News Sources

Government databases come and go, get redesigned, get renamed, get folded into bigger portals. We update this page whenever a major federal or state record source launches, gets a substantial redesign, or moves to a new URL. That is usually monthly, sometimes more often when something important happens (PACER's MFA rollout, the Corporate Transparency Act, the FEMA flood-map overhaul).

Everything listed below is government, nonprofit, or otherwise official. We do not list paid lookup services, data brokers, or "people search" sites that repackage public data and charge for it. If you see a new portal worth adding, the submission link at the bottom of the page goes straight to us.

PACER got its first major UI refresh in years, and the multi-district Case Locator (PCL) is now the fastest way to search every federal court at once for a single name or business. The Corporate Transparency Act's Beneficial Ownership database (BOI) at FinCEN went live in 2024 and now requires most U.S. corporations and LLCs to disclose their actual human owners. That is a major shift for asset searches and due-diligence work.

• PACER Case Locator v2, Multi-district search across 94 federal courts
• FinCEN Beneficial Ownership (BOI), Corporate Transparency Act reporting portal
• PACER, Federal court electronic records (MFA required Feb. 2026)

FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer is the federal authoritative flood map, and it has been substantially upgraded. Better resolution, easier to read, and now mobile-friendly. The Bureau of Land Management's Land Records portal handles federal surface and mineral ownership records, useful if you are researching federal lease history, mining claims, or grazing rights on federal land.

• FEMA, National Flood Hazard LayerFederal authoritative flood map, recently upgraded to higher resolution and mobile-friendly
• BLM Navigator, Federal land surface & mineral ownership records

The FTC's annual Consumer Sentinel report came out in February 2026 and is the single best snapshot of national fraud trends. What scams are working, where, against whom, and at what dollar volumes. Worth scanning even if you're not researching a specific case. IdentityTheft.gov got a quiet but useful redesign, with better mobile navigation and faster recovery-plan generation.

• FTC Consumer Sentinel Network, 2025 Annual Report (Feb. 2026)
• IdentityTheft.gov, FTC identity theft recovery guide

Vote.gov is the official federal voter-registration portal and now redirects you to your state's specific registration page based on your address. The U.S. Election Assistance Commission publishes nonpartisan data on voter turnout, election administration, and certified election equipment.

• Vote.gov, Federal Voter Registration PortalAuto-routes to your state's registration system based on your address
• U.S. Election Assistance Commission, Election data and resources

State-level changes happen too often to list individually, but every month we update the state directory pages with new portal URLs, redesigned interfaces, and any agencies that have been merged or split. The state directory link below is the live, updated index.

• Browse all 50 State Public Records Portals
• City & Town Public Records Directory
• Online Court Records, All States

We get pitches every week to add commercial people-search sites, paid background-check services, "premium" public-records databases, AI-powered "deep search" tools, and various data brokers. We do not link to any of them. The standard for inclusion on this page is simple. It has to be a government source (.gov, official state/county portal), a recognized nonprofit (LII, CourtListener, IRE), or a free official directory of those. If it costs money to access basic public records, we will not link to it. If it repackages free data and charges for it, we definitely will not link to it.

Know of a government database or official public record portal we haven't listed? We review all submissions and add qualifying sources within 30 days.

Contact Us to Submit a Source