Where to Look
Let's now look at the social security number. With this identifier anyone living or dead should be able to be located fairly easily. There are exceptions of course. For example, there are individuals who change their social security numbers as well as their name. To change a social security number legally requires a mountain of paperwork and is actually difficult to so. A person can take a social security number of a deceased individual or simply change theirs by one or two digits and effectively alter their identity. This is an extreme measure and actually rarely done.
If you find the social security number is a dead end you may want to contact the Social Security Administration to verify whether your target person is listed on the Master Death Index or you can do your own search at death-records.net/ssdi.htm as well as www.ancestry.com/ssdi/advanced.html. There are over 90 million people recorded by name. If your person is on the list, you can further verify with the date of birth, social security number, place of birth and last known address.
With this information you can seek any possible living relatives or check for property or last will and testament. If your target is not on the Master Death Index, then, by all means, continue your search by following the next bit of information that you have as you fill up your checklist.
What do we do if we do not have the social security number of the person we are looking for? They are harder to get now. There are numerous sources for social security numbers that can be accessed. Divorce records available at the county courthouse will have both plaintiff and the respondent's numbers. Driver's license records very often have these numbers and can be accessed by you, however, the requirements vary from state to state. A phone call to that state's division of licenses will further instruct you. This is the source we use most regularly, because we have ready access to it. Another very good source for a social security number is a credit reporting agency.
There are two factors that make this source a bit difficult. One is that only authorized persons can access this information, such as information brokers that are licensed to do so and even they are limited to the header and footer which actually does not contain financial information, but does have the name, address, employer and often times other individuals, who have made inquires about this person. It should be noted here that social security numbers has become very difficult to come by. Many data sources that we use have eliminated providing them, some have not. It has made some of our searches that we perform slightly more difficult but not impossible. For the average citizen, if you try to get a social security number and can not, do not worry about it simply continue on as you have been and do not give up. A social security number is handy but not required. As I said before, when a venue does not work, look for another.
Actually, along with the very good data about your target you may be able to contact one of the people who made an inquiry to find exactly where your missing person is currently located. As far as the information broker is concerned, you'll find a list of them in the last section. As far as fees involved, you'll have to contact them individually about that as fees vary widely from company to company.
As you expand your search to encompass greater distances from your starting point as well as some information sources that are available you may find some more helpful than others. Some have fees associated with searches, others do not. You might try one or all of them. The order in which you use them is not critical and they may not help you, but they are there and they just might. Remember, look everywhere at everything for anything that might help you.
