An excellent site used by journalists for locating information on people is JournalismNet.

How does the IRS find people? Here are some of their secrets: Sources of Information, Part 9, Criminal Investigation, Internal Revenue Manual (IRM).

There are many sites on the Net for researching family histories. Ancestry.com is probably the biggest (search over 72 million names using their US Social Security Death Index).

To find local sources, do a Google search for geneology and the state or province (E.G. Ontario).

For Canada, try: the Canadian Genealogy Centre, Genealogy Resources on the Internet (Canada). Canadian Genealogy & History.

The websites for many states and provinces maintain contain links to vital statistics. In B.C, for example, you can search for births (100 years & older), marriages (75 years & older) and deaths (20 years & older) using their Vital Events Indexes.

canlii.org - A massive portal with free global search capability encompassing decisions and judgements from most higher courts, tribunals, and commissions right accross Canada.

B.C. Court Services Online - Conduct a global search of all Provincial and Supreme court registries throughout the province.

Continuing Legal Education Society of B.C. - Provides case summaries as well as information on books, courses and Internet resources for lawyers.

UBC Faculty of Law - Information on decisions of B.C. Superior Courts, links to Canadian Judges' Home Pages, The Canadian Journal of Law and Society and Yearbook of International Environmental Law.

In the U.S., KnowX.com checks US public records for lawsuits and bankruptcy filings ($1 to $1.50 per query). PACER provides a gateway to case and docket information from US Federal Appellate, District and Bankruptcy courts, and from the U.S. Party/Case Index.

Credit reports cannot be obtained on people without their signed authorization. (for background, read How Private Is My Credit Report). Full credit reports can be obtained from Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian.

Note: In the U.S., a portion of the credit report called the credit header used to be easier to obtain. A credit header contained basic information about a person such as name, variations of names, current and prior address, phone number, date of birth, and Social Security Number. The practice of selling credit headers was stopped after the introduction of the the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.

Superintendent of Bankruptcy Insolvency Name Searches ($)

In Canada, unless you are a police officer, criminal records can only be searched with the permission of the subject of the search.

In the U.S., criminal records are only searchable online in a handful of states, E.G. Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Texas, Maine, Pennsylvania , Michigan, South Carolina, Washington and Wisconsin.

• Only police officers can conduct a true national criminal records checks.
• It is possible to search statewide for criminal records in 27 states. Information on sex offenders is usually publicly available (see SexOffender.com or IndexSearch).
• A thorough search in the U.S. requires searching thousands of separate criminal indexes and usually going to a county courthouse.

The British Columbia Cemetery Finding Aid is a database of over 344,000 interments in British Columbia. It is similar to the Ontario Cemetery Finding Aid.

An extensive list of Canadian cemeteries can be found at: Canadian Genealogy and History Links. Once a grave is located, check FuneralNet - it lists over 1,000 funeral homes in Canada where you might be able to get additional information on the deceased. Once a place and date of death are determined, check the obituaries of the local newspaper for even more information (use Directory Assistance to phone the local library to get the name of the local newspaper or search Canadian-based publications online).

In the US, the quickest way to find out if someone is dead is to check if their Social Security Number is on the Social Security Death Index (over 60 million names). There is no Canadian equivalent.

Phone Directories: If you are trying to finds someone, the phone book is a great place to start. A number of phone directories are online (see Telephone).

Public Records: For the U.S., try searchbug.com, pretreive.com, zabasearch.com, birthdatabase.com, pipl.com or MelissaDATA.

Relatives: Searching death records may reveal a deceased relative of the missing person. Use links such as the British Columbia Cemetery Finding Aid to find and contact the appropriate cemetery. They might have records on who purchased the plot or who pays the maintenance fees. If you can find the person responsible for the grave, they may be related to your missing person and know their whereabouts.

Business Records: Company incorporation records may reveal the missing person is a director or officer and provide a home address (in most cases, however, you can't simply input a person's name - you have to start with the name of a company).

Classmates: The Names Database, Classmates Online, and Gradfinder, help find old school friends. Other alumni websites.

Neighbors: Go to 411.ca. Do a Reverse Address Search. Input the person's last known address (without the house number). Call those who live close to your missing person or those that appear to have the same ethnicity. They may know the habits of your target or where he's moved.

Adoption Records: The Adoptees' Internet Mailing List's World Wide Web Site contains an extensive list of adoption search resources on the Internet.

Peoplefinders: CyberAddress.com boasts that they can help you find anyone.

The National Archives of Canada holds the personnel files of over 5,500,000 former military and civilian employees of the Canadian Armed Forces and the Federal Public Service. Unfortunately, this information is not on-line and must be requested utilizing the Access to Information Act and Privacy Act.

Other good sites: Royal Canadian Air Force and Canadian Air Aces & Heroes - WWI, WWII, Korea.

In Canada, the BC Assessment Property Database is available to subscribers of BC Online.

Stock Brokers and Investment Advisors are registered with government regulators like the BCSC (click on "BCSC Databases") and the NASDR (look under "Perform an Online Search"). BASIC is a web-based clearinghouse of disciplinary information gathered from the National Futures Association, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and 14 major U.S. futures exchanges. It covers more than 50,000 futures firms and salespeople.

Other professionals may either be licenced by a government agency or belong to a professional society such as the:

• Law Society of British Columbia,
• Canadian Bar Association,
• Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants,

The North American Directory of Regulatory Boards and Colleges has links by jurisdiction and occupation.

US DEA-Controlled Substances Act (CSA) Registration Database ($) lists more than one million individuals (physicians and related practitioners) registered to prescribe and handle controlled substances.

The US Social Security Death Index will tell you if a Social Security Number (SSN) has been retired because the person has died. The US government also has a site for employers that verifies if an SSN is valid. There is also a free program that anybody can use called SSN_Valid. You can also search for someone using their SSN (commercial services such as the National Credit Information Network, Lexis/Nexis Finder Library, and AutoTrack conduct these kind of searches for a fee). In Canada, the collection and use of Social Insurance Numbers is much more limited.

Note: US Social Security Numbers are fairly easy to find as they often appear in land deeds, death certificates, traffic tickets, creditors' filings and other documents related to civil and criminal court cases. However, since 2001, US Federal courts have banned the numbers from appearing on public documents to prevent identity theft.