I'm not sure if carfax gives you the owners name or not. I would think it should. If you're buying a car, you'd want to make sure that the guy selling it is the same name on the title.
The real easy way is to have a buddy that is a cop. ;-)
ya carfax will only give you the area it was listed in. oh, and you can also see if its been totalled and or how many miles has been put on it since it was sold.