.
It may be accessible through research organizations, private
investigators or attorneys in your network of supporters.
Lexis-Nexis
http://www.nexis.com
FREE!/$
Often available for free at libraries (especially law libraries)
or law firms, Lexis-Nexis is a massive research database.
Its Public Records library searches property, deed and other
records to locate assets held by an individual.
VEHICLE
REGISTRATION
Sources:
AutoTrackXP
http://www.autotrackxp.com/
$
AutoTrackXP is an expensive database that accesses "six
billion current and historical records on individuals and
businesses." Only professional investigators can subscribe.
It may be accessible through research organizations, private
investigators or attorneys in your network of supporters.
OTHER
INFORMATION
Sources:
Employer
website (www.[company name].com)
Employer's
Public Relations Office
College
Alumni Associations
Lexis-Nexis
http://www.nexis.com
FREE!/$
Often available for free at libraries (especially law libraries)
or law firms, Lexis-Nexis is a massive research database.
Its News library searches thousands of domestic and international
publications, including mainstream press.
Google
http://www.google.com
Google is the best introductory search engine. It will easily
and efficiently search a billion web pages for mentions
of an individual's name.
Dogpile
http://www.dogpile.com
Dogpile is the best multi-search engine. With one easy interface,
it metasearches up to 18 search engines simultaneously,
including Google and Alta Vista, both of which are good
for researching individuals.
Political
Records:
Project
Vote Smart
http://www.vote-smart.org
Voting records, campaign finance data, issue positions,
performance evaluations, biographical and contact information
on president and current members of congress. The amounts
received by current office holders from specific interest
groups, such as agriculture, as shown back to the late 1980's.
Has a section on Issues that provides a background on an
issue with links to organizations working on that issue.
Center
for Responsive Politics
http://www.crp.org
Special reports on the correlation between the sources of
lawmaker's campaign funds and how they voted, as well as,
industry and topical analysis to campaign contributions.
Enter the representative's name in the query box.
Marquis
Who's Who
D&B Reference Book of Corporate Management
Who's Who in Finance and Industry
Who's Who in Technology (includes employer index)
The Almanac of American Politics
Your reference librarian!
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