What is a public record? A public record is any legal reference maintained by, or on behalf of, the state or country. Technically, it includes all such records, including those where open public access is restricted or not allowed for state security reasons. However, in general, it is increasingly being used to refer to records that are available to the public for any purpose. Searching a record can reveal a wide variety of information and, under normal circumstances, should accommodate the information needs of most people. However, this depends very much on the type of society and its attitude towards the availability of public information that exists in each individual country. Public registration covers such things as court and criminal records, population data, birth records, death records, marriage records, as well as divorce records.
Searching public records has been simplified where it has been made accessible through an Internet search. There are now many websites that offer an accessible online format. This new approach has opened up a much easier method for collecting important log data. With the availability of these websites, people no longer need to personally visit any registry establishment to perform a manual search, which can be a hassle and a waste of time. Often when you go to a public record establishment to search for data, you will likely spend many hours, if not days, reviewing the physical records. It can be very exhausting going through hundreds of pages of data, trying to identify some small piece of information that will speed up your search.
With an online method, searching for records is now made much easier. Data is easily obtained in a few seconds and all that is required is patience, determination and energy. Compared to the more manual approach to searching for records, searching online is much easier.
In any country, public records constitute a very large volume of information. Not least in the area of genealogical records, where the vast amount of data on every birth, marriage and death of current and past generations presents a huge problem for anyone trying to trace family lineage. With the latest computerized record search methods via the Internet, genealogy records can now be accessed right from home. Traditional media cannot be compared to the speed of analysis and cross-referencing capabilities of modern online search. Sometimes the lineage itself is not easily determined, especially if the seeker does not have enough knowledge about your family. With online research, there are tools available to help overcome such gaps in original knowledge.
Another use of the public records search is background checks. The need for this can arise for many reasons. Many people initiate background checks on their neighbors, friends, or even their fiancées. Now these results are obtained much faster. Some people use the organized documents of the records to verify the credibility and character of others. They find it easy to search the registry to check, for example, if their neighbor has a criminal or judicial record. In fact, some women have been known to investigate her fiancé, checking to see if she has any records of a previous marriage.
However, it should be remembered that access to public records varies by state or country. Certain information may not be available in a particular community. However, records of people convicted of a crime are often available. It may also be that people who have a history of sexual offenses are accessible to members of the public.
Thus, public records are no longer simply vast repositories of information, barely used because of their difficult access and difficult analysis. The advent of online record searching has helped open society’s access to information in many ways.