Saturday 10 March 2018

Tracing Agent Advice On DIY People Tracing


Tracing Agents advice and tips to trace a person 

How To Trace A Person

Tracing a person from scratch can be much trickier than people think. Not everyone’s on Facebook and we don’t all pop up on a google search. So, People Location have done an article on tracing someone for the novice AKA “DO IT YOURSELF PEOPLE TRACING” a simple guide to low level people tracing.

In this short article we will give you some ideas on how you can go about tracing a person who you have lost touch with. We are giving away all the trade secrets. You will need some information to work with so don’t bother reading on if it’s someone you met at a party and never got their name or a person who winked at you on the train last weekend.  You will need an idea of the name they are using today or an idea of the name they had before they were married.

So, you think you may be the next Columbo? “just one thing” there are some pro’s and cons to doing the search yourself. If you want to trace the person and you have plenty of time on your hands and maybe some budget, then you might be able to pull it off!

The main upside to doing your own people tracing is, reduced cost, but there may well be costs that you might want to keep an eye on. so, if costs are your only concern you may want to check with us on how we can possibly save you money on your tracing. And the other main pro of doing your own searches is that great sense of accomplishment once you each the end goal.

The downsides are, as above, costs, they can quickly build up and before you know it you could have spent £100’s and got nowhere. Time. It can take up a lot of time, but if it’s something you enjoy doing it may well be time well spent. You may end up following the wrong lead, and it can be a lot of time and effort lost. You could end up contacting the wrong person completely. This can result in you having to go back to the beginning of your search and start from scratch. Spending time and money tracking down the wrong person can be frustrating, to say the least. You may end up with nothing at the end of your search and end in you simply giving up hope of ever finding them. We have had many people come to us after spending weeks, months and even years doing their own research only to find a brick wall at every turn.

When clients come to us with their own case file and search results we often see, relatively quickly, where they are going wrong. In some instances, it can be down to s simple search error in the beginning of their research that has led them completely off trail. It’s usually down to an assumption of located data being the person they are looking for, a middle name, birth details or marriage details that simply don’t belong to the person they are trying to trace. They have ended up following the wrong person. And with miss matching details that are for two different people they are usually left scratching their head.

And, once or twice, I simply have no idea where they get the data from! It leaves us all confused!

If your search is what we would call, a low-level search, you may well be able to solve it. You will need to have some good and reliable details to work with. You will need their name and if they are now married and you don’t know what their name is now you will have to solve that one before you can go on to locate the current address. And you will need time to set aside to do your research.

 You must be prepared for the hurdles that you may come across during your search. If you are working with a lack of full name criteria with correct spellings, you will have to overcome this to enable you to be sure you are on the right track. You may end up having to order certificates to clarify the name and its spelling. If your trawling marriage certificates you may need order one or two before you can be sure it’s the right one. You may also need to go online and use credit paid searches to uncover the name spellings or married names. Be careful these costs can add up quickly.

If you don’t know their exact birthdate or age it may also hinder your research. Again, ordering the birth certificates can be timely and if you have multiple possible births it can also be costly. Online electoral roll searches may be a way round this but again, they are credit paid searches and many will only have age brackets or no age details at all, so keep an eye on what your spending!

The People Location Tracing Agents have powerful data access that you don’t. So, you will also have a major lack of resources at your fingertips. You may have full name, birthdate and more but clarifying that data against a possible match may end up in having to contact them before you can be sure it’s the right person and not someone else who is around the same age in the same area. And you may not get a rely at all leaving you in the lurch, is it them and they are ignoring me? Is it someone else and they cant be bothered to let them know. And more importantly, who have I just given my details to?

Its not just a lack of tools you are facing but a lack of experience. As with all things in life a lack of experience can leave you slightly bewildered in a sea of conflicting data or needle in a haystack scenario. Our team have decades of experience under their belts when it comes to people tracing. But, put one of us in front of a car engine, or plumbing in a new sink and we are lost! Sometimes you need the right expert for the right job.

Okay, we have said our piece, told you pro’s and cons, possibly scarred you a bit! And done the, right man for the right job speech, lets get to what you came here for, Tracing a person on your own.

Here’s our short-hand advice on how you an undertake a “do it yourself person trace

Get all your details together.
You will be best writing everything you know down on a piece of paper or typing it up on your computer. Make sure you add everything you know about that person. This is your case data and you may end up going back to it over and over again. This will be your worksheet as well so as you progress you can add details to it and cross off things you don’t want to do twice.
Name, any nicknames, married names and birth name
Get an idea of their age down or if you know it their full birthdate
Addresses they have lived at or been connected to
If they are married make a note of it. If you know who they marred and where they married
List down anyone else they may live with. Any children if they are over 18 they may well be on data sets
List down any jobs or type of work they do
List any old phone numbers email addresses or mobiles
Note down any other linked family or friends they may be in touch with now
Add anything else to your notes that you may think will be helpful. Things like hobbies, places they have connections to or anything you may feel is relevant.

Time to get searching!

Online
Go online and search under the name and area’s you know. See if any of the results mentions anything else that you know about the person.
So you may get something like “JOHN DOE RACE CAR FANATIC RAISES 2K FOR CHARITY” is this you person did they have a race car hobby? Does the page mention any circuits they may have used? Is it close to the area you last knew them to be in. Contacting the racing circuit may be useful they may be able to pass on a message.
You may also get something like “JOHN DOE MOBILE MECHANIC SERVING BRISTOL AND SURROUNDING AREA” Does this sound like him? Is there a contact number or website? Does the website have an address or contact from?
The general idea is to match the known name to any part of the other data you have on your case file.
You may also want to specify the details by going to the search settings and clicking on “advanced search” this can really specify what you are looking for and filter out unwanted results.
You may also want to variate your name data so remember to use nicknames and abbreviated names, like John and Johnathon, or Pete and Peter.


Social Media
So many people are on social media, so you will want to check here. Facebook has over 1 billion users and 99% of the UK will know someone else who does use Facebook.
Again check under nick names or abbreviated names
Trawling through the profile avatars can help you spot them by their face. If they don’t show on there or there simply too many matches you may want to try and look for a wife, brother, sister or mum and dad, anyone else who they may know. You may be able to find the person your looking for on a friends list or they may be able to pass on a message for you.


 Electoral register
Looking on the voter’s roll can be done on the internet or at your local reference library or council. Don’t forget to cross the check the data. Check the other occupants at the same address and see if any of them appear to be a spouse or grown up child. Remember the electoral roll is split into two versions, edited and full and many of us are no longer on the edited version, we are all sick of marketing, so if they don’t appear on the electoral roll it may simply mean they have opted out of the edited copy.


GRO searches and certificates
Its more in-depth and may be best left to the moderate tracer. If you need to check for marriage, then searching the indexes may be enough. If you are looking at multiple possible matches, then you may need to get the certificates to ensure you are on the right trail. Getting the certificates can take time and it can, in some cases get quite expensive. You may also want to check over the death indexes. I know it’s a morbid thought but its an area you can not always ignore. Be prepared for all scenarios!


Wills and probate searches
This will help in seeing if there is a likely death. Wills are more up to date than the indexes, so a more recent death may show on here. Again, you may well need to get a copy of the will to ensure it’s the right person and if there are multiple name matches you could end up spending quite a lot. Its also worth looking for anyone else who may have dies who may have added them to a will. So if there parents have passed away they may have mentioned them in a will which may have an up to date address.


Companies House Searches
If you know or think the person was or is a director, they will be on the register of appointees. The register does give you some information such as a year and month of birth as well as a contact address. The address on file could be an accountant or a serviced office or registered office. Many of these places will pass on letters if they have the ability to do so.

Look or people they know
If you are not having any luck tracking them down, you may want to think about redoing the search for someone else they may know. Looking for a sibling or parents can give you care of contact or help you get a message to them.



We hope you have found this article helpful and if you think anyone else may benefit from it why not pass it on or share it with others.
We love Social media, LinkedIn and twitter so feel free to link to this page
We wish you the very best with your search and remember, if you have tried all this and still can’t get in touch then contact one of our experts here. We will be happy to get you back in touch in no time at all!

Tel: 020 8390 1703

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