NationStates Jolt Archive

...how would you go about finding a person you'd been asked to locate? I'm not a private investigator, but I want to find out if I can avoid using a private investigation service to locate someone for a friend (their Father)

Supposing you knew the person's full name and the full name of one of his daughters, you knew the person's last known address, and...

you'd already tried the internet, using various types of search (standard, boolean, quotation marks searching, etc.)

you had (I don't currently, but just suppose) a lot of money at your disposal - enough to travel and ask questions, but you don't want to risk spending it on search-related software

...how would you go about finding the person? Knocking on doors - if so, what questions would you ask, and what rea would you start in? How would you go about it?

EDIT: This is UK-related by the way, though suggestions from everyone are welcome.

Electoral rolls.

If he owned property you can look on the property rolls in the county. Have you checked the phone book? The real phone book?

Ask NSG.:p

Electoral rolls.

How/where do I find them?

If he owned property you can look on the property rolls in the county. Have you checked the phone book? The real phone book?

How/where do I find the property rolls? And do you mean BT phonebook?

Hire a better Private Investigator to do the work for you.

This is UK-related btw, though comments from anyone are welcome.

You can do a reverse phone number search using his last known address and then ask the people who answer the phone if they know him. Or, if they know anything about who owned the house before them, like the real estate agent who might give you some information. Or, call the neighbors and ask them quetions. If can can't convince them that you have a legimate reason to find this person they may not be very helpful.

You can do a reverse phone number search using his last known address and then ask the people who answer the phone if they know him. Or, if they know anything about who owned the house before them, like the real estate agent who might give you some information. Or, call the neighbors and ask them quetions. If can can't convince them that you have a legimate reason to find this person they may not be very helpful.

Reverse phone number? You mean like reverse charge? I have the money to make phone calls even before my next Student Loan payment.

Thanks for the suggestions so far btw :)

Keep em coming please... :)

How/where do I find the property rolls? And do you mean BT phonebook?


In the states each county has property rolls which list who owns every piece of property in the country. You have to go to the county seat court office to look at it.

I mean if you know his name look in the paper edition of the phone book. Maybe go to the library to find it. Or, the phone company. You can do a internet search too but sometime the paper phone book is better.

Reverse phone number? You mean like reverse charge? I have the money to make phone calls even before my next Student Loan payment.


No, some internet phone books let you put an address in and then get the phone number. You could do this with the neighbors and see what they will tell you.

Do you know anything else about this person? Like friends, where he went to school, arrests, stuff like that?

Do you know anything else about this person? Like friends, where he went to school, arrests, stuff like that?

nope

How/where do I find them?
This might help. (http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/your-vote/access.cfm) Anyone who has ever voted is on it and the information is available to anyone. (although it seems that the copies available for sale are edited - not so over here to my knowledge, but the full version is available at your local council office anyway, apparently)

...how would you go about finding a person you'd been asked to locate? I'm not a private investigator, but I want to find out if I can avoid using a private investigation service to locate someone for a friend (their Father)

Supposing you knew the person's full name and the full name of one of his daughters, you knew the person's last known address, and...

you'd already tried the internet, using various types of search (standard, boolean, quotation marks searching, etc.)

you had (I don't currently, but just suppose) a lot of money at your disposal - enough to travel and ask questions, but you don't want to risk spending it on search-related software

...how would you go about finding the person? Knocking on doors - if so, what questions would you ask, and what rea would you start in? How would you go about it?

EDIT: This is UK-related by the way, though suggestions from everyone are welcome.


Are you doing this search for yourself? Or, is this a plot for story you are writing? If this is for yourself then if you start asking questions you had have to convince people that your need to find this person is more important than his right to privacy. This might be a tough sell. Are you adopted?

This might help. (http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/your-vote/access.cfm) Anyone who has ever voted is on it and the information is available to anyone. (although it seems that the copies available for sale are edited - not so over here to my knowledge, but the full version is available at your local council office anyway, apparently)

Yeh I had heard of the Electoral Rolls, just didn't know where/how to find them, but I knew there were two versions - the edited one is for the sake of peoples' privacy I think. Thanks :)

Usualy private investigators have contacts in government institutions. So, when they need some information, they would contact these people and try to find out as much info as they can, and pay acordingly.

You should try to find out if they have a car licence, and if they have any cars themselves. Or property. Try the phone book also, as some here have talked about. If this person is trying to hide, I doubt she has myspace or a webpage of any kind.

Are you doing this search for yourself? Or, is this a plot for story you are writing? If this is for yourself then if you start asking questions you had have to convince people that your need to find this person is more important than his right to privacy. This might be a tough sell. Are you adopted?

The need to find him is bigger, I'm not adopted, this is for a friend, and it would seem that it's not that he doesn't want to be found, but that the girl's Mother is, well, not-so-nice to put it lightly and has refused to allow the Father contact with this girl (who now lives independently) and it would seem he does not, due to the Mother's refusal to be mature, have any contact details of the girl. Believe me, she NEEDS to find him.

Usualy private investigators have contacts in government institutions. So, when they need some information, they would contact these people and try to find out as much info as they can, and pay acordingly.

You should try to find out if they have a car licence, and if they have any cars themselves. Or property. Try the phone book also, as some here have talked about. If this person is trying to hide, I doubt she has myspace or a webpage of any kind.

Not a she, a HE - I want to find the girl's Father

The need to find him is bigger, I'm not adopted, this is for a friend, and it would seem that it's not that he doesn't want to be found, but that the girl's Mother is, well, not-so-nice to put it lightly and has refused to allow the Father contact with this girl (who now lives independently) and it would seem he does not, due to the Mother's refusal to be mature, have any contact details of the girl. Believe me, she NEEDS to find him.

I believe you. This puts some different light on the topic. Do you know the city or general area of where she lives? How old is she? Does she work? Is she school age?

Not a she, a HE - I want to find the girl's Father

You could put an add in a paper. Even in the personals. This is a long shot, but it might work.

I believe you. This puts some different light on the topic. Do you know the city or general area of where she lives? How old is she? Does she work? Is she school age?

I know the details of THE GIRL (I know her personally and am 'in touch' with her) - she is looking for her Father, not the other way round, but thanks for trying to help.

You could put an add in a paper. Even in the personals. This is a long shot, but it might work.

I've considered ad in paper and it's worth a try, but I reckon that I wouldn't be able to because of the sheer volume of people who are looking for other people, so the paper probably wouldn't accept it, even in the personals.

I know the details of THE GIRL (i know her personally and am 'in touch' with her) - she is looking for her Father, not the other way round, but thanks for trying to help.

Does she know what kind of work he did or does? Or, did he live on the dole? Does she have a photo?

Does she know what kind of work he did or does? Or, did he live on the dole? Does she have a photo?

I'll have to ask her those things, but right now I want suggestions based on the information in the first post, thanks

And I'm not asking her on Christmas Day when she might be busy enjoying herself

Usualy private investigators have contacts in government institutions. So, when they need some information, they would contact these people and try to find out as much info as they can, and pay acordingly.

You should try to find out if they have a car licence, and if they have any cars themselves. Or property. Try the phone book also, as some here have talked about. If this person is trying to hide, I doubt she has myspace or a webpage of any kind.

Do you know how I could find out if he has a car licence? And if I did find out, how would that help me find him - is there a place with addresses of licence holders?

Have you tried online people search services like 192.com, findpeoplefree.co.uk, etc? There are a lot of them around now.

Heck, you could try a classmate lookup if you know anything about what school(s) he went to.

Well, at least here in Brazil (I dont know how car licences work in the UK) you must renew your car licence every 5 years. And when you do it, you must also give an adress and tell them what car you curently have. If you change your car, you have to tell them.

Here, if you want info on someone, you must have a friend who either has acess to the information, or who has a friend who can. But, well, corruption here is easier than in the UK, I guess.

Maybe you could call the licence institution and tell them this guy bumped your car, and gave you his name and telephone number. Yet you called the number and the guy who answered the call was not the one you were looking after. So you could ask them if they have a phone number or adress of the guy so you could go talk with him and get the money to fix your car.

Or you could even ask the person and give the real reasons. But probabily the information is confidential, and giving it freely would be considered a crime. That is why private investigators usually have contacts who give info for money, not for free, because there is a risk involved.

Thanks for all the replies. Now I've got at least one starting point, though I may hire a proper Private Detective (some do "no find - no fee" services apparently, but I need to still have the money for when they do find the person)

...how would you go about finding a person you'd been asked to locate? I'm not a private investigator, but I want to find out if I can avoid using a private investigation service to locate someone for a friend (their Father)

Supposing you knew the person's full name and the full name of one of his daughters, you knew the person's last known address, and...

you'd already tried the internet, using various types of search (standard, boolean, quotation marks searching, etc.)

you had (I don't currently, but just suppose) a lot of money at your disposal - enough to travel and ask questions, but you don't want to risk spending it on search-related software

...how would you go about finding the person? Knocking on doors - if so, what questions would you ask, and what rea would you start in? How would you go about it?

EDIT: This is UK-related by the way, though suggestions from everyone are welcome.

My response:

Who gives a shit?

doesnt she have relatives on her fathers side that you can talk to?

there are numerous sites were you can find alot of information about people on the internet. most of these sites require money to be able to get a report back. there is also the good old fashion asking people that may of known them. if you knew where they lived you could try asking people that were also there at the time about where they may of worked, what organizations they may of been in.

from this you can follow the trails untill someone may know where they may of moved/what happened to them.

Try Zaba Search. Type in the name and then just start eliminating them one by one until you've found him.

My response:

Than what's the point of responding? That's just immature.

My response:

That's your response to everything. Lay off the spamming, yeah?