Although it’s glamorous to imagine that private investigators solve cases using secret powers whilst lurking in the shadows undetected by others, that’s not the case at all. At least not for me.
For the past six years, pretty much every time I get the question, “So, what do you do for work?”, I get instant intrigue, surprise, and loads of follow-up questions when I answer. It’s kind of fun to experience those initial reactions. I mean, who doesn’t puff up a little when their job title automatically elevates them to cool status? It’s fun being the cool kid.
But it doesn’t last long. Once I explain exactly what it is I do on the daily, people aren’t nearly as impressed as they were when they thought my job was nothing but constant intrigue and excitement. Though there is intrigue and excitement, there is also research, patience, disappointments, and many potential rabbit trails involved.
Many of us private investigators operate within niches. Mine happens to be adoption searches. I identify and locate biological family members for adoptees. I also identify and locate adoptees for biological parents, siblings, and even grandparents. Sometimes, my client isn’t adopted, but hires me to find a biological parent when they suddenly find out their father isn’t their biological father after all. Bottom line, I identify and locate people.
My niche is exciting, challenging, and satisfying for me. Just as some of you have niches or other jobs entirely that you love for various reasons. So even though the details of my job might take the air out of my title of private investigator for you, it certainly doesn’t take the air out of it for me. I’ve found exactly what I was meant to do.
Much of my job consists of sitting at a computer and researching. I am a self-taught genealogist. I piece clues together from all kinds of different sources. Many times, I identify an individual that started with nothing more than a distant relative’s DNA. Sometimes, I get help from people I email or call on the phone who initially think I’m either trying to scam them out of something or fear they are in some kind of legal trouble. Occasionally, those people hang up on me. Sometimes I uncover long-held family secrets. It’s far from boring.
Of all the sources I use, I have two favorites. They are my favorites because I use them in nearly every case I work and, nine times out of ten, I hit pay dirt. They are obituaries and Facebook.
Obituaries can be a complete treasure-trove of information for anyone attempting to make family connections. For genealogists or anyone like me who uses genealogy to solve familial mysteries, obituaries are a go-to resource. They not only list family connections, but they often also list names of spouses and the cities in which they lived at the time the obituary was written. This information is sometimes exactly what I need to further my search into a specific individual. Obituaries give maiden names, former surnames before a divorce, names of parents and children and grandchildren, names of former spouses, and information on who was still living and who had died prior to the date of the obituary. A photograph often accompanies an obituary.
Sometimes, obituaries give career information, whether a person served their country, places they enjoyed traveling, hobbies, memberships to clubs and associations, church membership, and special friendships. On a recent case, I even used a comment on an online obituary to contact an individual who was able to give me volumes of information I was seeking for my client.
Don’t discount the power of obituaries. You just never know what you might find.
Facebook is another resource I never skip out on using, even if the target of my investigation doesn’t have a Facebook profile. If they don’t have a Facebook profile, the chances of a close family member or good friend having one is high. It is always worth checking into. Always.
Facebook (and other social media platforms) can be quite telling for any private investigator. Although I’m no longer surprised at what I find, it still amazes me the amount of information I can discover about a person through Facebook.
Photos, photos, photos galore. And from those photos, I often uncover favorite hangouts; hobbies; vehicle information; a home address, neighborhood, or at least the city or town where they live; all kinds of information about their children (sports they play, specific teams they play on, schools they attend, clubs in which they participate, etc); friends they spend the most time with; where and when they vacation; family members; their birthday and birthdates for their family members… my goodness, the list goes on and on.
People share personal information on Facebook. Even if my target isn’t on Facebook or other social media platforms, if they have children, there is a good chance they are. Some children and teenagers practically live on social media. If you are a private investigator and you don’t use social media to mine information, you are missing out on a huge resource and a wealth of knowledge.
I’ve used social media to determine the best time to conduct surveillance on a subject. I’ve used it to find current phone numbers and addresses. I’ve used social media to pinpoint exact locations for people. It has helped me prove a sex offender was having illegal contact with a minor. It has proven useful when I found photos of a young woman playing rugby, all while she was claiming a back injury was preventing her from working. It has helped me locate assets for individuals and has helped me find biological family members for my clients.
Private investigators have some phenomenal resources at our fingertips. Some cost money to use, while others are free to the public. Obituaries and Facebook, my two most lucrative resources, are free for anyone to use. And, oh, so worth it.