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Methods To Search For Free Public Records

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By Claire Dowell


The earliest organized societies and ancient civilizations have established means of archiving events, quarrels, scientific discoveries, and taxation policies. Examples of these deeds can be found among the ruins of ancient Babylonian, Aztec, and Egyptian structures and artifacts. Such activities have been passed on from generation to generation, and have helped establish our identities as a people and the world as we know it.

Public records are pieces of information, proceedings, files, accounts, or other records which a government must maintain, protect, and update. Described as "public", these records must be available for public access, procurement and scrutiny. Public records include vital events such as births, deaths, marriages. Furthermore, documentations of most legal actions, voter registration files, criminal records, and government spending reports also fall into this list of records made available to the grasp of the general public.

It is important to remember that public records serve a variety of purposes. This premise is one of the main reasons why such recordings are made available to the public. For example, marriage licenses formally legalize a celebrated union between husband and wife, divorce records officially terminate a dysfunctional marriage after the approval of a judge in a Court of Law, and arrest records are vital requirements in background checking for employees in most companies around the world to ensure that quality assurance standards are maintained, and future risks are mitigated. Moreover, making reports of government activities are made public for accountability and transparency. Aside from its many legal implications, public registers are also important in interpreting, studying and establishing statistical, socioeconomic, and demographic trends in a jurisdiction. Without knowing the things that shaped our world and us as individuals, we would have a lesser sense of identity.

In the United States, public records are guided by the Freedom of Information Act. In addition to this act, different states have their own form of this legislation. In other words, regulations concerning public record access and distribution vary from state to state. For example, public records access and retrieval in the State of New York is fairly easy, compared to the many exemptions and restrictions in certain categories of documents in Pennsylvania.

Included in the diverse legislations that surround the distribution, maintenance and protection of public records are the institutions tapped by the State Government as the primary repository for public registers. Approaches are either centralized or decentralized, on a state or county level. The usual repositories tapped by State Governments are State Departments of Health, Justice and Public Safety on a state level, and Offices of the District Clerk, Local Courthouses, and Sheriff's Offices on a county level.

A fundamental characteristic of man is to find ways to live a more convenient life. This idea has somewhat materialized into an invention called the Internet. Over the years, the Internet has developed into a marketplace of goods and amenities, aside from being a superhighway of information. Following the trend, government bodies and independent service providers have made public records search available in the World Wide Web to cater to more requests from end-users. Looking at a person's background is now achievable with a few clicks right at the comfort of your own dwelling. With these new ways in performing a records search, good amounts of cash, time and effort can be saved, and urgent matters that require the presence of a particular record can be answered at the soonest possible time.




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