I am writing a novel which is set in April - May 1965. The leading
character needs to find the home address of another character, based
on knowing only his full name, age, and the fact that he lives within
an hour's drive somewhere to the west of Schenectady, NY. What search
resources would have been available to him at that time? I'm looking
for names of organisations, public bodies etc. I'm based in the UK,
and so am more familiar with current & past procedures here than in
the US. Thanks

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Clarification of Question by johndenton-ga on 09 Feb 2006 05:57 PST

In the UK, we have unlisted telephone numbers, known as ex-directory.
Would this facility also have been available in NY State in 1965?

John --

Much depends on what the search target would have been doing.  If a
well-known person, publications such as Who's Who in America would
have listed them -- and even included a home address for many.

If an ordinary person, it would have been the phone company's
directory assistance.  In the old days you dialed area code + 555-1212
(this was before 411 services commonly used for the past 2 decades). 
For Schenectady, it would be 518-555-1212:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_code_518

In the old days you could sometimes engage a telephone operator in a
modest conversation and confirm addresses, though today you'd be lucky
to get a live person on the phone.  There were also reverse
directories of several sorts, including street-by-street directories
available, but these were largely used by businesses.

If one were in Schenectady, you'd first pick up the White Pages
telephone directory.

Other than that, the search would probably be through a local credit
bureau.  I know of a case from the early 1960s where a young lady
(whose mother divorced then remarried) contacted her father after not
seeing him for 20 years.  She knew the area in which he lived, then
pulled his credit report at work.  In that era credit bureaus were
local, rather than being handled by 3 national enterprises, as it's
done today.

Other than those 2 possibilities, contacts might be via school, work or church.

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

John --

I'm reasonably certain that unlisted numbers were possible even in the
early 60s.  Privacy was not so much as issue then as it is today but
political leaders and even high school teachers had reasons not to be
in a public directory.

Phone services differed in some important ways:
*  party (shared number services) lines were still relatively common
*  operator services were more personal.  In fact, if I recall
correctly one could be unlisted in the printed White Pages yet still
have a phone number available via directory assistance
*  if unlisted, I believe that an operator could still ring the
household to let them know that someone was trying to reach them

Though this is kind of apropos-of-nothing, telephones themselves were
almost always the property of the phone company and leased to
customers.  They were also hard-wired, as this predates the invention
of the modular phone jack (RJ-11).  And, of course, they were
rotary-dial and most often black:
http://www.bellsystemmemorial.com/telephones-princess.html

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

Few things are certain in life, apart from death and taxes.

Your protagonist could suborn a lass from the State (or Federal) tax department.

It would make an interesting sub plot, especially if you could get
some inside dope on how they operated in the early days of
computerization.

Personally I would spawn a number of searches, say the Military,
political registration, land registry, stock holders
- the detail would be interesting

Of course, in 1965, the nosy neighbour approach via small ads in local
newspapers would do the trick ...