TOOLS

TRIANGULATION

Triangulation is a process used by navigators to determine a location by forming a triangle of the unknown point and two known points. The two known points give enough information to tell the navigator where the third point is.

"What," you exclaim, "does this have to do with prospect research?!?" Researchers use a similar process to help us determine if that hot name we just found is the same person in our database. If you have subscription sources like Accurint or Wealth Engine, where you get former address, employment and relative information, it's often easy to get enough data points to confirm whether you've hit the prospect jackpot. But if you have no access to this kind of site, there is a way to get there -- using triangulation.

Here are some of the sites I use to triangulate. It's roundabout, since using only one site isn't sure-fire. For example, I researched a man with an extremely odd name who turned out to be two people, cousins who shared a historical family name. So I always confirm with two or more data points.

PEOPLE LOOK-UPS

ZabaSearch

What's handy about this resource is that it often gives date of birth (DOB), as well as middle initials, addresses and phone numbers. So if you think John Q. Public is your guy, but the address you have doesn't match, sometimes you can match DOBs for John at two different addresses. Or you have an address, but need a DOB or middle initial to confirm. Be sure to scan the entire list because the names can be ordered oddly at this site.

http://www.zabasearch.com/

DAPlus
This site often has addresses for people you can't find in regular white pages listings. The initial search output is a list with full names and towns, so sometimes you can find the spouse by cross-referencing by town or a vacation home by name.

http://www.daplus.us/

My Family People Finder
This is actually a fee site, but the free data can be helpful. The look-up is very specific. For instance, if I put in my last name and first initial, I get no hits. If I enter just my last name, I get hits for me. So I usually just do a last name search with state. But you can refine your search with full name, including middle initial, and town. What I like about this site is that names are grouped by address (which you can't see without paying), so sometimes you can see spouses and children. Middle initials and ages also are frequently given.

http://reunite.myfamily.com/search.aspx? search=firstname=&
lastname=GRABHORN&o_xid=0022089462&o_lid=0022089462&o_xt=22089462

REVERSE LOOK-UPS

Looking up an address or a phone to find the person is another way to find spouses and middle initials. Here are other sites I like that provide this service.

DAPlus also offers reverse look-ups by phone and address. They will be adding a reverse business address search soon.

http://www.daplus.us/PhoneSearch.aspx and http://www.daplus.us/ReverseAddress.aspx

411Locate offers both commercial and residential reverse phone and address searches.

http://www.411locate.com/reverse.htm

This look-up site is visually ugly, but offers reverse address and phone look-ups from three different sites.

http://www.reverseaddress.com/ and http://www.reversephonedirectory.com/

InfoSpace has reverse business and residential phone, home address and e-mail look-ups.

http://www.infospace.com/info/reverse.htm

AnyWho offers reverse commercial and residential phone look-ups only.

http://www.anywho.com/rl.html

POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS

You may not think of political contribution sites as sources for triangulation information, but the work information they provide can be a third point on the triangle.

FEC Info
I like this site because you can search the last three campaign cycles at once and catch sporadic contributors.

http://www.tray.com/cgi-win/indexhtml.exe?MBF=NAME

FundRace Neighbor Search
Search by name for contributions and get company affiliation, job title and, as a nice bonus, address. You can also search by address, although the results broaden to include the surrounding streets as well as the street you looked up.

The address search can help you identify people who live or work with each other, depending on whether they gave a home or work address and whether the parties of interest made campaign contributions. In addition to helping with triangulation, the address look-up is a nice way to find others who might be part of your prospect's personal or corporate network.

http://fundrace.org/neighbors.php

Triangulation can be useful in identifying prospects, but it does have its limits. The thing to remember is that even having additional data points to help you verify identity can lead you astray if the data itself is bad. I have found address, age, middle initial and spouse and child name errors on some of these sites -- errors which I have seen repeated at subscription sites, especially if the person has a common or dynastic name.

Chris Mildner

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