8) Public Records (Local)

 Anna McGough

Public Records

    By definition of Merriam Webster dictionary, public records are "a record made by a public officer or a government agency in the course of the performance of a duty." Public records are normally fairly easy to find and get. Sometimes, in order to obtain them, you must pay a small fee, but most are free. Examples of these would include things such as inmate rosters, bankruptcies, birth and death certificates, property records and much more. When physical copies of newspapers were sent out, the bankruptcies were published on one of the pages as well as the new entities founded in the area. 

    My family would always look at the bankruptcies and LLCs to see if they knew any of them or to check the goofy names people named their entities. My mom worked for a public accounting firm and would check for client names in those sections of the paper due to them often being published before they could actually tell the firm about the decision. My father used to use the public property records to see who owned what land around us and who was moving in where in our neighborhood. He learned where our property line was this way and the names of the people who lived around us. 

    To this day, I use inmate roster public records. Where I come from, there is a significant amount of crime in the area, and it is good to check what crimes are happening. I also use them to see if anyone I know or went to school with has gotten into trouble. Back when my neighbors were arrested for breaking into a convenient store, we used the Jefferson County Inmate Roster to check and see what they were charged with. When you live in a bad town or bad area, it is good to check inmate rosters from time to time.