Phone Numbers and Addresses There are several reliable online phone directories on the Web, from Anywho.com to Yahoo! People Search. Use an online phone directory to locate phone numbers and addresses or do a Reverse Phone LookUp search to find addresses and names connected to a phone number. Listed below are a few free online phone directories. Anywho.com http://www.infospace.com. Features world directories, near an address searching, map and directions. Switchboard at http://www.switchboard.com. Business searches, area and zip code, also provides Reverse Lookup feature but calls it "search by phone." Yahoo! People Search at http://www.people.yahoo.com. Reverse phone number searching, email searching and more. Lycos People Search at http://www.whowhere.lycos.com. People, Yellow Pages, images and videos and classifieds. Zabaserach.com at http://www.zabasearch.com. People searching and public information searching. Locating People Using a Fee-Based Service If the free sites fail to turn up information, you can also try a fee-based service, but before using these databases you must provide a valid business reason as defined by Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, and you must verify your reasons for using this service. Accurint at http://www.accurint.com/ Choicepoint at http://www.choicepoint.com KnowX at http://www.knowx.com/ Lexis at http://www.lexis.com Westlaw at http://www.westlaw.com Locating the Dead These sites aren't just for ghost hunting, locating the dead can be a valid means of locating a current address for relatives of the deceased, or for finding social security numbers. To search for Social Security Numbers, try the Social Security Death Index at http://ssdi.rootsweb.com. If the person was Catholic, search the Catholic Cemeteries sites. In Milwaukee the searchable site is at http://www.cemeteries.org/genealogy.asp. If the deceased was a member of the military you can search the VA Cemetery site at http://gravlocator.cem.va.gov Public Record Sites Another great resource for locating people and addresses is to search public records online. Many government sites post a public records database and are free to the public. You can use a public record site to look up individuals who must be licensed with the state and locate addresses by searching a tax assessor database in a municipality. Although, there is no database that can provide a comprehensive criminal records search, Wisconsin has a few good sites for criminal records searches that are listed under Wisconsin Public Records sites. To locate public records in your county or state, try the sites listed below. Search Systems at http://www.searchsystems.net/ Public Records Finder at http://www.publicrecordfinder.com/ Netronline at http://www.netronline.com/public_records.htm BPR Publishing at http://www.brbpub.com/pubrecsites.asp Portico at http://indorgs.virginia.edu/portico Wisconsin Public Records Sites For a Wisconsin criminal records searching try: Wisconsin Circuit Court Access provides CCAP (Consolidated Court Automation Program) at http://www.wcca.wicourts.gov/index.xsl. Wisconsin Department of Justice at http://www.doj.state.wi.us. Wisconsin Sexual Offenders Registry at http://wwwoffender.doc.state.wi.us/public. Real Estate Dane County Dane County Tax assessor information can be located using Access Dane at http://accessdane.co.dane.wi.us/ City of Milwaukee Tax Asssessor information can be located at http://isdweb1.ci.mil.wi.us/RequestServices/PropertyData.html Each tax assessor database has unique features. In Dane County, you can search by name, address or parcel number, in the city of Milwaukee you can only search by address and not by individual names. Nationwide Another valuable real estate resource is Zillow at http://www.zillow.com. One of the cooler features of Zillow.com is that it maps the address of a home and shows the estimated value of the address you enter as well as home values for neighboring real estate.
Submitted by Jenny Zook, Reference Librarian on November 20, 2006
This article appears in the categories: Law Library/IT
