Have you ever found yourself trying to find more information on a person? Maybe you found a sex offender lives close by and you want to see what kind of information you can find. Or maybe you are trying to find out where a family member you used to be in touch with moved to. Don't worry, we have you covered!

A few states have free online court records that you can search a person's name and pull up any citation, court hearing or criminal charges they have had - for free. From our research, these are a few that we found:

California - offers public access to court records through various online portals.
Arizona - provides public access to court case information from 177 of 184 courts.
New Jersey - allows public access to court records online.
Florida - offers electronic access to court records online.
Massachusetts - provides online access to court records.
New York - provides access to court documents online.
Indiana - allows access to court records online.
I have also found that some cities/towns in certain states have access to different court records when the state as a whole does not. It will take some Googling to see what you can find in your city/state and what kind of information they release.

Let's talk background checks. There are so many different services that offer background checks. I believe there is a blog previously written about this. While some provide a snip of free information, most of these are paid services. When I was trying to find information on someone I know between four different states, the information they provided on a paid membership was very limited and not up to date, even though I knew there were recent arrest records, which they did not show. Beware of some of these companies, as you may not get the information you are looking for, and it can come with a high - non refundable - cost. And don't forget to cancel your subscription if you sign up for one and don't plan on using it again in the future.

Trying to find out who owns an address? I've been there plenty times before, trying to find out who owns a rental property in my neighborhood. White pages can be a huge help, they do have a free search available. Another option that I have been able to utilize is my county's assessor office - where you can search a record and the owner of the building will be shown. Again, this could take a ton of Goggling, or even phone calls to see if this option is available where you are.

Google has been a wonderful tool on finding more information on a person. If you are looking up a sex offender, and their charges have made the news, you can usually play connect the dots and figure out what happened. Almost everyone has some sort of internet trail, even if it's all good things. If I Google my own name, I can find everything from family member's obituaries, news articles I commented on through social media, and news interviews I have had myself.

Facebook and other social media is a WONDERFUL tool for finding information on people. When we used to own a skip-tracing company, this was my first stop to tracking someone down. People overshare all too often on social media. You can almost always find family or a place of employment for someone. And by going through page by page, you can almost always find the information you are looking for. However, registered sex offenders are not supposed to have Facebook per Facebook policy. So if you do happen to come across someone, make sure to report it to Facebook.

Last thing to try is contacting your local police. I have done this before when I had an offender living next to me that came from out of state. They were able to tell me some of the case details and help ease my mind about this offender. I have also found that sometimes, they can be pretty tight-lipped about an offender's information. I think it just depends on who you get on the phone that day. If you don't get what you're looking for the first time, try calling back on a different day at a different time.

As always, use our site to see the most current information on registered sexual offenders. We get our information from each state daily, so you can always be sure to have the most up to date information that is provided!

While many of these tools can be useful and help you track down the information you are looking for, you should never use it for malicious intent.