|
For comments, please contact the author at Ettisch-EnchelmaierGmbH@t-online.de first published in J. Culligan's Newsletter/USA in March 2001 This document outlines the sources available online and offline around the world needed by investigators for helping clients to trace ancestors, search missing persons, and producing credit reports on companies or individuals. These sources are discussed in the context of an international area showing as to what extent these sources are available in different countries. What sources, particularly online, are used to undertake various investigations in different countries around the world. The following essay is based mostly on information provided by investigators around the world. In many countries telephone directories are available both as books, CD-ROMs, or online, e.g. in Germany, USA, Great Britain, the latter is often only the Yellow Pages (classified directory) and not the White Pages (general telephone directory: http://www.phonenumbers.net/usa.htm, http://www.infobel.com/eng In the USA one may search for companies and private individuals by inserting the telephone number at hand (reverse phone numbers searches) online, and also find their email address: http://www.freeality.com/findet.htm. In Australia there are reverse phone discs that come out every six months.[1] In Germany and in Great Britain [2] such searches, even on CD-ROMs, are illegal because of the Data Protection Act regulations prevailing in these countries. In Mainland China [3] there is nothing yet online except for telephone directories, and these are in Chinese. The investigator has to handle the investigation mostly by leg work. In Switzerland [4] telephone directories are public, though until recently a user had to be a subscriber of the Swiss Telecom to get telephone numbers both online and offline. For foreign users their national telecom company had a special reciprocal agreement for the access to this data. The Swiss commercial registers are public listings of the registered companies as well as the names on the Boards of Administration and Board of Management, also Bankruptcy. These are not centrally available nor land registers which are public, too. The researcher must go to the appertaining register, at times a written application suffices. In Germany, land (or real estate) registers are not publicly available except when a justified interest is supplied such as buying, granting a loan or information about assets as needed by a creditor. In Iceland a database, Landstraust Hf, Thveholt 14, 105 Reykjavik, Tel. +354-550 9600, formerly part of the Icelandic Chamber of Commerce has access to the companies' registry and land registry, both online for a fee, as well as a ³national³ registry to search for names and addresses of individuals or companies. This search is online and free. The land registry shows who the owner is, what kind of property it is, its' size and registered (not market) value. In some parts of the USA, such as in New Mexico, property records are not yet online [6]. In Greece, [7] databases supply information on companies online for a fee. e.g. Icap SA and Alpha MI, both in Athens. The same applies to Germany, at times for private individuals too, e.g. Bürgel/Aachen, Creditreform/Neuss, Dun and Bradstreet/Frankfurt. Telephone directories are also available online. There is very limited information in the Middle East or Africa [7]. In Mexico only telephone directories are online [8]. This is in contrast to the USA which is about 3 years ahead of Germany and 1-2 years ahead of Great Britain [9]. There is a large amount of access to public records in the USA , some of which are online. Property records are public as are court records (unless they involve juveniles), even traffic court records are public. Court records are at the level of the magistrate (city court), district court (county or state), federal courts including the supreme courts of state and federal [6]. Income tax records are not public but may be subpoenaed from individuals. Property tax records are public in some states. Adoption records are public in some state but not in others [6]. A criminal case at the police department is something a researcher may get a copy of if it involves city police and state police. This does not apply to a lot of federal investigations until after they have gone to trial. After the trial, the information is usually available as once it has been testified to or used as evidence in a court proceeding, it becomes public. Some driving record information is publicly available, and in New Mexico the driver's history of accidents is online, but does not include pictures from the licenses [6]. Ancestry checks In Germany civic registry information is not yet available online. A justified interest must be procured, applied to in writing or in person and most often a fee is levied. In Great Britain [10] there is a Family Records Center, Ruskin Avenue, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 4DU, Tel. 020 8392 5300, a centralized place for birth, death and marriage records. The information is currently not available online. It is best searched in person, but in any case a fee is levied. In Australia access to the electoral rolls is presently available through four approved data suppliers. Copies of all rolls are found in the State Library going back to the start. History, birth, death and marriage records are only available to persons concerned who can apply for the information to others who can provide a justified interest for the information. In the USA there is a wealth of information [6,11] in this area. http://www.ancestry.com is good site for research, there is a fee of US$ 30.00 for 3 months and anyone may use it in that period of time for an unlimited amount of cases. The Mormon/LDS Church has Family History Centers throughout the world where they have microfilmed birth, death, marriage, military, land, census, etc. [7] records from every country. They have the largest database of genealogy resources in the world and the main library is in Salt Lake City, Utah. There are websites, many of which are free: Rootsweb, Cyndislist. Some states and genealogical societies are online. The best starting point in the USA is Cyndislist, a site which has plentiful links to genealogical sites. All of this information is accessible legally. If any of the sites wants a written application (usually the states), they say so on the site. The national archives are not online, but one may fill out a form, pay a fee and obtain the needed information. They are very, very slow by mail. If the researcher goes to one of the 5 locations across the US he obtains the information the same day [6]. To know a persons date of birth is a very important piece of information to start a search with in most countries. In the USA the Social Security number is even more important. To search the birth dates of U.S. persons may be aided by using: http://anybirthday.com/ In Israel [12] no governmental sources are available online nor offline in order to get information on private persons. They use private sources and also the Yad Vashem Collection in Jerusalem, mainly recorded names of persons who were killed by the Nazis during World War II. This lack of resources in Israel applies to all the following catagories as well. Missing children In Germany and Australia information is available in most instances by leg work only. Hardly any co-operation from anyone unless a case hits the media, as is the case presently of the murdered Ulrike aged 12 in Eastern Germany. There are some websites, composed especially by the relatives of the missing children, but they are few and far between. In the USA there groups which communicate online, specializing in finding missing children, and pictures of these children often appear on milk cartons and cereal boxes [6]. American police departments will sometimes share their information. Checking credit worthiness of a potential client (company or individual) The USA http://crimetime.com [11] has, for this sort of investigation, a free bankruptcy check. Corporations may be investigated by state. Corporations and UCC are usually on the secretary of state home page for each state anyway but crimetime is easy to use as the start page. http://www.businesscreditusa.com [11] used to charge US $5.00 for a hit, it is now free and will also rate the company's creditability between a-f. In addition they also supply the name of the owner(s). In Australia there is a lot of information on companies supplied by databases to their members for a fee. In Great Britain there are three leading databases (Equifax, Experian, Dun and Bradstreet) supplying information on companies online for a fee. But there is also the Companies House (Companies House Direct) in London to see if a person is at present a director or has resigned or has been struck off the register. This information is fee based. Similarly a report on a company can be obtained from there online as well. In Germany databases have also started to supply information on companies online to their members. The same applies to Greece, Belgium, and France. Databases are not yet available online in Mexico . The investigator in Mexico does much legwork visiting the sources to be consulted, private or governmental. In Iceland the said source provides information about the creditworthiness of individuals and companies online, but full reports are sent by fax or email to the interested client. Background checks In Great Britain a search can be made on an individual quoting an address to see if he is bankrupt. This service is not online. In Germany the appertaining lower courts publish the names of bad payers and such who have gone bankrupt, but this service is not available online. A justified interest must be proven and a fee is levied. In Great Britain there is a registry of county court judgements which can be searched by name and address for a small fee. This service is not online. This is similar to the USA [6]. In Australia births, deaths, and marriage records are only available to persons concerned who can then apply for the information and collect it, at times to others who can procure a justified interest for the information. Anything collected will be out of date three months later. In Australia such searches are mainly done by leg work. No credit checks nor police records are available. The same applies to China and Mexico. One important part of background checks in the USA are the police records on the individuals under investigation. A investigator may register with various police departments. They then do a background check on the investigator, then certify him to do background checks through them. Criminal records are still available from databases such as http://www.iqdata.com and http://www.knowx.com. To locate an applicant's former school or university is of interest to confirm his statement. In the USA this search is much easier than in other countries where authorities, schools or universities hide behind the Data Protection Act. There are online searches available in the USA for national public schools and universities listings: http://nces.ed.gov/ccdweb/school.asp and http://www.braintrac.com/. Forensic checks (parentship, murder) In Australia, also in Germany DNA tests are done now at a cost. In Germany there is at present a heated discussion to have all German males undergo a DNA test on account of the recent murder of Ulrike. However, this is an unrealistic request. Still males in that region have been asked by the police to undergo that test. In the USA http://www.pac-info.com, California may be a good site to view. There is a coroner database, showing autopsies. This site is also good when researching an illness and the researcher wants to see the effects it has typically on the human body. This site has also a Canadian section. Another good starting point is http://www.crimetime.com [11]. The researcher should then follow the links there, too. Any other investigations Searching newspapers is also a useful tool, e.g. locating (deceased) people and their relatives when looking at marriage and burial advertisements and stories. The writer of this essay once had to confirm the death of a German nobleman in a rushed manner for a life insurance company. The story about the burial event with dignitaries, princes, and high clergymen was covered by a local newspaper together with a photo thus bringing the proof needed. Newspaper searches may also help in fraud or murder cases when the police or court litigation records are not available to third parties. Major newspapers grant access to interested parties, mainly subscribers, for a fee, and smaller newspapers are starting to follow. There are US newspaper listings by state at the following website: http://members.tripod.com/~donjohnson/newspapers/states.html as well as international listings. A site for 10,000 online newspapers from around the world: http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/. In Great Britain a search can be done through the Press Association to see if there are any press cuttings concerning a particular person being investigated. This service has a fee and is not online. To follow a package sent from A to B may be of importance not only for the sender and recipient, but also in the case of a suspected illicit package, other parties such as the police may be interested to secure its contents for litigation. Tracing packages sent by DHL, FedEx or UPS for instance can be done online http://www.skipease.com. In international investigations, to know the time at a certain location or to reconstruct the date of a certain incident, topography of a particular place may be of great importance. Such tools are available online at www.timeanddate.com/worldclock and www.maps.com/. Governmental organizations In Germany there is the project ³Online 2005³ which aims to have all public entities listed in the Internet by the year 2005, thus augmenting the efficiency of the 650 federal authorities. It is believed that if only half of the procedures required by the citizens are handled online in 2005 (such as change of a marital status) then some 30 billion DM could be saved. The EU Government has similar plans. In Brombley/Great Britain the ³E Government³ in miniature already exists to handle all public and other needs of the citizens [9]. In Helsinki/Finland an Internet portal that is a wireless virtual village has been set up, from whence any private persons, businessmen, or others can link into the intrenet of any community [9]. In Australia police clearance is only available to the person concerned applying for the information and collecting it. The researcher must take into consideration the variations from state to state. Therefore he needs to have someone on the spot at the time of the enquiry. Furthermore, anything collected now is regarded to be out of date three months later. In Switzerland governmental organizations are available online. In the USA there are abundant links to access governmental organizations or sections of them. There are too many to cite but here is an example: www2.fdle.state.fl.us. Florida inmate information: http://www.dc.state.fl.us/inmateInfo/InmateInfoMenu.asp California state information: http://www.ca.gov/state/portal/myca_homepage.jsp US state and local government: http://www.piperinof.com/state/index.cfm US federal & county court locator: http://www.skipease.com. New ones are added constantly. Some are free, some are available for a fee. Some may not only restrict themselves to one topic but supply numerous other searches, e.g. telephone directories, reverse lookups, search for a city by means of an area code or telephone prefix, identification of the owner of a domain name, finding the social security number of a person, the social security number being the key for finding a person in most cases, bankruptcy information: http://www.freeality.com/findet.htm also supply useful links. The same applies to public records available online: http://www.investigate-claims.com How fast is the online availability in various country: Moving fast, fairly slowly, not yet started to go online In Greece there is a lot of discussion and people look forward to the time when governmental services are available online, probably by late 2002. As mentioned before in Germany the process will hopefully be finalized in the year 2005. Some facilities are already available such as submitting income tax declaration and in some states land records may be searched by other authorities online and lawyers can file suits online. In Australia things are moving slowly. In Switzerland things are moving quickly. In Israel things move very slowly. Mexico has a very long way to go before public access is offered to records, and even further for computerization. In this essay the writer has shown that on the one hand more and more sources will become available online around the world, but on the other more and more sources will be shut down due to the Data Protection Act. The writer of this essay thanks colleagues around the world for supplying helpful information to compile this paper. They are cited under ## 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11,12 and the numerous others who in the course of time supplied useful sites.
|