Where To Search For People

Choose where to search from the event you know

The best starting office depends on the fact you already have: a court event, property event, vital event, or historical record points to a different custodian. Use that event to choose the record system instead of searching every source for the same generic name.

Property or address clue: in Greenville County, South Carolina, use Register of Deeds → Search Public Records with an owner name or deed book/page. Its Real Property link resolves an address to an owner name. For property elsewhere, locate that jurisdiction’s recorder or register of deeds through the official local-government website; a deed documents an event, not necessarily where someone now lives.

Court clue: follow USA.gov Courts to the relevant court system. A concrete example is King County District Court Case Access: name, case number, birth date or filing date can locate its cases after free portal registration. Its online case-document access is restricted; a case-information match does not give everyone document access or cover other courts.

Birth or family-history clue: for a U.S. birth certificate, USA.gov’s birth-certificate route points to the birth state or territory’s vital-record office; have the city and county of birth and check its identification, eligibility and ordering rules. This is a document-request route, not a public finder of living people. For historical family events, use NARA’s genealogy resources and record dates rather than treating an old entry as a current address.