Marriage & Divorce Records by State: Who Holds Them and How to Get a Copy

Marriage records and divorce records are held by the states, not by Washington. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which publishes the national directory of vital records offices, states flatly that the federal government does not distribute certificates, files, or indexes. There is no national lookup to run.

Information verified against official state sources in August 2026. Fees, ordering channels, and coverage years change; the date each figure was checked is noted where it matters.

This guide covers all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It explains who holds marriage records and divorce records in each place, which record type actually exists there, what it costs, and who is allowed to request it. It does not cover the law of getting divorced; for that, see our state divorce laws hub. If you need your own certificate, our step-by-step guide to getting a copy of your marriage certificate walks the ordering process, and if you are checking on someone else, start with how to find out if someone is married or divorced.

There is no federal marriage or divorce registry

The National Center for Health Statistics collects statistical data on marriage and divorce from the states, but it does not hold copies of the underlying documents and cannot issue one. Its own guidance directs every request to the state or territory where the event occurred. That single fact explains the structure of everything below: 51 jurisdictions, each with its own custody rules, coverage years, fees, and eligibility standards, and no central override.

It also explains a persistent scam pattern. Sites that promise an instant nationwide marriage or divorce search are selling aggregated commercial data, not access to an official registry, because no official registry spans the country.

Marriage records and divorce records are two different systems

Almost every mistaken records request starts here. Three distinctions do most of the work.

The divorce decree is not the divorce certificate

The decree is the court's order. New York's health department describes it precisely: the decree is prepared by the court, signed by the judge, and filed with the County Clerk, and it contains the terms of the divorce. A divorce certificate, where one exists, is a short vital record listing who divorced, when, and where.

The two are issued by different offices, cost different amounts, and prove different things. Texas makes the gap explicit. Its state health department states that its office cannot issue a certified copy of a marriage license or divorce decree, and that its $20 verification letters are not considered legal substitutes for either document.

California's version is sharper still. Its state Certificate of Record for a divorce covers only 1962 through June 1984, consists of the face sheet of the action, and, as the state notes, does not even establish that the divorce was ever finalized.

The marriage license is not the marriage certificate

The license is the permission slip issued before the wedding. The certificate is the record created after the ceremony is performed and returned for filing. In many states the same county office handles both, which hides the distinction until it matters. Tennessee's health department states directly that a certified copy of the Certificate of Marriage is not a copy of the marriage license.

Some states have no vital record for one event, or for either

This is the fact that saves the most wasted time, and it is covered in detail in the next two sections.

Marriage and divorce records by state

Each state links to a full page with ordering steps, forms, and eligibility detail. The official custodian in each row links to that agency's own page.

Northeast states

The tables below cover 9 states in the Northeast.

New England states

The table below covers 6 New England states.

Mid-Atlantic states

The table below covers 3 Mid-Atlantic states.

Midwest states

The tables below cover 12 states in the Midwest.

Great Lakes states

The table below covers 5 Great Lakes states.

Plains states

The table below covers 7 Plains states.

Southern states

The tables below cover 16 states in the South, plus the District of Columbia.

South Atlantic states

The table below covers 8 South Atlantic states, plus the District of Columbia.

East South Central states

The table below covers 4 East South Central states.

West South Central states

The table below covers 4 West South Central states.

Western states

The tables below cover 13 states in the West.

Mountain states

The table below covers 8 Mountain states.

Pacific states

The table below covers 5 Pacific states.

The states with no divorce vital record at all

In eight jurisdictions the state keeps no divorce certificate, verification, or index that it will issue. The court file is the record.

Ohio. The Department of Health states that marriage and divorce records are not maintained by its Bureau of Vital Statistics, and that certified copies come only from the county where the event was recorded. Marriage goes to the county probate court; divorce goes to the Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas, Domestic Relations Division.

New Jersey. The state registers marriages from 1951 but keeps no divorce vital record. Its own page routes divorce requests to the Superior Court of New Jersey Records Center, and the Judiciary releases divorce documents only to a party or the attorney of record; anyone else needs a court order.

Connecticut. The Department of Public Health states that its Vital Records Office does not maintain copies of divorce decrees. Marriage, by contrast, sits at both the town clerk and the state registry from July 1, 1897.

Arizona. The state health department's vital records bureau covers births, deaths, and fetal deaths only. Both marriage and divorce are county court matters.

New Mexico. The Department of Health states that its Vital Records office does not handle marriage or divorce documentation, and directs requests to the County Clerk and the District Court respectively.

District of Columbia. DC Health handles births, deaths, and domestic partnerships. Marriage runs entirely through the DC Superior Court Marriage Bureau, and there is no divorce vital record. The Marriage Bureau's own order form is where a $10 certified copy for divorce use is priced, which is the mechanism even though no dedicated divorce-copy page exists.

Oklahoma. The state health department directs marriage and divorce requests to the Court Clerk in the county of the event.

Minnesota. Both record types run through the counties. County recorders issue marriage certificates, and the county courthouse that granted the divorce issues the certified decree. The state health department page that would state this in its own words blocks automated access, so we rely on the counties' own pages and on MOMS, the county-operated Minnesota Official Marriage System.

Index-only, verification-only, and locator-only states

A second tier is easy to mistake for the first. These states do hold something, but not a certified copy of what you probably need.

Montana holds a searchable index for marriage and divorce and issues no certificates; the Clerk of the District Court issues copies.

West Virginia holds a marriage index from 1921 and a divorce index from 1968, issues certified marriage copies from 1964, and issues no certified divorce copies at all.

Illinois issues a $5 verification of marriage or dissolution from 1962 forward and no certified copies of either; the county clerk and the circuit court clerk hold those.

Texas issues $20 verification letters only, covering marriages since 1966 and divorces since 1968.

Mississippi runs a $17 index search that returns the county, book, and page of a divorce, and states that its vital records office does not maintain divorce records.

Massachusetts provides only the probate court and the docket number through its registry. The Certificate of Divorce Absolute does exist, at $20, but the Probate and Family Court issues it, not the health department.

Missouri issues a Certified Statement Relating to Marriage or Divorce from July 1, 1948 forward, a certified statement of facts rather than a copy of the document. The certified copy of the actual document comes from the county Recorder of Deeds or Circuit Clerk.

Georgia issues no divorce document of any kind; the Clerk of the Superior Court is the only source for any year. Its state office can separately verify a marriage that occurred on or after January 1, 2014, a verification rather than a copy.

Nevada performs a $10 per-name search; the county recorder and county clerk issue the certified copies.

Fully county states

A handful of states put essentially everything at the county level. Missouri is the clearest template: the state holds a central registry from July 1, 1948 but issues only a Certified Statement Relating to Marriage or Divorce, and the certified copy of the original marriage certificate comes only from the Recorder of Deeds in the county that issued the license, with the certified divorce decree coming only from that county's Circuit Clerk.

Ohio, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania go further and hold nothing issuable at the state level for either event. Pennsylvania's health department publishes marriage and divorce statistics and states that more detailed breakouts, which it does not have, may be available from the county courthouse where the event occurred. Arizona routes both record types to county courts, and Minnesota routes both through its counties. Indiana is a split case rather than a fully county state: its state office is the central repository for marriages from 1958 to 2012, and the county Clerk of Court holds everything else, including every divorce. North Dakota stopped issuing certified marriage copies on January 1, 2008 and never issued certified divorce copies; its state site lists County Marriage Records and County Divorce Records as top-level categories.

The practical rule in these states: identify the county first. Not the county where the couple lived, and for marriage not necessarily the county where the ceremony happened, but the county whose clerk issued the license or whose court granted the divorce.

How long records stay closed

Several states restrict access for a set number of years and then open the record. The periods are not coordinated, and within a single state the number can differ by record type and by custodian. These are the models worth knowing:

New York, 100 years, court file. Domestic Relations Law section 235 governs the divorce case papers. This is a court-file rule, not a vital records rule.

New York City, 50 years, marriage. The Office of the City Clerk treats a marriage record older than 50 years as a historic record available to the general public. Different custodian, different record type, different number from the DRL figure above. Do not merge them.

Utah, 75 years. The state's order page states that marriage and divorce records are public after 75 years.

Iowa, 75 years, divorce statistics. Divorce vital record statistics less than 75 years old are held only by Iowa HHS.

Michigan, 75 years, genealogical release. MCL 333.2885 releases marriage and divorce certificates for genealogical research at 75 years, against 110 years for births.

Alaska, Idaho, New Hampshire, Oregon, West Virginia, and Wyoming, 50 years. Alaska closes marriage and divorce records for 50 years. Idaho Code section 39-270(e) makes marriage and divorce records public once 50 years have elapsed, a delayed opening rather than a sealing. New Hampshire's RSA 5-C:105 places records more than 50 years old in the public domain. Oregon restricts access to marriage records for 50 years after the marriage and to divorce records for 50 years after the divorce. West Virginia keeps marriage records confidential until they are at least 50 years old. Wyoming closes both for 50 years, then opens them.

Delaware, 50 years, marriage only. 16 Del. C. section 3110(f) makes marriage records public 50 years after the marriage. Divorce is not named in that subsection, so no equivalent automatic release exists.

Virginia, 25 years. Under Va. Code section 32.1-271, records of marriage, divorce, and annulment become public information 25 years after the event.

Montana, 30 years, marriage. Marriage license and certificate content becomes public 30 years after the marriage, while a filed dissolution record is already public unless the court designated it confidential.

Tennessee, 50 years, but not a confidentiality rule. The Office of Vital Records holds the most recent 50 years of divorce records on a rolling basis and transfers older ones. Read as a retention window, not a secrecy window. The State Library and Archives holds the July 1, 1945 through December 31, 1975 tranche, a boundary that advances roughly annually.

Wisconsin, 24 months, indexes. Indexes of marriage, divorce, and annulment records may be copied or reproduced for the public 24 months after the year of the event.

Ordering channels vary, and they change

There is no single national ordering system, and vendors are not interchangeable with the office that holds the record. Name the channel your state names.

VitalChek is identified as an official online or phone channel on the state's own pages in Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Washington, and Wisconsin, and New Hampshire, Utah, and Virginia name it for expedited service only. Oregon names it as the state's contracted vendor and warns that copies should be ordered only from the Center for Health Statistics, a county health department, or VitalChek. South Dakota and Tennessee each describe it as the only vendor authorized to take their online orders. North Carolina's only-authorized-vendor language, by contrast, is written about birth certificates, not marriage or divorce.

Several states run their own portals instead: Arkansas, Hawaii, Nebraska, Utah, and Vermont each order through a state-operated system. Texas routes verification letters through Texas.gov. Montana and Wyoming order by mail.

Two live changes matter as of August 2026:

• California is mail-in only for state copies. Effective July 1, 2026, the California Department of Public Health no longer accepts applications submitted through online third-party vendors, and processes only applications submitted by mail. Vendors can still forward a mailed application or reroute it to the county, but there is no live state online channel. Do not present VitalChek as California's state ordering path.
• Hawaii's health department exited divorce records. Effective February 1, 2026, the Hawaii Department of Health no longer maintains divorce records. Requests go to the court that granted the divorce.

What it costs

As of August 2026, state-issued marriage and divorce copies mostly fall between $10 and $25. Kentucky charges $6.00 per certificate. Florida charges a $5 search fee that includes one copy. Wyoming's current application form lists a certified copy at $25.00, with a $30.00 charge per five years searched that covers one copy, while the state's administrative code still reads $20.00, a live conflict the department has not reconciled. Missouri charges $14 for the first marriage or divorce record and $11 for each additional, which is different from its own $15 birth record fee. Delaware's Family Court charges $4.00 for a certified divorce decree and $1.00 for a plain copy.

At the other end, Massachusetts charges $54 for a first copy ordered online or by phone, $32 by mail, and $20 in person, and New York charges $45 online or $30 by mail. Online orders commonly add a vendor processing fee on top of the state fee; Maryland's $12 certificate carries a $13 internet surcharge, and North Carolina's $24 search fee becomes $37.95 with VitalChek processing and shipping.

County fees are set locally and are not centrally published. In Texas, Oklahoma, and the other county-custody states, we do not quote a number because there is not one to quote; check the clerk's posted schedule.

Older records: the archives layer

When a record predates the state's registration start date, or ages past a transfer threshold, custody usually moves again, to a state archive or a county office.

• Massachusetts State Archives holds records from 1841 through 1935, a window that recently grew forward when 1931 to 1935 records were transferred from the state registry.
• Tennessee State Library and Archives holds divorce records for July 1, 1945 through December 31, 1975, a boundary that advances roughly annually; earlier divorces sit with the clerk of the court that granted them.
• Louisiana State Archives receives Orleans Parish marriage records once they pass 50 years.
• Delaware Public Archives handles marriage certificates older than 50 years.
• Wyoming State Archives is the genealogical destination for older material and for county-level records that predate the state's 1941 registry.
• New Jersey State Archives holds a searchable colonial marriage collection for 1665 to 1800 and microfilmed marriage records for 1848 to 1914.
• Pennsylvania State Archives lists Divorce Papers for 1786 to 1815 and a General Motion and Divorce Docket for 1750 to 1837, both in Record Group 33 from the Supreme Court's Eastern District.
• District of Columbia Archives holds historic marriages from 1811 to 1924 and marriage indexes from 1870 to 1924.
• Iowa State Historical Society holds divorce records for 1906 to 1949.
• Minnesota Historical Society documents county marriage records beginning in the 1850s, with Ramsey and Washington counties reaching 1849.

Common-law marriage leaves no record to find

If a couple was married at common law, no license was issued and no certificate was filed, so there is nothing to order. Colorado's health department states directly that official verification of a common-law marriage is not available, though Colorado does allow a notarized affidavit of marriage to be filed with a county clerk and recorder. Whether a common-law marriage existed is decided by a court on evidence, not proved with a records request. Our common-law marriage by state guide covers which states still recognize it.

Two related record systems

The court-file layer of a divorce is, in many states, reachable through the same statute that governs any other public record. Virginia's Code section 17.1-208 opens circuit court clerk records to inspection by any person except as otherwise provided by law. If you are trying to reach the case file rather than the certificate, our state public records laws hub explains how those requests work. And if you are tracing a family line, the sibling franchise on death records by state follows the same custody logic.

What we could not verify

Every figure above came from an official source opened during research. Several did not, and we say so rather than filling the gap:

• Maryland's divorce verification start year is in conflict on two live state pages. The dedicated divorce page states divorces on or after January 1, 1992; the department's FAQ says 2007. We use 1992 because it is the specific operative page, and we recommend confirming with the Division of Vital Records before relying on it.
• Minnesota's structural fact rests on county and MOMS sources. The state health department page that would state its own absence blocks automated access.
• Georgia's divorce court-file access rule is not confirmed. The Uniform Superior Court Rules provision was not located during research. Ask the Clerk of the Superior Court in the relevant county.
• Colorado publishes no coverage start year for its dissolution verification. That gap is in the state's public materials, not in our research.
• County-level fees are not quoted. They are set by hundreds of separate offices and change without notice.

This page provides general legal information about records custody and access, not legal advice. Rules and fees change; confirm current requirements with the office that holds the record before relying on them.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a national database of marriage and divorce records?

No. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which publishes the national Where to Write for Vital Records directory, states that the federal government does not distribute certificates, files, or indexes. Marriage and divorce records are created and held by state vital records offices, county clerks, and courts. Any website advertising a single national search of official marriage or divorce records is aggregating secondary data, not querying a federal registry that exists.

What is the difference between a divorce decree and a divorce certificate?

The decree is the court's order. It is prepared by the court, signed by the judge, filed with the clerk, and it contains the terms of the divorce, including property division, support, and custody. A divorce certificate is a short vital record that lists only the basic facts: who was divorced, when, and where. New York's health department describes the split exactly this way. If an agency asks for proof that your marriage ended, a certificate is often enough. If anyone needs the terms, only the decree will do, and only the court that granted the divorce can certify it.

Which states do not keep divorce records at their vital records office?

New Jersey, Ohio, Connecticut, Arizona, New Mexico, the District of Columbia, Oklahoma, and Minnesota keep no state divorce vital record. Ohio's health department says so in its own words, stating that marriage and divorce records are not maintained by its Bureau of Vital Statistics. Several other states hold only an index or issue only a verification: Montana and West Virginia hold indexes, Illinois and Texas issue verifications, Mississippi runs an index search, and Massachusetts provides only the probate court name and docket number. In every one of those states the court that granted the divorce is where a certified copy comes from.

Are divorce records public?

It depends on which layer you mean and which state. The court file is a public record in many states, subject to sealing on motion, and Montana's statute says a filed record of dissolution is public unless the court designated it confidential. The vital records certificate layer is often more restricted than the court file: Kansas tells requesters that divorce information is open at the county district court level even though the state certificate is not. Some states restrict both, and New York seals the divorce court file for 100 years under Domestic Relations Law section 235.

How much does a marriage or divorce record cost?

As of August 2026 most state-issued copies land between $10 and $25. Kentucky charges $6.00 per certificate and Florida charges a $5 search fee that includes one copy, at the low end. Massachusetts charges $54 for a first copy ordered online or by phone and New York charges $45 online, at the high end. Delaware's Family Court charges $4.00 for a certified divorce decree. County fees are set locally and are not published in any central place, so check the clerk's own fee schedule rather than assuming a statewide number.

How far back do state records go?

Start dates vary by decades and often differ between the two record types within the same state. Michigan holds marriages from 1867 and divorces from 1897. New York holds marriages from 1881 and divorce certificates only from January 1, 1963. Alabama's marriage records begin in August 1936 and its divorce certificates in 1950. Kentucky is unusually simple: both start in June 1958. Anything older than the state's start date is normally held by the county that recorded it, or by the state archives.

Can I look up whether someone else is married or divorced?

Sometimes, and only through the right office. A handful of states publish genuinely open records: Washington's health department states that anyone can request a marriage or divorce certificate with no proof of relationship. Minnesota counties run a free statewide marriage search, and Texas maintains public indexes of marriages since 1966 and divorces since 1968. Many other states will not confirm anything to a stranger. Our guide on how to find out if someone is married or divorced walks through the free official routes and their limits. Never use these records for employment or tenant screening; that use is governed by the Fair Credit Reporting Act and requires a consumer reporting agency.

I was in a common-law marriage. How do I get the certificate?

There is not one. A common-law marriage forms without a license and without a ceremony filed with a clerk, so no marriage record was ever created to request. Colorado's health department states plainly that official verification of a common-law marriage is not available from the state. Proving a common-law marriage existed is a court question, resolved with evidence such as joint filings, shared property, and testimony, not a records request.

Do I need an apostille on my marriage certificate for use abroad?

If the receiving country is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention, yes. The order is fixed: obtain a certified copy from the office that holds the record first, then send that certified copy to the authenticating authority in the same state, usually the Secretary of State. New York shows the chain in its published fees, with a $3 County Clerk authentication before the $10 New York Department of State apostille. Hawaii accepts apostille and authentication requests by mail only. A photocopy or an informational copy cannot be apostilled.