In the top four lines of the index card, the personal details of the person being searched for were entered: first name and surname (for married women, the maiden name in brackets), gender, marital status, date and country of birth, nationality, religion and occupation. Information on the last known address could also be entered here.

The information was often vague. Many of the applicants were people who had emigrated from Europe to the USA in the first decades of the 20th century. They were often only able to provide approximate dates of birth, occupations and addresses of relatives and friends who had remained in Europe, if at all.