Oh good grief. You should have seen me scouring court house records in every county within 100 miles. I was aking for birth records, marriage records, death records, census records and criminal records. The clerks were more than happy to pile those books up in front of me and walk away. I guess America is (for now) freerer than any country.
Probably it is.
It’s not hard to get older records here, but if it’s likely the person is still alive, privacy laws apply.