Posted by Rebecca Webb on October 26, 2009, 11:55 am
I'm trying to track down a family that owned a historic house in my
community in 1995. They stayed only about a year. I've had no luck
finding them on-line and the folks who bought the house from them are
gone, too (dead or disenfranchised i.e. not likely to care about my
research). A member at the local historical society suggested asking
the post office for a record of a forwarding address.
I tried that recently, hoping to discover periods when the house stood
empty. As best I can recall, I was told that, in the past, only the
letter carrier had forwarding info for homes in his or her route. Post
offices seldom hang onto such info for long.
True?
I was also told that, more recently, forwarding is centralized. Info is
sent to a large regional facility and NOT kept at local post offices.
True? Starting when?
Thanks if you can help.
RW
Posted by Shawn Hirn on October 26, 2009, 7:03 pm
> I'm trying to track down a family that owned a historic house in my
> community in 1995. They stayed only about a year. I've had no luck
> finding them on-line and the folks who bought the house from them are
> gone, too (dead or disenfranchised i.e. not likely to care about my
> research). A member at the local historical society suggested asking
> the post office for a record of a forwarding address.
>
> I tried that recently, hoping to discover periods when the house stood
> empty. As best I can recall, I was told that, in the past, only the
> letter carrier had forwarding info for homes in his or her route. Post
> offices seldom hang onto such info for long.
>
> True?
>
> I was also told that, more recently, forwarding is centralized. Info is
> sent to a large regional facility and NOT kept at local post offices.
>
> True? Starting when?
>
> Thanks if you can help.
>
> RW
Contact your community's local recorder of deeds office.
Posted by Erehwon on October 26, 2009, 8:09 pm
> I'm trying to track down a family that owned a historic house in my
> community in 1995. They stayed only about a year. I've had no luck
> finding them on-line and the folks who bought the house from them are
> gone, too (dead or disenfranchised i.e. not likely to care about my
> research).
Are you trying to find the name or do you already have that and just trying
to find a current address for them?
Posted by Rebecca Webb on October 27, 2009, 10:50 am
> > I'm trying to track down a family that owned a historic house in my
> > community in 1995. They stayed only about a year. I've had no luck
> > finding them on-line and the folks who bought the house from them are
> > gone, too (dead or disenfranchised i.e. not likely to care about my
> > research).
>
> Are you trying to find the name or do you already have that and just trying
> to find a current address for them?
Have the names:
Richard L. and Kathy M. Gibbs
Want current contact info. I have copies of the county recorder's
property transfer records. No help there. Neighbors remember the
family but have no idea where they went. No luck with switchboard.com,
either. There are no matches in this state (wrong middle initial on
Richard) and ten bazillion exact matches throughout the country. Only
Kathy M. Gibbs I can find in cyberspace is a life-long southerner and
realtor.
Nobody with the same surname in the town they came from. And I'm
guessing the NCA folks wouldn't sell a single piece of info to a private
citizen...
Not sure how contacting utility companies would help. They'd have
simply closed their accounts, then signed up with their new provider
after moving. Even if they stayed in state or with the same utility
provider, would that company release the info to me?
Thanks for all the help so far, everybody!
R.
Posted by LDC on October 27, 2009, 11:44 am
On Tue, 27 Oct 2009 09:50:59 -0500, Rebecca Webb
>Not sure how contacting utility companies would help. They'd have
>simply closed their accounts, then signed up with their new provider
>after moving. Even if they stayed in state or with the same utility
>provider, would that company release the info to me?
Typically utilities get the new address when an account is closed in
case future contact is necessary. But your are right, they probably
would not release that information to you.
Not sure how badly you want to contact these people but the logical
step would be to contact a private investigator. A bail bond office
should be able to give you a good referral if you can't find one
another way. You can get a quote and see if it is worth it to you
to proceed.
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> community in 1995. They stayed only about a year. I've had no luck
> finding them on-line and the folks who bought the house from them are
> gone, too (dead or disenfranchised i.e. not likely to care about my
> research). A member at the local historical society suggested asking
> the post office for a record of a forwarding address.
>
> I tried that recently, hoping to discover periods when the house stood
> empty. As best I can recall, I was told that, in the past, only the
> letter carrier had forwarding info for homes in his or her route. Post
> offices seldom hang onto such info for long.
>
> True?
>
> I was also told that, more recently, forwarding is centralized. Info is
> sent to a large regional facility and NOT kept at local post offices.
>
> True? Starting when?
>
> Thanks if you can help.
>
> RW