Divorce Files

Did you know that files created during a divorce proceeding are public information? That's right, all the dirty secrets couples hurl at one another when they go through a divorce can be viewed by anyone.

If you know the man you are dating has gone through a divorce and you'd like to do some checking, first find out where the divorce took place. Most divorces are handled at the county level so you'll need to know not only what state the divorce happened in, but the county as well. The files from the case are kept at the probate court and all you need to do is walk in with a name (the more information you have, the better, like the date and wife's name) and request the file. It's yours to view and copy if you'd like.

There may be some restrictions on viewing, for example, I was not allowed to open certain envelopes in the file that contained financial information, but there was plenty of dirt to be had even without those documents.

Remarkably, social security numbers are often present in the documents. It's not a bad idea to copy down your man's social security number. If you want to do a more thorough check on the guy, and you're willing to spend a little money, a private investigator can run several reports using the social security number. Their reports provide a history of addresses, assets owned by the individual including homes, cars and boats, names of relatives, and individuals living nearby. You may also receive a criminal history if it exists.

I viewed a divorce file after I'd broken up with the man, because I was curious. For three years I had heard his side of the story and he made his ex sound like a crazy woman. But after reviewing the file, I can tell you that they both were odd and each contributed to the demise of the relationship in equal fashion.

Most recently I have been researching an aunt who led a very secretive life with huge gaps missing when her family knew nothing of her whereabouts. One of the primary sources of information was her divorce file. I did not know exactly where to look for it, but through some leads, I finally found it in Ely, Nevada.

The file, dated 1948, was over 200 pages. It answered many questions her family had about her life in the 40s. The most interesting part of her divorce file was the exhibits. Her husband accused her of being an unfit mother because she had affairs. To prove that, he submitted dozens of love letters she received (through an accomplice who testified for the husband) from a man in another state. It was incredible to read these letters, written over 60 years ago, and to learn this new information. Without the divorce file, we never would have known what really happened.

Check out Spokeo.com

I previously wrote about Yoname.com which is a social networking aggregator, or a site that searches multiple social networking sites. Another good site to try is Spokeo.com. If you have an email address for someone you'd like to check out, enter it into Spokeo and Spokeo quickly and easily grabs content from across the web. It returns other social networking sites where the individual is registered.

A successful search depends on the tools you're using. I have found that no one tool is perfect and that the most successful searches involve multiple search tools.

Yesterday I joined Emailfinder.com which cost $1.95 per month for a membership (charged one year at a time). In most cases the email addresses returned were old, out-of-date and not useful. It did however, return information on a case I have been working on.

I had an email address that I had picked up along the search path but couldn't verify it belonged to the subject. I ran it through all my sources, but it just didn't connect to known activity for the individual. But when I ran it through Emailfinder.com it connected to a social networking site I didn't know about (and lots of photos of the subject). It also connected to her Twitter account, which I was aware of, but couldn't verify I had the right email address. Once it linked through Emailfinder.com to her Twitter account I knew that I had the right email address.

With every piece of verified information your search can expand. There are often nuggets of information on social networking sites (like friends and photos) that can lead to even more information about the subject.

It's also kind of interesting how I came up with the email address to begin with. I Googled the subject's name and explored all the links that came up. A couple of the links led me to other links and eventually to a website www.[her-name].com. But when I went to the website all that was there was a "parked" site with no information. I looked the domain name up through Whois.com and found that it was privately registered so I could not see who owned it.

Next I visited Archive.org and plugged the domain name into the Wayback Machine. The Wayback Machine archives websites periodically so you can "travel back" and see what they looked like previously. This site was archived in 2007 and when I clicked to view the archive it loaded a site full of images. The images were no longer available so the site looked like a grouping of empty boxes with no text at all. Seemed useless. But, I started clicking on different sections of the site and low and behold, one click brought up a link to the email address that appeared when it opened in my mail program.

Searching takes time. I usually spend a good 3-4 hours just getting started, but it's amazing what a good search can find. I'm not always successful, if the person doesn't have much web presence then I'm just not going to find anything, but usually there's something out there to be found. And even if it's not incriminating in anyway, information can be a powerful thing.

Get the True Scoop on Your Facebook Friends

Facebook has a new app called TrueScoop that digs up the dirt on anyone. It's a free service so it culls the information from public records across the U.S. I can't vouch for how accurate the information is, but give it a try. All you need to do is enter a name or birth date.

For each search result you’ll get the basics: location, date of birth, middle initial, and whether or not there is a criminal record. Results can also be filtered by state. TrueScoop will show an expanded detail list of the criminal record from there, along with any other details it’s pulled for your person of interest.

New Sites for Digging Up Dirt

There are some great free sites out there that I've been using lately to dig up information on individuals. I usually start with 123people.com. It returns some good information including links to social networking sites. I've even had email addresses returned. Once you have a subject's email address you can search common social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, even YouTube.

Another great site for searching with email addresses is yoname.com. A fun site to try once you've found someone's Facebook or MySpace page is lococitato.com. Just put in the person's address and you'll see all the friends associated with that account.

Today I found out about a couple interesting new search engines. Take a look at Whostalkin.com and search blogs and websites for your subject. Searchme.com returns a visual of websites. Want to search blogs? Try Twingly.com.