How to Find the Address History of a Previous Resident

Whether it's wanderlust, the rat race or our globalized lifestyles, people these days tend to accumulate a trail of addresses before finally settling down in one spot. There's no central source that keeps a record of who lived where, when, but if you need to know a person's residential history, there are several resources that can help you piece one together.

Instructions

1. Request a copy of the person's credit report, which usually has a fairly complete residential history for his adult life. Try companies that offer credit histories for sale like Tenant Alert and QuickCheck.

2. Check Intelius, a people-search service with a large online database of records that include both current and prior addresses. Search a person's name for a free display of cities that person has lived. For a fee, Intelius also provides full address listings.

3. Search Ancestry. This well-known family history website provides access to thousands of directories, including telephone books from the past few years and decades. Use the name search feature to find directory listings for the person you're searching. Preliminary results are free, but you need a subscription or a free trial at Ancestry to access the full listings.

References

• Tenant Alert
• Quick Check: Credit Reports
• Intelius
• Ancestry: City and Area Directories