How to Get an American Postal Address

The United States Postal Service provides two basic means of obtaining a given American postal address. The first is a business solution administered by the Office of Address Management located at the National Customer Support Center (NCSC) in Memphis, Tenn. The Support Center sells an “Address Information Systems (AIS)” series of solutions, including updated address database files to businesses. More information is available in Resources. For individuals seeking an American postal address, the Postal Service suggests the White Pages link on their site.

Steps

Navigate to the United States Postal Service-recommended site, the online White Pages. The correct web addresses, as of May 2011, are listed in references for both individuals and businesses.

Click the tab labeled “Find People” on the far left of the page. Note the “Find a Business” tab to the immediate right if you require a business address.

Enter the individual’s last name as a required field. If known, enter the optional fields of “First Name” and “City, State or ZIP.” The more optional fields you enter, the fewer false results will return in your query. Click the “Find” button.

Review the list of names returned from the search result. Click the name whose address you have been seeking to obtain the full address and ZIP code. Record this information for future use.

Tips & Warnings

If a full name search does not return the party you seek, delete the first name field and repeat the search. Some individuals do not use their first name commonly, or may go by a shortened version of their given name such as “Will” for “William.”

Use a return address when sending anything to an address obtained this way. The address may be old and any forwarding orders expired before the online database is updated.


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