Research Guide

Before conducting research on LinkedIn, consider whether you should be browsing in Private Mode. To enable Private Mode, navigate to the Settings and Privacy page, select Visibility in the left-hand panel, and click on “Profile Viewing Options.” To identify people currently or formerly associated with a specific company or company location, use the Search feature’s Filters. If LinkedIn does not allow you to view the full profile of someone outside your network, try copying the visible text of the profile, pasting it into the Google search bar in quotes, and limiting your Google search to the LinkedIn domain by adding site:linkedin.com to your search string.

Newspaper archives preserve digital records of newspapers published going back decades or even centuries and may include information about an individual, their family and their professional connections that search engines might not index.

State medical licensing boards generally provide information to the public on the qualifications and licensing of medical professionals. A call to the state regulator or public-record request may be necessary to obtain full copies of license applications and related documents, which may include criminal cases or civil judgments filed against the licensee. You can use these records to check an individual’s license status, educational background, and employment history, verify the accuracy of information an individual submitted on a licensing application, identify an individual’s professional associates and search for disciplinary actions against an individual.

The National Personnel Records Center of the National Archives provides public access to certain military records that can be used to verify an individual’s claimed military service. You can request these records as explained on the NRC website.

Open Corporates is a free database of U.S. and foreign companies. You can search it by company name and director name, and if you register and log in, you can search by registered address and other information. You can verify any information gathered from Open Corporates by obtaining copies of original documents from the relevant secretaries of state.

States require many professionals to obtain licenses. These include realtors, CPAs, barbers, general contractors, private investigators and many others. Restaurants, bars and other businesses generally require a municipal license to operate. You can use licenses and applications for licenses (often available via publica information requests) to determine who owns a business; check for criminal cases or civil judgments the licensee disclosed on their application; verify a license; identify someone’s business associates; and check for disciplinary actions and complaints against a licensee, among other things. After reviewing what’s online about a license, consider calling the state or local licensing authority to learn what else is publicly available.

The Pinterest Visual Search tool allows you to take a picture of an item and use it to search for products on Pinterest.

This ProPublica search tool collects and presents information concerning businesses that applied to and received monetary relief from the U.S. Paycheck Protection Program, otherwise known as PPP loans. This also provides information concerning how much was paid out and how much of the loans are outstanding, have been paid down or have been forgiven.

The Recorder of Deeds, sometimes called the county clerk or another name, is the keeper of documents about real property and other official documents. In most jurisdictions, counties maintain these records, but in states such as Connecticut, towns maintain them. Search for recorded documents naming an individual in each of the jurisdictions where the individual has lived or worked. In some jurisdictions, there is no online access to official records. Use these records to find an individual’s counterparties in transactions, creditors and financial information. The following common types of records may be filed with the recorder of deeds or equivalent authority: Warranty Deed, documenting the sale of a property Quitclaim Deed, documenting the release of forfeiture of an ownership claim on a property Deed of Trust, or Mortgage, registering a lender’s security interest in a property to permit foreclosure in case of default Certificate of Release, or Notice of Satisfaction, documenting the full repayment of a loan and the release of a lender’s security interest in a property Mechanic’s Lien, documenting a contractor’s right to foreclose a property in case of nonpayment for work conducted on it Tax Lien, registering an unpaid tax debt Judgment, registering a judgment entered by a court Affidavit, in which an individual makes a factual declaration under oath, generally for the purpose of executing a contract that will be signed by the individual Marriage License – in some jurisdictions these will be recorded publicly with the County Clerk Oaths of Office – in some jurisdictions county employees publicly file sworn oaths of office Military Discharges – in some jurisdictions, veterans can choose to publicly file their military discharges

The Securities and Exchange Commission Edgar Full Text Search allows users to search the full text of SEC filings for public companies and some other entities dating back to 2001. You can search it for people, companies, and other information. One company’s filings may contain mention of another company, providing information on client and supplier relationships. Filings for public companies contain lists of directors, details of executive and board compensation and stock trades, professional bios details on company performance, summaries of significant litigation and more. Here are key filings to look for: Form 10-K, an annual report of a publicly traded company containing audited financial statements Form 10-Q, a quarterly report of a publicly traded company containing audited financial statements Form 8-K, a current report disclosing material information about a publicly traded company, such as a merger agreement Schedule 14A, a proxy statement disclosing information on a company’s corporate governance, including its board of directors, its executive compensation and any shareholder proposals scheduled for votes at the annual shareholder meeting Forms 3, 4 and 5, which disclose stock ownership and transactions for officers, directors, and significant shareholders of a publicly traded company Form D, disclosing a private offering of equity or debt, such as a venture capital funding round for a startup Form 13F, a quarterly snapshot of the publicly traded securities held by a fund manager, which are required for funds holding at least $100 million in publicly traded securities

Investment advisers are finance professionals who manage funds for investors. They are often called fund managers, and depending on the types of investments they make, they might call their funds hedge funds, private equity funds or venture capital funds. Fund managers with at least $150 million in assets under management must register with the Securities and Exchange Commission and file a Form ADV, which includes information on the names of the funds that they manage, the values of these funds and the officers and beneficial owners of the investment adviser. Use this site to search for registered investment advisers, disclosure events such as previous criminal convictions of officers, and associates of an individual who has been an investment adviser.

In most states, the secretary of state’s responsibilities include chartering companies and administering elections. Some states, such as Arizona, have a distinct agency to charter companies, the Arizona Corporate Commission. Others, such as New York, have a distinct agency to administer elections, the New York State Board of Elections. As the agency responsible for chartering companies, the secretary of state generally maintains a database of companies chartered in the jurisdiction. You can search some of these databases by company name, officer name and registered address, and retrieve all corporate filings for free, but others allow search only by company name and charge for access to filings. Secretaries of state also maintain databases of Universal Commercial Code financing statements. These statements allow lenders to record security interests in property held by debtors. UCC financing statements generally don’t cover real property but do cover accounts receivable, inventory, office equipment and financial accounts. UCC databases maintained by secretaries of state often allow users to search by the debtor or secured party’s name. As the administrator of elections, the secretary of state also often provides information on election results and candidate registrations for both state-level and federal races. For state-level candidates, the secretary of state also often maintains records of financial disclosures filed by state-level candidates and officeholders and campaign finance reports for state-level candidates. The secretary of state may also keep a database of disclosures filed by state government lobbyists.

The first link leads to a list of all secretary of state business searches. The others link to business searches in Delaware, Florida, Nevada and Texas, where many businesses from other states register because of business-friendly laws and other factors.

SignalHire draws from LinkedIn profiles (including cached information) and other data to provide a database of both professional histories and contact information.

State bar associations generally provide a publicly available member directory through which you can check an attorney’s license and see disciplinary actions associated with a license, and some provide attorneys’ business addresses and educational histories. State bar associations serve a public function but are private organizations not subject to state-level open records laws.

States, counties and municipal governments often provide publicly available information on government contracts, though these databases may be less user-friendly and less comprehensive than federal databases. Use these databases to find information in contracts involving individuals, an individual’s companies, campaign donors of a candidate, business associates and relatives.

Property owners in all 50 states and the District of Columbia owe taxes on real property. Generally, it is the county that collects these taxes, but in some states it is the town. The County Tax Assessor, sometimes referred to as the County Treasurer or by some other name, is responsible for valuing real property in the county and assessing property owners the appropriate amount of tax. Thus, the County Tax Assessor keeps up-to-date information on the current ownership of properties, their boundaries and features, and the taxes owed by property owners. In most counties, the tax assessor provides an online database that can be searched by property address, parcel ID, or owner name. In some states, such as California, assessors do not provide the names of property owners because of privacy laws. In many states, assessors provide a satellite map of properties that identifies their owners and boundaries. Many states offer homestead exemptions, which reduce the property taxes owed on properties that the owner uses as a primary residence. Consider whether any homestead exemptions claimed by an individual are consistent with the individual’s voter registration or claimed residence. In addition to taxing real property, many states also tax ‘personal property,’ or any property that is moveable, such as cars, watercraft, product inventory and office equipment. Determine whether the individual lives in such a state and whether personal property tax records are publicly available.