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Research Guide

The investigative journalists' cheat sheet to the best places on the web and beyond to find the facts and documents you need.

University Registrars

Telephone

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Calling the university’s registrar is the most straightforward way to verify an individual’s claimed degree. Some universities will not verify a candidate’s degree without the person’s signed authorization, though. In such cases, it may still be possible to verify the degree by finding a commencement program, yearbook, university press releases on notable alumni, alumni newsletters or archives of student newspaper articles.

Area of Investigation:

Educational History

This is an offline resource.

Valital

Media and Other Open Sources

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Valital is a paid resource that searches publicly available information. Using it, you can extract, filter and analyze online media on people and organizations you’re researching. It creates a well-organized clip search that makes it easy to know where to start with your research.

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

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Venmo

Media and Other Open Sources

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Review any publicly available payment history on an individual’sVenmo account. If you are unable to find an individual’s Venmo account using their name, try searching with their phone numbers and email addresses.

Area of Investigation:

Social Media, Associated People

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Vessel Tracking Websites

Media and Other Open Sources

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Use vessel tracking websites to find an individual’s or associated person’s boat. Current locations and recent ports of call for vessels are publicly available for free, while historical movements generally require purchase.

Area of Investigation:

Personal Finances

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ViewDNS.Info

Media and Other Open Sources

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Search ViewDNS.Info to find information about domain registrations and other aspects of website infrastructure. Its reverse WhoIS lookup by email address can provide records that are not in Whoxy, so search both.

Area of Investigation:

Professional History

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Washington Public Disclosure Commission - Lobbying

State and Local Records

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Look at the Lobbying tab on the Washington Public Disclosure Commission to search by lobbyist name, lobbying firm name, lobbying client, or year in the state of Washington. You can also search by Lobbyist Reporting, Lobbyist Clients, and Public Agency Lobbying. 

Area of Investigation:

Political History, Lobbying

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Wayback Machine

Media and Other Open Sources

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The Wayback Machine archives and preserves websites. You can enter a URL and view the website as it appeared on past dates when it was captured and archived by the Wayback Machine. You can also conduct keyword searches to return archived internet content. For example, if an individual was an executive of a defunct company that no longer has a website, enter the defunct company’s name into the Wayback Machine keyword search to find archived versions of the company’s website.

Area of Investigation:

Professional History, Political History, Associated People

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White House Visitor Logs

Federal Records

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Search and sort White House visitor logs by visitor name, visitee name and date. Visitors who enter the White House together receive the same identification number, which can be found in the logs. You can download the logs to CSV for analysis.

Area of Investigation:

Political History, Associated People

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Whoxy

Media and Other Open Sources

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Whoxy allows a variety of searches related to domain registration records, including free historical domain registration data that you can search by an individual’s email address. Though a domain might be currently registered to a service such as GoDaddy, in the past it may have been registered to an email address identifying the website’s owner.

Area of Investigation:

Professional History

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Wisconsin Ethics Commission Lobbying Overview

State and Local Records

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Visit the State of Wisconsin's Ethics Commission to see a Lobbying Overview. You'll find reports on lobbyists and lobbying organizations and on state agencies influencing legislation in the state of Wisconsin. 

Area of Investigation:

Political History, Lobbying

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Wyoming Secretary of State Lobbying

State and Local Records

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Visit the Wyoming Secretary of State website to look for lobbying information at the state level. Here, you can find lobbyist registration and lists and lobbyist activity reports. 

Area of Investigation:

Political History, Lobbying

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Yahoo Image Search

Media and Other Open Sources

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Use Yahoo Image Search to find visuals such as photos, vectors, screenshots and icons.

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

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Yandex

Media and Other Open Sources

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Yandex is a suite of internet search tools hosted by Yandex, LLC, a Russian technology company. This site indexes networks and pages on the internet outside of the West and is useful when searching for information about individuals in Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia.

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

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YouTube

Media and Other Open Sources

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Use YouTube to find videos of press conferences, campaign rallies and other content an individual may have posted. Use the transcript, available at the bottom of most videos, to read and search the words spoken on a video.

Area of Investigation:

Social Media

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Zillow

Media and Other Open Sources

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Zillow is a free website that provides photos and data on real property throughout the U.S. Its property data is generally sourced from county-level tax assessors. (As primary sources, tax assessor records are more reliable, so use them to verify anything reported in Zillow.) Zillow complements tax assessor data by also providing data on a property’s listing history. For example, Zillow may report that a property owned by an individual was recently listed for rent, suggesting that the individual may no longer be living there.

Area of Investigation:

Professional History, Personal Finances

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ancestry.com

Media and Other Open Sources

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Use this genealogy research site to find historical documents and photos of individuals and to identify their family members. This is a paid resource.

Area of Investigation:

Background and Family, Educational History, Social Media, Associated People

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findagrave.com

Media and Other Open Sources

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Find a Grave is a collection of burial records worldwide and holds millions of cemetery records. You can search for an individual’s name to find information about their grave and, in some cases, an image of their headstone.

Area of Investigation:

Background and Family, Associated People

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lobbyingdata.com

Proprietary Databases

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This website provides comprehensive real-time and historical datasets on federal lobbying. It includes information on bills, government agencies, and specific lobbying issues. With its lobbying data updated every 24 hours, users can access detailed analytics on lobbying contracts, entity engagements, spending amounts and lobbying firm histories.

Area of Investigation:

Political History, Lobbying

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