How to Get Free Public Records

The Internet has made it easy to gain access to all kinds of information. Even public records have now been made accessible on the Internet via US government departments. The key to gaining access to specific information is tapping the right channels.

Whether or not, public records are made available for free, entirely depends on the nature of information you seek. Most of you may be reading this article to know how to gain access to public criminal records. Having personally searched for a free criminal records check, I can tell you that there are none. That is, there are no commercial websites that offer free criminal background check. The reason why commercial websites cannot offer free criminal records check is because this information can only be accessed by federal or state level government agencies.

However, most US states have made criminal records accessible online through their official websites. Make an 'Uncle Sam' Google search, with the keyword 'Criminal Background Check', followed by state name, to locate the websites of state police and law departments that offer criminal background check for a fixed fee.

You need to be aware that public records like social security numbers, birth and death certificates, criminal records, tax payment details fall under the category of personal and sensitive information. This information cannot be accessed unless you have the legal right to do so. Most of such information is only made accessible after you have gained proper authorization from concerned authorities.

Finding Free Public Records Using Online Resources

One of the best sources for public records search is the Google search engine itself. Just by searching a person's name on Google, you can get access to his or her personal website, if he or she has any. Many people maintain contact information and addresses online which can easily be found through search engine.

'Publicrecords-Onlinesearches', 'Vital Records' and 'FreePRF' are websites that let you access public records related to property purchases, change of addresses and other personal information. Only the bare minimum details about the address of residence and personal relations are offered for free. For more detailed information, you have to pay a fixed fee.

To get access to public records information for free, you need to access US state law and police department websites. Many states offer a certain amount of information among the public records for free. You may also visit the official government website - 'USA.gov' to gain access to public records.

You can gain access to personal information like landline phone numbers and addresses for free, using websites like WhitePages. Websites like 'Find a Grave' can help you search cemetery records all over USA. There are many more websites, specially designed to help genealogy search. 'Ancestor Hunt' and 'Family Search' are two such sites, which you can access to trace your roots.

While only a very limited amount of information is made available for free, you can take advantage of all the online sources which offer it. As discussed before, information of very sensitive nature, which includes criminal records, is not made available for free and can only be accessed by gaining special authorization from legal authorities.