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DATABASE SEARCH SEGMENTS
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There are three database segments, found on the left side of the search screen, which you can use to search for biographies:
1. Marquis Who's Who on the Web – This is the default database segment that is active upon logging-into the web site, which includes over 1.3 million biographies of men and women in all fields of endeavor, including the American History biographies. To search Current Biographies only – living individuals who have appeared in our most recent publications – click the “Search Current Biographies Only” checkbox in the upper right side of the search screen.
2. Who's Who in American History – This database segment consists of the most noteworthy and important people from our past – from Benjamin Franklin to Ronald Reagan. Unique searches can be performed on the historical search screen, such as “Death Information”, “Historical Era”, and searches using pre-populated historical lists at the bottom of the screen. Also, because of the historical nature of these biographies, a custom Occupation search field is available, that includes such occupations as “Colonists”, “Craftsmen”, and “Explorers & Adventurers”. This database segment includes approximately 120,000 biographies, primarily Americans with world notables.
3. Who's Who in American Art – This database segment consists of the most noteworthy men and women in today’s visual art world – including artists, critics, curators, administrators, librarians, historians, collectors, conservators, educators, and dealers. Search by name, profession, media, gender, birth information and keyword. By selecting the appropriate checkbox, you have the option to search only living or deceased biographies, or both by not checking either. Because of the unique format of these biographies, you may only search them from this search screen.
4. Who's Who in American Politics – This database segment features the most relevant and noteworthy figures in American politics today. Unique searches can be performed on the politics search screen, such as by “State” or “Political Party”. Also, a custom Occupation search field is available, that includes such political positions as governors, lieutenant governors, state attorney generals, ambassadors and US Court of Appeals judges. This database segment includes approximately 36,000 biographies (have to get the correct count for politics) of the many personalities that make up the current American political scene.
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GENERAL TIPS
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No Results Returned – If your search returned none or too many results, change your strategy. For more accurate results, exceedingly specific or general searches could include more or less criteria. For example:
1. If your search is too specific, try eliminating some of the text selections and search with only the List Box fields.
2. If your search is too general, try adding specific criteria, such as City or State.
3. If you are unsure of an individual’s name, allow the default wildcard search to help you. For instance, searching for someone whose name might be Joe Smith, Joseph Smith or Joey Smith could be searched by entering: Last name = Smith First name = Jo
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Be Specific – As you know, there are many similar attributes among biographies. Last names, first names, cities, states, etc. can be a match for more than one person. Whenever possible, include additional details to refine the scope of your search. For example, if you’re looking for biographies of people living in Newark, NJ enter both Newark (in the City field) and NJ (in the state field). Otherwise you might get biographies living in Newark, DE.
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Use Synonyms – If you are looking for doctors, also try physicians. The search engine is designed to recognize synonyms of words or phrases.
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Check Spelling – Remember if you type in Broklyn instead of Brooklyn, your search won’t find any matches. Please verify the spelling of an entry if the search is not returning accurate results.
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FIELD TIPS
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Wildcard Characters – Wildcards allow you to find a word or phrase using an asterisk (*) or question mark (?) to represent any other character that may appear in the same place. They can be used to replace one or many alphabetic characters in the search. The asterisk (*), stands for any character or characters, and the questions mark (?), stands for a single character. Wildcard characters are not permissible at the beginning of a word. When using wildcard characters, two alphanumeric characters must be used before the wildcard. The fields that are exceptions to this rule include Last Name, First Name and City. In these instances, wildcards can be used as the second character. For examples of Wildcard searches, please see below:
| Search Criteria |
Result |
| Biog Last Name = ‘Ni*’ |
All names beginning with Ni like Nilsson, Nielson, Nicholson, etc |
| Biog Last Name = ‘Dav*d’ |
All last names starting with Dav and ending with d like David and Davis-Floyd |
| Biog Last Name = ‘*son’ |
Sorry your search cannot be performed. Wildcards cannot be used at the start of a field |
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Boolean Searches in Fields – Boolean Searches indicate how search terms should be combined. This search engine uses AND, OR and Parenthesis () as valid Boolean search words.
And – Will search for both terms. By adding AND between two words, your search results will include only records that contain both of these terms. For instance, searching for “Harvard and Yale” in the Keyword field will find people who have Harvard and Yale anywhere in their biography. In College/University keyword, if you search for “Harvard and Yale” results will include all biographies that have both terms listed in that specific category.
Or – Will search for either term. By adding OR between two words, your search results will include any records that contain either of these terms. For instance, if you search for “Harvard or Yale”, in the keyword field, you will find all biographies that include either Harvard or Yale anywhere in their biography. If you search for “Harvard or Yale” in the College/University field, results will include all biographies that have either term listed in that specific category
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Parenthesis () – Creates an order to the search. Placing parenthesis around a phrase searches for words within that phrase in that exact order. If you are combining words with AND and OR in your search, put parenthesis () around the words to provide the order of search. For instance, “(Harvard or Yale) and law” will search for individuals that went to Harvard Law or Yale Law. “Harvard or (Yale and law)” will search for individuals that went to either Harvard (any school including Harvard Law) or Yale Law. For examples of Boolean searches, please see below:
| Search Criteria |
Result |
| Skeet shooting |
All biographies with that exact phrase. |
| Skeet and shooting |
All biographies that contain the word skeet and the word shooting, like “skeet and trap shooting” but not “handgun shooting” alone |
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Capitalization – The search engine is NOT case sensitive. For example, the following City searches will return the same results:
| New York |
| new york |
| NeW YoRk |
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Punctuation – The use of punctuation in a search will not affect search results. For instance, Chatterly’s will be treated as Chatterlys. Please see below for additional examples:
| Search Criteria |
Result |
| Good-bye |
Good bye |
| Chatterly’s |
Chatterlys |
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Search Limitations – Please note that no more than 1,000 names can be returned in a single search. With the exception of the Name fields, none of the other fields can be used alone to result in an effective search.
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Multiple Selects – Multiple selections can be made for all List boxes, which includes State/Province, Occupation, Political Affiliation, and Religion. To Search Consecutive selections, press the SHIFT key as you click the mouse on the first entry and press the SHIFT key again as you click the mouse on the last entry. All entries in between will be selected. To search Non-Consecutive selections, choose multiple entries while pressing the CTRL key as you click the mouse on each entry.
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SPECIFIC FIELD TIPS
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Last Name – Spacing in this field will be ignored. For example: Mc Donalds is the same as McDonalds
First Name – There are some biographies that use nicknames as their primary name (e.g. Billy Bob Thornton) while others use the more formal name (e.g. William Jefferson Clinton). If you are not finding who you are looking for, try a more formal name like William instead of Billy, or a less formal name like Bob instead of Robert.
City – There are instances where cities with the same name will be located in multiple states. To refine your search, we suggest you search by city and state for the most accurate results. Additional information must be included when using the City field. For example, St. Louis cannot be searched alone. The City field accepts one character plus the Wildcard (an exception to the wildcard character rule), but needs to include other search information. Please note that the following equivalent abbreviations:
| Search Criteria |
Abbreviation |
| Saint |
St |
| Fort |
Ft |
| Point |
Pt |
| Beach |
Bch |
| Park |
Pk |
| Lake |
Lk |
| Island |
Is |
| Mount |
Mt |
| North |
N |
| South |
S |
| East |
E |
| West |
W |
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State/Province – One or more choices can be selected from the List Box. Please note that while all the addresses of the biography are searched, only one address is displayed on the search results. Therefore, some of the people that show up may not look like they match your criteria, but when you display the biography, you will see your selections in the address section.
Zip Code(s)/Postal Code(s) – You can search for a 5-digit zip code or foreign postal code, or search multiple zip codes/foreign postal codes at once by using commas as separators (e.g., 12340, 54321). The maximum number of zip codes/foreign postal codes you can search for is 1,000. You can use the U.S. Postal Service’s zip code finder by clicking here: ZIP Code finder
Country – One or more choices can be selected from the List Box. Please note that while all the addresses of the biography are searched, only one address is displayed on the search results. Therefore, some of the people that show up may not look like they match your criteria but when you display the biography, you will see your selections in the address section.
Occupation – Two searching options are available for this field, either the list box or the keyword. When using the List Box, one or more choices can be selected. Occupation Search can also be refined by the Occupation Keyword Search field.
Occupation Keyword Search – This can be used with or without the Occupation field. The purpose of this field is to refine the Occupation search. For example if you are looking for Agricultural educators, choose Agriculture from the drop down and add educator to this field. This field can be used alone to find an exact occupation or if you’re unsure of the specific category (for example, psychologist). Use the Occupation Lookup to view and select our occupation designations.
Gender – Note that in some rare occasions biographees have not supplied their gender and we don’t guess! Thus, some biographies might be missing from a search including this field.
Birth Year – Four options are available to help you with your search. They include the equal sign (=), greater than (>), less than (<) or between. If you choose “between” another box will be displayed to hold the ending year.
Birth Place – This field allows you to enter a city, state, country, etc. There are instances where cities with the same name will be located in multiple states. To refine your search, we suggest you search by city and state for the most accurate results.
By adding AND between two words, your search results will include only records that contain both of these terms. By adding OR between two words, your search results will include any records that contain either of these terms.
College/University – Two options are available to help you with your search. They include the “Look Up” link or “Search by Keyword”. “Look Up” contains the most common schools found within the biographies on our database. The maximum amount of schools that can be chosen from the “Look Up” feature is five. The “Search by Keyword” feature uses Boolean logic to find school names. For more information, please see the Boolean description mentioned above. Always remember to click the “OK” button to save any changes that were made to the “Look Up” page.
Degrees – Two options are available to help you with your search. They include the “Look Up” link or “Search by Keyword”. “Look Up” contains the most common degree types found within the biographies on our database. The maximum amount of degrees that can be chosen from the “Look Up” feature is five. The “Search by Keyword” feature uses Boolean logic to find degree types. For more information, please see the Boolean description mentioned above. The degree types chosen by this field will combine with the College/University field. Thus if you choose “Harvard” from the College/University field and “BS” from the degree field you will find only biographies who got their BS from Harvard. Always remember to click the “OK” button to save any changes that were made to the “Look Up” page.
Year of Graduation – Two options are available to help you with your search. They include the equal sign (=) or between. If you choose “between” another box will be displayed to hold the ending year. This field is also associated with the College/University field.
Political Affiliation – The Political Affiliation field features a List Box containing specific affiliations. One or more choices can be selected to search. If you cannot find the affiliation you are searching for on the list, please utilize the general keyword search.
Religion – The Religion field consists of a List Box containing specific religions. One or more choices can be selected to search. If you cannot find the religion you are searching for on the list, please utilize the general keyword search.
Search by Keyword – This field allows you to search the entire biography or just the career section (which will include career related terminology). The search words or phrase entered in the Keyword field will be highlighted when viewing the profile. This is the only search field where matching text found in the results will appear highlighted.
Note on Abbreviations and Synonyms – As many biographies use synonyms (such as attorney/lawyer) or abbreviations (such as rschr for researcher) please remember two options are available to assist you in your search. These include Boolean (example, Chief and Fin*) and Wildcards (example, photog* for photography). For further explanation, please see the examples below:
| If you are looking for |
Also Try |
| CFO |
Chief and Fin*, Fin* and officer |
| Lawyers |
Attorneys, atty, attys |
| Comptrollers |
Comptr, comptr* |
| Gun enthusiasts |
Shooting, skeet, trap, handgun, artillery, arty |
| Researchers |
rschr |
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In addition to refining your search using the fields described above, you may expand a search with information located elsewhere in the biography, yet not evident as a field. For instance, zip codes, email addresses, home and office addresses, achievements, awards, career related activities, certifications, civic responsibilities, creative works, military service, and memberships are all possible search criteria. For examples on how to increase your search utilizing these examples, please see below:
Achievements – This section includes discoveries, patents, inventions and research done by the individuals, as well as historical firsts. For example, searchable criteria would include research in improved methods of clinical microbiology, discovery of penicillin, etc.
Awards – This section contains information about awards people received, grants, fellowships, honors, military decorations, etc. The information includes name of the award, granting body, and year(s) awarded. For example, searchable criteria would include decorated Knight Commander, named to Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, etc. Please note that awards associated with a creative work (such as an Academy Award or Grammy) would be listed in the Creative Works section next to the work it was received for; it would not be listed here.
Career – This section contains all data related to the individual’s career, including organization, city, state, country, position titles and years at position. For example, searchable criteria would include CEO, director editorial services, etc.
Career Related – This section contains information about activities that come about as a result of an individual’s career, but are not part of it. Consulting, teaching, and adjunct positions are some examples. The data collected is position titles, organization, city, state and country of position and years at the position.
Certifications – This includes law, medical, teacher and professional certifications, the awarding body, and year awarded. For example searchable criteria would include Bar: NY, CPA, etc.
Civic – This section contains volunteer positions related to public, community or charitable organizations. The data collected is position titles, organization, city, state and country of position and years at the position. For example, searchable criteria would include Boy Scouts of America, Salvation Army, etc.
Creative Works – This section contains information regarding an individual’s artistic, literary, cinematic, theatrical, and musical endeavors. The role the person took, the title of the work or organization it was created for (like “Cheers” or “Alvin Ailey Dance Theater”), the location where applicable and the year it was created. Also awards received for the item, like the Pulitzer Prize or Emmy and the year it was awarded.
Military – This section contains information about a civilian individual’s military service. Biographees who are in the military as their career (like General Schwarzkopf) have their information listed in the career section, not here. The information includes rank, unit, branch, location and years. For example searchable criteria would include Lieutenant US Army, etc.
Memberships – This section includes information about organizations the individual is a member of. The information includes the type of organization (Club, lodge, professional, honor, fraternity, sorority, etc), organization name, role, office, and awards received. For example, searchable criteria would include Member ASCE, Member IEEE, Rotary, Kiwanis, etc.
Zip Code, Email, Home or Office Address – A search can be performed by entering an accurate zip code, email, home or office address in the Keyword field.
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HISTORICAL SEARCHES
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Last Name – Spacing in this field will be ignored. For example:
Mc Donald is the same as McDonald. This field searches by wildcard by default.
First Name – There are some biographies that use nicknames as their primary name (e.g. Billy Bob Thornton) while others use
the more formal name (e.g. William Jefferson Clinton). If you are not finding who you are looking for, try a more formal name
like William instead of Billy, or a less formal name like Bob instead of Robert. This field searches by wildcard by default.
Occupation – Due to the historical nature of the biographies included on the historical search screen, a custom Occupation search field has been provided. Two searching options are available for this field, either the List Box or the keyword. When using the List Box, one or more choices can be selected. Occupation Search can also be refined by the Occupation Keyword Search field.
Birth Year – Four options are available to help you with your search. They include the equal sign (=), greater than (>), less than (<) or between. If you choose “between” another box will be displayed to hold the ending year.
Birth Place – This field allows you to enter a city, state, country, etc. There are instances where cities with the same name will be located in multiple states. To narrow your search we suggest searching by city AND state (without abbreviating the state). For example: Springfield, Massachusetts. In rare
occurrences when a city is known by its abbreviation, we suggest you do a multiple search. For example, the following city search will return each variation that exists in the database:
N.Y.C
New York City
New York, New York
Death Information – This field allows you to enter a city, state, country and/or year, as well as a historical event such as “Alamo” or “Bunker Hill”. There are instances in which cities with
the same name will be located in multiple states. To narrow your search we suggest searching by city AND state (without abbreviating the state) for example: Springfield, Massachusetts.
In rare occurrences when a city is known by its abbreviation, we suggest you do a multiple search. For example, the following city search will return each variation that exists in the database:
N.Y.C
New York City
New York, New York
Historical Era – This field allows you to enter a specific historical era, such as 1600-1699, along with other search fields, to find
people who were noteworthy during these periods in American history. Sort by birth date to find the biographies of interest.
The Historical Era field allows up to 1,000 results.
Search by Keyword – This field allows you to search using words or phrases, that appear anywhere in the Biography. The search words or phrase entered in the
Keyword field will be highlighted when viewing the profile. This is the only search field where matching text found in the results will appear highlighted.
Some examples of keyword searches you can do are:
- Harpers Ferry … To find all the notable people associated with the many historic events at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.
- 15th Amendment … To find those who supported or opposed the 15th Amendment passed in 1869; the right to vote cannot be denied on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
- Pony Express … On the results page sort the list by birth year so you can find the earliest pony express riders. The results will also include authors or filmmakers on the subject.
- Know Nothing – To find members of the Know Nothing Party, a political movement from the 1850’s that centered on anti-immigration (especially Irish Catholics) to retain an Anglo-Saxon tradition in America.
Special Historical Lists – These are lists we’ve prepared that allow you to view important people (such as Women Firsts and U.S. Presidents) or people associated with different historical events (such as Civil War Generals, or Signers of the Declaration of Independence)
Sort by Birth Date – Once you have entered your search criteria, a list of results will appear. Sort by birth date to find the biographies of interest.
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ART SEARCHES
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Last Name – Spacing in this field will be ignored. For example: de Kooning is the same as DeKooning. This field searches by wildcard by default.
For artists who are best known by one name (e.g. Man Ray), the name search should be done only in the Last Name field.
First Name – There are some biographies that use nicknames as their primary name (e.g. NC Wyeth, Andy Warhol) while others use the more formal name (e.g. Edward Hopper, Andrew Wyeth). If you are not finding who you are looking for, try a more formal name like William instead of Billy, or a less formal name like Bob instead of Robert. This field searches by wildcard by default.
Profession, Classification, or Media – Search biographies by a specific profession or the media in which they work. More than one choice can be selected at one time by holding down the control key. This will perform an ‘or’ search (e.g. search Collector or Curator).
Birth Year – Four options are available to help you with your search. They include the equal sign (=), greater than (>), less than (<) or between. If you choose “between” another box will be displayed to hold the ending year.
Birth Place – This field allows you to enter a city, state, country, etc. There are instances where cities with the same name will be located in multiple states. To narrow your search we suggest searching by city AND state (without abbreviating the state). For example: Springfield, Massachusetts. In rare occurrences when a city is known by its abbreviation, we suggest you do a multiple search. For example, the following city search will return each variation that exists in the database:
N.Y.C
New York City
New York, New York
Keyword – This field allows you to search using words or phrases, that appear anywhere in the biography. The search words or phrase entered in the Keyword field will be highlighted when viewing the profile. This is the only search field where matching text found in the results will appear highlighted.
Some examples of searches you can do are:
- National Endowment of the Arts and grant
- National Medal of Arts
- Joslyn Art Museum
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POLITICS SEARCHES
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Last Name – Spacing in this field will be ignored. For example: Mc Cain is the same as McCain. This field searches by wildcard by default.
First Name – There are some biographies that use nicknames as their primary name (e.g. Henry C. “Hank” Johnson, ) while others use the more formal name (Robert Cramer instead of his nickname "Bud"). If you are not finding who you are looking for, try a more formal name like William instead of Billy, or a less formal name like Bob instead of Robert, or Dick instead of Richard. This field searches by wildcard by default.
Profession, Classification, or Media – Search biographies by their specific position or by a more general occupation like political personality. More than one choice can be selected at one time by holding down the control key. This will perform an 'or' search (e.g. search Collector or Curator).
Birth Year – Four options are available to help you with your search. They include the equal sign (=), greater than (>), less than (<) or between. If you choose "between" another box will be displayed to hold the ending year.
Birth Place – This field allows you to enter a city, state, country, etc. There are instances where cities with the same name will be located in multiple states. To narrow your search we suggest searching by city AND state (without abbreviating the state). For example: Springfield, Massachusetts. In rare occurrences when a city is known by its abbreviation, we suggest you do a multiple search. For example, the following city search will return each variation that exists in the database:
N.Y.C
New York City
New York, New York
Keyword – This field allows you to search using words or phrases, that appear anywhere in the biography. The search words or phrase entered in the Keyword field will be highlighted when viewing the profile. This is the only search field where matching text found in the results will appear highlighted.
Some examples of searches you can do are:
- Department of Defense
- Secretary
- Administrator
- White House
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SAMPLE SEARCHES
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To find all Presidents of the United States:
| Field |
Entry |
| Occupation Key Word Search |
president of the united states |
| Occupation |
Government |
a. This search will also find the Vice President of the United States. There is no way to avoid that.
b. This search will find anyone listed as “wife of Vice President of the United States”. Using the gender will eliminate that.
c. Using the word “president” instead of “president of the united states” will get Presidents of other countries.
d. Using the word “president” and eliminating the Occupation category of Government will get presidents of corporations and organizations as well.
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To find people that have patents who live in Delaware and work for Dupont:
| Field |
Entry |
| Search by Keyword |
patent* and dupont |
| State/Province of Mailing Address |
Delaware |
a. By using the Wildcard after patent, patents and patentee and other endings will be captured
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Find people with MBAs who are or have been a Chief Executive Officer or a President or a Vice President and live in Arizona:
| Field |
Entry |
| Degree look up |
MBA |
| State/Province of Mailing address |
Arizona |
| Search by Keyword |
president or (Chief and exec*) or ceo |
a. Using “chief and exec*” and CEO gives two synonyms for the same office
b. Cannot eliminate Vice Presidents from this search
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Locate graduates of Vanderbilt who sit on a board of directors:
| Field |
Entry |
| College/University search by Keyword |
Vanderbilt |
| Search by Keyword |
board direct* |
| State/Province of Mailing address |
New York |
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Find Democrats who have served in the Army and are members of the National Rifle Association:
| Field |
Entry |
| Political Affiliation |
Democrat |
| Search by Keyword |
national rifle association and army |
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Find people who have received Fulbright grants or scholarships:
| Field |
Entry |
| Search by Keyword |
fulbright and (scholar or grant) |
| Occupation Keyword |
Government |
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Find people from Billings Montana:
| Field |
Entry |
| City |
Billings |
| State/Province of Mailing Address |
Montana |
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CLEAR BUTTON
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Use the Clear button to initiate a new search.
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| Copyright © 2005 Marquis Who's Who LLC. All rights reserved. |
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