Research Guide Professional History

BRB Publications

Description:

BRB Publications lists resources for locating public records. It links to government agency sites and free online records portals.

Resource Type:

State and Local Records, Federal Records

Area of Investigation:

Civil Litigation and Criminal Cases, Associated People, Background and Family, Professional History

https://www.brbpublications.com/free-resources/public-record-sites

Background Check Websites

Description:

If you don’t have access to TLO or LexisNexis, use these links to check out alternative options. These are paid resources.

Resource Type:

Proprietary Databases

Area of Investigation:

Background and Family, Educational History, Professional History, Civil Litigation and Criminal Cases, Associated People

https://www.intelius.com/

https://www.ussearch.com/

https://checkr.com/

https://www.mysmartmove.com/

https://www.beenverified.com/

Bing Visual Search

Description:

Use Bing Visual Search to search the internet using images instead of words. Using this tool, you can find similar images, products, and pages that include an image.

Resource Type:

Media and Other Open Sources

Area of Investigation:

Background and Family, Educational History, Professional History, Political History, Civil Litigation and Criminal Cases, Nonprofits, Campaign Finance, Personal Finances, Social Media, Associated People

https://www.bing.com/images/

Crunchbase

Description:

Crunchbase is a database and search tool providing information about businesses with a particular focus on tech companies and startups. Results compile information on company ownership, governance, funding, markets and news coverage.

Resource Type:

Media and Other Open Sources

Area of Investigation:

Background and Family, Professional History, Educational History

https://www.crunchbase.com/discover/organization.companies

Database for UCC Filings

Description:

These databases provide access to Universal Commercial Code documents, which are standardized records of business transactions and are a good source of information regarding debts, loans, payments and asset transfers.

Resource Type:

State and Local Records

Area of Investigation:

Professional History, Civil Litigation and Criminal Cases, Associated People

https://www.nass.org/business-services/ucc-filings

Department of Labor Form 5500 Database

Description:

Under federal regulations, companies that offer 401k plans and certain other employee benefit plans must file Form 5500s with the Department of Labor. These filings provide data on a company’s employee headcount and changes to the company’s business over time. Note that some companies outsource their employee benefits to a third-party provider and do not file Form 5500s.

Resource Type:

Federal Records

Area of Investigation:

Professional History

https://www.efast.dol.gov/5500search/

FINRA Brokercheck

Description:

Many finance professionals are registered with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the finance industry’s self-regulatory organization. Disputes between finance professionals and their customers may be adjudicated by FINRA arbitration panels. FINRA Brokercheck provides a detailed report on anyone currently or historically registered with FINRA. Each report includes disciplinary history associated with the broker’s license and a self-reported professional history of the broker.

Resource Type:

Media and Other Open Sources

Area of Investigation:

Professional History

https://brokercheck.finra.org/

Federal Audit Clearinghouse

Description:

Use the Federal Audit Clearinghouse (FAC) to search for audits of federal grants connected to individuals and their companies.

Resource Type:

Federal Records

Area of Investigation:

Professional History, Civil Litigation and Criminal Cases, Associated People, Personal Finances

https://www.fac.gov/

Federal Procurement Data System

Description:

The U.S. General Services Administration maintains this database, which complements the GSA System for Award Management.

Resource Type:

Federal Records

Area of Investigation:

Professional History, Associated People

https://www.fpds.gov/fpdsng_cms/index.php/en/

Ferretly

Description:

Ferretly is a paid research tool that aggregates social media activity from an individual’s accounts on different platforms.

Resource Type:

Media and Other Open Sources

Area of Investigation:

Background and Family, Educational History, Professional History, Political History, Civil Litigation and Criminal Cases, Nonprofits, Campaign Finance, Personal Finances, Social Media, Associated People

https://www.ferretly.com/

Findmypast

Description:

FindMyPast is a genealogy website that collects certain archival records. Using its advanced World search, researchers can collect information on an individual, their family or their connections by name, location and types of records. In addition to birth/death and family history records, FindMyPast has some historical professional and educational records archived.

Resource Type:

Media and Other Open Sources

Area of Investigation:

Background and Family, Educational History, Professional History, Political History, Civil Litigation and Criminal Cases, Nonprofits, Campaign Finance, Personal Finances, Social Media, Associated People

https://search.findmypast.com/search-world-records-in-education-and-work/and_schools-and-education

GSA System for Award Management

Description:

Like the federal procurement database, the General Services Administration maintains SAM. In addition to providing information on public tenders for federal contracts, this database provides information on federal contractors that have been disciplined for misconduct or barred from participating in future public tenders. You will need to create a free account to use this database. When you search for a contractor, be sure to search for active and inactive contractors by using the options in the left-hand panel.

Resource Type:

Federal Records

Area of Investigation:

Professional History, Associated People

https://sam.gov/content/home

Getty Images reverse image lookup

Description:

Getty Images search allows you to reverse image search through Getty’s news, celebrity, and sports coverage, along with stock images in their archive.

Resource Type:

Media and Other Open Sources

Area of Investigation:

Background and Family, Educational History, Professional History, Political History, Civil Litigation and Criminal Cases, Associated People

https://www.gettyimages.com/

Glassdoor

Description:

Because the reviews posted on Glassdoor are anonymous, they are not reliable by themselves but they may raise issues for further research or interviews. You may need to register and leave a review of a former employer to view Glassdoor content.

Resource Type:

Media and Other Open Sources

Area of Investigation:

Professional History

https://www.glassdoor.com/index.htm

Google Advanced Search

Description:

Google Advanced Search uses Boolean operators, which allow you to search by including, excluding or combining exact words or phrases. Google Advanced Search also allows you to narrow results by language, file type, domain and other variables. Check out Sunlight’s Advanced Internet Search Tip Sheet to learn how to find exactly what you’re looking for on the internet. It includes a comprehensive list of basic and advanced search operators, search tips and strategies, and more.

Resource Type:

Media and Other Open Sources

Area of Investigation:

Background and Family, Educational History, Professional History, Political History, Civil Litigation and Criminal Cases, Nonprofits, Campaign Finance, Personal Finances, Social Media, Associated People

https://www.google.com/advanced_search

Google Dataset Search

Description:

Google Dataset Search is a search engine for datasets. You can use a simple keyword search to discover datasets hosted in thousands of repositories across the internet. For instance, a search for ‘politicians’ will return databases including Work With Data’s Politicians from the United States list and GESIS’ extracted Politician data from Wikipedia and DBPedia.

Resource Type:

Media and Other Open Sources

Area of Investigation:

Background and Family, Educational History, Professional History, Political History, Civil Litigation and Criminal Cases, Nonprofits, Campaign Finance, Personal Finances, Social Media, Associated People

https://datasetsearch.research.google.com/

https://blog.google/products/search/discovering-millions-datasets-web/

Google Fact Checking

Description:

Google Fact Check Explorer combines the work of fact checkers, journalists and researchers by aggregating fact checking and misinformation reporting from outlets and agencies around the world. You can search by topic or by people connected to a fact- checked issue. You can also upload photos in the “search fact checks” bar to see fact checks related to an image and when it first appeared online.

Resource Type:

Media and Other Open Sources

Area of Investigation:

Background and Family, Educational History, Professional History, Political History, Civil Litigation and Criminal Cases, Nonprofits, Campaign Finance, Personal Finances, Social Media, Associated People

https://toolbox.google.com/factcheck/explorer/search/list:recent;hl=en

Google Image Search

Description:

Google Image Search allows users to search for images by keyword or any of Google’s advanced search parameters. It also allows for reverse image searches using images and links.

Resource Type:

Media and Other Open Sources

Area of Investigation:

Background and Family, Educational History, Professional History, Political History, Civil Litigation and Criminal Cases, Nonprofits, Campaign Finance, Personal Finances, Social Media, Associated People

https://images.google.com/

Google Scholar

Description:

Google Scholar is an academic journal and patent search engine. It provides a comprehensive search of scholarly journals, databases, preprint servers and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) archives.

Resource Type:

Media and Other Open Sources

Area of Investigation:

Background and Family, Educational History, Professional History, Political History, Civil Litigation and Criminal Cases, Nonprofits, Campaign Finance, Personal Finances, Social Media, Associated People

https://scholar.google.com/

LexisNexis

Description:

LexisNexis provides access to information available through public records and a broad collection of media, much of which would otherwise be behind a paywall. It also has an advantage over Google in that its search function returns any documents that match search terms, whereas Google’s algorithm may suppress unpopular results that are nevertheless valuable for research. If an individual has had a long career in politics or other closely watched industries, there may be a volume of coverage that makes it impossible to review every “hit” naming the candidate in LexisNexis. In these cases, you will need to design search threads to return more limited sets of documents. For example, a search for key controversial search terms might look something like: FIRST NAME /2 LAST NAME AND (CORRUPTION OR FRAUD OR CONTROVERSY OR MISCONDUCT). Like TLO, LexisNexis is a secondary source, and anything significant in a report must be verified independently. LexisNexis data should only be used to identify leads for further investigation but never as an authoritative source itself.

Resource Type:

Proprietary Databases

Area of Investigation:

Background and Family, Professional History, Political History, Associated People, Civil Litigation and Criminal Cases

http://lexisnexis.com