People Searchers Comparison 2020

In searching for the living or recently deceased, one great tool is people search. These websites collect information from public records and present a variety of data, some for free, some behind pay walls. This is a quick non-scientic study of many of the most used searchers. It was based on only one search of each site, and the person is elderly and stable, not moving or buying cars, etc. for a long time. A poll of genealogists was taken, and the results of the poll are here. The first ones on the list are "Cyn's picks." No attempt was made to research the paid side of any of the sites, but poll data is here. In my experience, the newer the site, the more recent the information, and the more they give before hitting the pay wall. Many get bought out. The oldest ones have older data, but may also have recent data. Most of them tend to offer much less for free as time goes on. For this reason, this listing will outdate quite quickly. Here are column explanations.

• Poll - results of which search site people mentioned in a poll done on a professional genealogy list, either "F" for the free side, or "P" for a paid subscription
• Rank - based on the number of data items offered on the free side less the disadvantages, so very subjective on my part.

• Name - Not necessarily the name preferred by the company
• Age - obviously the age of the subject. Some only offered ranges, usually a decade, ie., "60's" or "Over 60"
• Address - This is the address of the subject. Some are partial, here noted if it gives the town, but not the street address
• Old Addy - Previous addresses are included in many. The older the site, the more old addresses there seem to be
• Phone - Telephone number, often the last four digits are redacted
• Cell - Has a cell phone number included
• Associates - Not specified as relatives, but may be
• Relatives - Some more accurate than others, some include apartment or institution neighbors of same last name
• Home - some sort of information offered such as if the person is the homeowner, or info about the home or it's purchase, sometimes neighborhood values
• Other - Extra items offered that are not the usual
• Goes To - this covers redirects to another site, which likely bought out the first one. Also many use another service for their paid side
• Comments - My experiences
• URL - link to the site