Getting references after a company closes (update)

My manager was laid off too and I am unsure who to use as a reference. Any experience at all would help. A colleague offered to vouch for me. How do you ask politely?

Keep everything in writing and save the confirmation numbers. It made the follow-up calls so much easier.

Thanks for writing this out. I went through something close to it 7 months ago, and it settled down once I kept a simple log of every call and form.