Public Records Lookups
There are a great deal of different reasons why a person might want to uncover information from the public records. For instance, there is the case where a person is trying to track down a missing friend or family member. Or there are times when you are trying to put together [spin]biographical|background|personal|individual[spin] information about a famous person for a history project. Whatever your reason, there are some good quality resources that you should be aware of.
The first thing that you need to know about is the social security number search sites. These are sites that allow you to search using a social security number, and will help you if you think that a person is using a fake ID. Every single adult in the US has a social security number - it is a unique way of identifying an individual. Sometimes, a person may take a false ssn, possibly one of a dead person. In this instance, the ssn search sites can help to locate this.
social security death records index
These types of site give you information about people who are deceased, and cover the last 100 years or so. This is useful for many different purposes - one example is that of a private detective who is searching for a missing person. If he finds a positive match on this list, he knows that there is no reason to look any further. It can also be a useful tool to use when you are looking for missing or long lost schoolfriends.
Criminal records sites are beneficial when doing a backcheck on a person. Sometimes, a person applying for a job may have a bad personal history, possibly related to the industry or position being applied for. Using sites like this one, a potential employer can check the background records to see if there is a record of bad behaviour in the past. Needless to say, these resources are for lawful uses only, and abuses will definitely be acted upon.
This is really just the tip of the iceberg - there are lots of different services that you can use to look up information about people. I recommend that you follow the links in this article to find out more about the topics covered.