How to Find Out if Someone Is Married or Divorced (Official Records Only)

You can sometimes find out whether someone is married or divorced through official records, and the honest answer is that it depends heavily on the state and that free government sources usually beat paid ones. There is no national registry to search: the CDC states that the federal government does not distribute certificates, files, or indexes.

Official sources and access rules verified in August 2026.

This guide is written for personal use only. If you are checking marital status to make a decision about employment, tenancy, credit, or insurance, stop here. That use converts the search into a consumer report under the Fair Credit Reporting Act and has to run through a consumer reporting agency that complies with the statute, including permissible purpose, disclosure, and adverse action rules. Marital status is also a protected characteristic in some state and local housing and employment laws. Nothing below is a screening tool.

Start with the free official sources

A small number of states publish searchable indexes at no cost. Where one exists, it is the fastest and most reliable route, because it is the county or state office's own data.

• Minnesota. The Minnesota Official Marriage System, created and operated by Minnesota counties, offers a free county-by-county marriage certificate search and states that marriage records are public under Minnesota Statutes chapters 13 and 517. Scott County and Washington County do not participate, so those two have to be checked directly.
• Indiana. Indiana Legacy, run by the Indiana State Library, offers a free searchable marriage index for records through 1850 and from 1958 forward, and Indiana Courts' free Marriage License Public Lookup covers many, though not all, marriage records from 1993 to the present.
• Tennessee. The Secretary of State's archives point to a statewide divorce index for 1980 through 2014 published on the website of the Shelby County Register of Deeds.
• Texas. The state health department maintains public indexes of Texas marriages since 1966 and Texas divorces since 1968. The index will not give you a certified copy, but it identifies the county, which is what you need to order one.
• Wisconsin. There is no free online index, but Wisconsin Statutes section 69.20(3)(e) makes vital record indexes viewable by inspection at the state registrar's or a local registrar's office, and subdivision 2 lets indexes of marriage, divorce, and annulment records be copied or reproduced for the public once 24 months have elapsed from the year in which the event occurred.

Free indexes are the exception, not the rule. Most states publish none, and several state pages say so directly.

Check the court, not just the vital records office

This is the step most people skip, and in many states it is the one that works. A divorce is a court case, and a marriage license application is filed with a county office. Those layers follow public-records rules, and they are frequently more open than the vital records certificate covering the same event.

Kansas states it explicitly on its own pages: marriage information is open to the public at the county district court level, and divorce information is open to the public at the county district court level, even though the state certificate for both is restricted to people with a direct interest.

Montana's statute goes further for divorce. Once a record of dissolution of marriage is filed with the clerk of the district court, it may be released to the public without restriction unless the court designated it confidential.

Practical routes into the court layer:

• Statewide case search tools. Minnesota's Judicial Branch directs the public to Minnesota Court Records Online for plain copies of recent divorce records, noting that certified copies still come from the county courthouse that granted the divorce.
• Docket-only remote access. Rhode Island's judiciary gives the public remote access to the register of actions or docket, but not to other electronic case information; full documents are viewable at courthouse terminals, and sealed cases and confidential case types are excluded from both.
• Public records requests. In several states the court file is reachable through the same statute that governs any government record. Virginia's Code section 17.1-208 opens circuit court clerk records to inspection by any person except as otherwise provided by law. Our state public records laws guide explains how those requests work.

Divorce case files also carry routine restrictions on their most sensitive contents. Financial affidavits, custody evaluations, and guardian ad litem reports are commonly withheld even where the docket itself is public, and any file can be sealed by court order.

Where the state itself is open

A few states let anyone request the certificate directly.

• Washington states that anyone can request a marriage or divorce certificate and that you do not need to provide proof of identity or a qualified relationship to the subject of the record. The fee is $25.00.
• Florida applies no relationship gate to marriage certificates or dissolution certificates, in contrast to its own birth and death records, and charges a $5 search fee that includes one copy.
• Alabama states that marriage and divorce certificates are unrestricted and may be requested by anyone who can provide enough information to search for the record and pay the fee.
• Michigan's statute allows a certified copy of a marriage or divorce record to any applicant, except as provided by rule.
• Nevada does not state a relationship gate on its marriage and divorce page; the state runs a paid locator search at $10 per name and the counties issue the copies.

Some states also open records after a set number of years. New York City treats a marriage record older than 50 years as a historic record available to the general public. Delaware makes marriage records public 50 years after the marriage. Virginia opens marriage, divorce, and annulment records 25 years after the event. Utah opens both after 75 years. Montana opens marriage license and certificate content 30 years after the marriage.

Where you will hit a wall

In much of the country a non-relative simply cannot get the record, and no amount of persistence changes that.

• Georgia limits a certified copy of the marriage application to the two parties.
• Nebraska issues a marriage or divorce certificate for yourself or your parents; anyone else must prove the relationship.
• New Jersey states that its vital records are not public records and cannot be searched online.
• Maine describes itself as a closed record state requiring a direct and legitimate interest.
• South Dakota's statute provides that no employee of the state vital records office or local registrar may permit inspection of a vital record or disclose its contents except as authorized by that chapter or by a court.
• Wyoming closes marriage and divorce records for 50 years before they open to the public.
• Idaho opens marriage and divorce records only after 50 years have elapsed (Idaho Code section 39-270(e)); before that, a direct and tangible interest is required.
• New York seals the divorce court file for 100 years under Domestic Relations Law section 235, and its health department releases a divorce certificate only to a spouse or to someone holding a New York State court order.
• Hawaii, Kansas, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin apply a direct and tangible interest standard, and Hawaii states that if you cannot establish that interest, you are ineligible.

In those states the realistic options are to ask the person, to obtain their written authorization, or, where a legal proceeding genuinely requires it, to seek a court order. New Jersey's rules contemplate the authorization route; New York's marriage-record rules accept a spouse's written notarized authorization.

Why background-check products fail at this specific question

Marital status is one of the weakest fields in commercial people-search data, and the reason is structural rather than a matter of one company doing a poor job.

There is no national marriage or divorce database to license. The CDC, which publishes the national directory of vital records offices, states that the federal government does not distribute certificates, files, or indexes. An aggregator therefore has to collect from 51 state systems and thousands of county offices, most of which do not publish an index at all and many of which are legally barred from releasing the record to a commercial buyer.

The gaps are severe and easy to name:

• Ohio, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania hold no state marriage or divorce records at all. Every record is in a county office.
• Arizona, North Dakota, and Minnesota route both record types to counties as well, and Indiana's certified state window covers only marriages from 1958 through 2012.
• Nevada's state index has no coverage between September 2005 and June 2015.
• California's state office cannot issue public marriage certificates for the year 2000 or for 2002 through 2007.
• Georgia's state marriage window runs only from June 1952 to August 1996.

TruthFinder, one of the largest people-search products, states on its own help pages that "TruthFinder reports do not show marriage records" and that its reports "do not show divorce records," pointing users toward indirect clues in a report instead. That is the honest signal about the data quality: a company this close to the data does not stand behind the field. Treat any product that claims comprehensive nationwide marriage and divorce coverage with corresponding skepticism, and note that a commercial report is never a certified record and cannot be used to prove anything to an agency or a court.

The searches that fail for a different reason

Sometimes there is no record to find, and no search technique fixes it.

Common-law marriage. No license is issued and no certificate is filed, so nothing exists to look up. Colorado's health department states 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 a question a court decides on evidence.

A name that changed. Records are filed under the name each party used at the time of the event. A search run against a current name misses a record filed under a former one.

The wrong county. Marriage records are held by the county whose office issued the license, which is not necessarily where the ceremony took place or where the couple lived. Minnesota counties warn requesters about exactly this.

An event outside the jurisdiction you searched. A person can marry in one state, divorce in another, and live in a third. There is no cross-state lookup, which is why establishing current marital status in general, rather than confirming one specific event, is usually not achievable from public records.

A sealed case. Any divorce file can be sealed by court order, and Rhode Island's public access rules exclude sealed cases and confidential case types from both remote and courthouse access.

If you need proof rather than an answer

A few states sell a document that confirms a specific event, which is useful when an agency wants proof rather than when you want to satisfy curiosity.

Texas issues $20 verification letters for marriages since 1966 and divorces since 1968, and states plainly that they are not considered legal substitutes for marriage licenses or divorce decrees. Colorado issues a verification of marriage, civil union, or dissolution at $25 for the first copy and $20 for each additional. Illinois issues a $5 verification of a marriage or dissolution record from 1962 forward. Maine issues a certified marital status letter for $50.00. Each of these still applies that state's eligibility rules, so a stranger will not necessarily qualify.

For the full custody and eligibility picture in a specific state, see our marriage and divorce records by state guide, or the step-by-step walkthrough for getting a copy of your own marriage certificate.

This page provides general legal information about public records access, not legal advice, and it is written for personal use. It is not a guide to background screening. Consult a lawyer licensed in your state about obligations that apply to your situation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a free way to find out if someone is married?

In some states, yes. Minnesota's county-operated Minnesota Official Marriage System offers a free marriage record search covering every county except Scott and Washington, and states that marriage records are public under Minnesota Statutes chapters 13 and 517. Indiana Legacy, run by the Indiana State Library, offers a free marriage index for records through 1850 and from 1958 forward. Most states do not publish a free index, and in those places the only official route is a paid request to the office that holds the record, which many states will refuse to fill for a non-relative.

Can I check if someone is divorced?

Often through the court rather than a vital records office. A divorce case is a court file, and in many states that file is a public record subject to sealing. Montana's statute says a filed record of dissolution may be released to the public without restriction unless the court designated it confidential. Minnesota's Judicial Branch points the public to Minnesota Court Records Online for plain copies of recent divorce records. Texas maintains a public index of divorces since 1968. Rhode Island allows remote public access to the docket only, with full documents viewable at courthouse terminals.

Can I use marriage or divorce records to screen a job applicant or tenant?

No, not the way this guide describes. Once information about a person is assembled and used to evaluate them for employment, housing, credit, or insurance, it becomes a consumer report, and the Fair Credit Reporting Act imposes obligations on both the provider and the user, including permissible purpose, disclosure, and adverse action requirements. That work has to run through a consumer reporting agency that complies with the statute. Marital status is also a protected characteristic under some state and local housing and employment laws. Everything on this page is written for personal use only.

Which states will not tell me anything?

Quite a few. Nebraska issues a marriage or divorce certificate only to the registrant or the registrant's parents, and requires anyone else to prove the relationship. Georgia limits a certified marriage copy to the two parties. New Jersey states that its vital records are not public records and cannot be searched online. Maine describes itself as a closed record state requiring a direct and legitimate interest. South Dakota's statute says vital records are not open to public inspection. Wyoming closes marriage and divorce records for 50 years. Idaho opens both only once 50 years have elapsed. New York seals the divorce court file for 100 years under Domestic Relations Law section 235.

Why do background-check sites get marriage records wrong?

Because they are aggregating from a patchwork, not querying a registry. There is no national marriage or divorce database; the CDC states that the federal government does not distribute certificates, files, or indexes. A commercial aggregator therefore depends on whichever county and state indexes it can obtain, and coverage gaps are structural. Several states are simply absent as a source: Ohio, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania hold no state marriage or divorce records at all, and Nevada's own state index has no entries between September 2005 and June 2015. TruthFinder states on its own help pages that its reports do not show marriage records or divorce records.

How do I find out if someone was married before?

Work backward from the places they lived, because records are filed by the county that issued the license, not by the person. In a state with a central registry, the state office can often search a range of years for a fee. In a county-custody state such as Ohio, Oklahoma, or Pennsylvania, there is no state index to search, so each county has to be checked separately. Texas is the friendliest structure for this, with public state indexes of marriages since 1966 and divorces since 1968 that identify the county before you order anything. Genealogy resources at state archives cover older periods.

What if there is no record because it was a common-law marriage?

Then no search will produce one. A common-law marriage forms without a license and without a filing, so nothing was ever recorded. Colorado's health department states that official verification of a common-law marriage is not available from the state, though Colorado does allow couples to file a notarized affidavit of marriage with a county clerk and recorder, which would leave a county record. Whether a common-law marriage existed is decided by a court on evidence. See our common-law marriage by state guide for which states still recognize it.

Can I find out who someone is married to now?

Only indirectly, and often not at all. Records are indexed by event, not by current status, so a marriage index shows that a marriage occurred, not whether it is still in effect. Establishing current status means finding a marriage record and then ruling out any later divorce, which requires searching every jurisdiction where either event could have been filed. Colorado's dissolution verification and Texas's verification letters confirm a specific event on request; neither one answers the question of present marital status in general.