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Public Records: Personal Records

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Property Values

You can figure out how much a property is worth by looking up the taxable value of the property, which changes from year to year. You may need to find a lookup tool for property tax records for the county or borough in which the property is located. Records for land are separate than records for property with improvements (buildings).

Vital Records

Vital records are government records of life events like birth, death, and marriage. In order to find these, you would need to know what state or possibly what county holds that record. For example, if someone was married in Texas, you would need to search the Texas state index of marriage license applications to find in which county the marriage took place, and then look it up in the records for that county.

Not all vital records are available online. In some cases, you may need to go to the government office that holds the records. If a state is a closed record state, there are restrictions on access to these records by non-family members for a period of time. Texas is a closed records state.

Criminal Records

Find arrests, prosecutions, and sex offender registrations by searching for criminal records by state. You may find a state lookup tool, or you may need to search court cases. You may not always find this information online or it may not be free.

Voter Registration

Some states collect voter information at the state level, but most collect it at the county level. Not every state provides this information online.

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