Finding out who owns a corporation.

I checked out a corporation in my states database (New York) and found it to be active. How do I go about finding who owns the corporation, or who the shareholders are? (I believe there are only a few). Is this public information?

Are you referring to a public corp whose shares are listed on some stock exchange or to a private corp? It is easy enough to find out who the officers are through either the SEC or the Dep't of Corporations in that state. As for the shareholders, I do not think that you can. If it is a public corp then usually the shares are held in "street name".