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August 2004
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The Internet as a Tool for Long-Term Program Evaluation: Locating "Lost" IndividualsBrenda K. Bryant Juliana L. Raskauskas University of California, Davis The Need for Long-Term Program EvaluationWhere are they now? That is a question when one considers long-term, follow-up evaluation of Extension programs (e.g., 4-H programs). The Internet can be a useful tool in this regard. Cooperative Extension has always aimed at making enduring changes to the benefit of our nation's citizenry. Long-term follow-up studies are an uncommon method of program evaluation. Locating former program participants, especially youth participants later in their adult lives, can be a challenge. The Internet is a tool to find former youth and adults long after their participation in Extension programs. The Benefit of Comprehensive Record KeepingGood record keeping at the time of program participation is key to locating participants later on. A full record would include each participant's full name, including middle name, birth date, and comparable information for other family members, when reasonable. Locating female participants is particularly challenging due to name changes at time of marriage. Having the names of other family members, especially male relatives, can be helpful in this regard. Finally, to make follow-up of participants complete, it is important to document deaths because the dead are "missing data" of a particular kind. Useful Web sites for Locating People(All web sites reported here were retrievable as of August 29, 2004.) Publicrecordfinder.com--www.publicrecordfinder.com/vitalrecrds.html This site provides links to birth, marriage, and death records organized by state and county. Unfortunately, not all states and counties are represented at this time. Anywho.com--www.anyonewho.com This site can be used identify city of residence from entering an individual's name. This is useful when tracking someone to a new location. The Ultimate White Pages--www.theultimates.com/white (Does Reverse Searches) This site allows one to search the phone books of several search engines simultaneously. Bigfoot.com--www.bigfoot.com This Web site provides phone listings, addresses, and e-mail addresses and is a good source for doing whole country searches by name. InfoUSA--www.infousa.com (Reverse Searches Possible) In many cases, this Web site provides listings for all household members who receive marketing materials, so sometimes one can find wife information when the phone book listing is in the husband's name. Intelius--www.intelius.com This site provides birth date, current residence, past residence, age, full name, and phone number information. Because the site is based on many different sources of public information, it is one of the most up-to-date and accurate of the public record databases. It also provides an "as of" date to let you know how current their information is. US Search--www.ussearch.com Free searches include name, approximate age, and current/past city and state of residence. Assistance by phone is also available. Ancestry.com--www.ancestry.com This site is designed for genealogy research. SS Death Index--www.daddezio.com/favorites/ssdi-death-index.html This site is a national death index that allows one to search by name or date of birth. It provides state of birth/death, date of birth/death, and maiden name when applicable. USGen Web Project--www.usgenweb.com In addition to identifying the dead, the published obituaries on this site often provide information for locating relatives and obtaining the married names of women. OnlineDetective--www.onlinedetective.com Offers software and consultation on doing searches. Only PC users can benefit from this site. The option of personal consultation is an unusual benefit. Google--www.google.com Mamma--www.mamma.com Because these are highly powerful general Internet search engines and filter possibilities do not exist, searches using these engines often generate long lists of site possibilities. Because it is very time consuming to sort through a long list of sites, these search engines are best for finding people in public or high-profile jobs. Cautionary NotesAlthough providing a list of Web sites makes the process of locating individuals appear simple, this is not entirely true. Several cautionary notes are worth mentioning.
Conclusion: Case Study of Locating Previous ParticipantsBy using the sites noted above, we spent roughly 2 hours per individual to locate 168 adults in their mid thirties whom we have not seen for roughly 20-25 years. The only fee service we used was www.onlinedetective. Crucial to locating participants later on was original record keeping. We had obtained full names and birthdates of the 168 children first studied. In addition, we had the same information on their parents and one older sibling. All former participants were found, albeit the deaths of several were documented. This article is online at http://www.joe.org/joe/2004august/tt4.shtml. Copyright © by Extension Journal, Inc. ISSN 1077-5315. Articles appearing in the Journal become the property of the Journal. Single copies of articles may be reproduced in electronic or print form for use in educational or training activities. Inclusion of articles in other publications, electronic sources, or systematic large-scale distribution may be done only with prior electronic or written permission of the Journal Editorial Office, joe-ed@joe.org. If you have difficulties viewing or printing this page, please contact JOE Technical Support. |