Maine Marriage and Divorce Records: A Closed Record State

Maine holds marriage and divorce records back to 1892 in a single statewide office, which sounds convenient until you read the access rule. Maine is a closed record state. Its vital records are not public, and a requester who is not named on the record has to show a direct and legitimate interest.

Information last verified on 2026-08-04. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

This page is part of our guide to marriage and divorce records by state. It covers what DRVS holds, what the closed-record rule actually blocks, and where the divorce judgment lives.

What Maine's State Office Holds

Maine centralizes more than most states. DRVS, inside the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, describes its holdings in one sentence: "All Maine's vital records (birth, marriage, divorces, death, and fetal death) are housed at DRVS and most municipal offices statewide."

The starting line is firm: "Maine officially started preserving vital records on January 1, 1892." Everything from that date forward, including divorces, sits in the same statewide file, and DRVS issues certified copies of all of it on request.

The second half of that sentence is the part people overlook. Most municipal offices hold Maine vital records too, which means a town or city clerk can often produce a certified copy without a trip through the state office. If you know the municipality, ask there first.

Divorce Records: Certificate at DRVS, Judgment at the Court

A divorce produces two different documents in Maine, and they live in different branches of government.

The divorce record at DRVS is a vital record, part of the same 1892-to-present file as marriages. Maine's state portal states it plainly: divorce records from 1892 through the present may be obtained from the Office of Vital Records. DRVS issues certified copies of it through the same application, the same fee, and the same closed-record eligibility rule. That is what you order when an agency needs proof that a divorce occurred.

The divorce judgment, also called the divorce decree, is the court's own order, and it carries the terms: the dissolution, property division, spousal support, parental rights and responsibilities, and child support. The Maine Judicial Branch explains that "Divorce records, including the divorce judgment (also called a divorce decree), may be in paper or electronic form, depending upon when and in which court the divorce case was heard," and directs requesters to the clerk's office of the court where the case was heard or pending. A Records Search Request can also be sent to the Judicial Branch Service Center in Lewiston.

The rule of thumb is the same everywhere in this cluster. Proof that you are divorced comes from vital records. Anything that depends on what the judge ordered comes from the court. For the substantive law rather than the paperwork, see Maine divorce laws.

The Closed Record Rule

Maine states its position without hedging: "Maine is a closed record State. This means that vital records are not public records."

What follows from that has two tiers. "Applicants who are listed on a vital record may obtain a certified copy of the record upon application, identification, and the required fee." For a marriage record, that means either spouse. For a divorce record, the same.

Anyone not listed on the record has to document eligibility rather than simply assert it. Maine describes the second tier as a direct and legitimate interest, and in practice that means supporting paperwork: a marriage certificate establishing a relationship, guardianship papers, proof of lineage, or a letter from an agency explaining why the record is needed. A bare request from an unrelated person does not clear the bar.

This is the defining feature of Maine's system. States on the open end of the spectrum will sell a marriage certificate to anyone who can name the parties. Maine will not, and that shapes every use case below.

Court records follow separate rules. The Judicial Branch's remote-access system, re:SearchMaine, lets the public search public cases and view the Registry of Actions plus records the court makes remotely accessible, but family law and divorce cases are not among the case types it opens to the general public. For most documents beyond the registry of actions, members of the public must visit a courthouse where eFiling is available. Our page on Maine public records law covers the Freedom of Access Act framework for government records generally.

Fees and How to Order

A certified copy costs $15.00, and additional copies of the same record ordered at the same time cost $6.00 each, as of August 2026. Special services such as delayed birth registrations, amendments, and adoption-related work run $60.00.

Mail applications go to Vital Records in Augusta, with a check payable to Treasurer, State of Maine. For online and telephone orders, DRVS states that applicants "may submit an online request through an independent company that DRVS has partnered with to provide an online service; VitalChek Network, Inc." That channel adds a VitalChek processing charge of $15.50 per order, and DRVS notes that it "does not endorse any other internet ordering service," which is a useful line to remember when a search engine surfaces a lookalike site. One limitation Maine flags specifically: at present VitalChek can process requests for grandparents and prior generations only by phone, not online.

Walking into a municipal office is the other option, and often the quickest. Fees and hours are set locally, so call ahead.

Maine also issues a certified marital status letter, a research product for people who need documentation of whether a marriage exists in the state file. DRVS has published a $50.00 fee for the research and issuance of a certified marital status letter, well above the standard copy fee, so confirm the current figure before requesting one. Our general walkthrough of how to get a copy of your marriage certificate covers the identification and application steps common to every state.

Records Before 1892 and Genealogy Research

Nothing before January 1, 1892 is in the statewide file, because statewide preservation started that day. Earlier Maine marriages were recorded by the town, and those town records are the genealogical source, held by the municipality or transferred to the Maine State Archives.

The Archives is candid that early Maine records are difficult to work with. Pre-1892 vital records are incomplete and largely unindexed, and Archives staff cannot conduct genealogical research on a patron's behalf. Anyone tracing a nineteenth-century Maine marriage should plan on town-by-town research rather than a single index lookup.

We were not able to open the Archives' genealogy pages during research for this article, so we have not restated its specific holdings or index ranges here rather than repeat figures we could not confirm.

Checking Whether Someone Is Married or Divorced

Maine is one of the harder states in which to check a stranger's marital status, and the closed-record rule is the reason. You cannot order someone else's marriage or divorce record without documenting a direct and legitimate interest, and curiosity is not one.

The court layer does not open the door either, since Maine's remote court-records system does not expose family and divorce cases to the general public. Courthouse access to a specific file is the realistic route, and it is a physical one. Our page on how to find out if someone is married or divorced covers the lawful options.

Two limits are worth stating. Commercial background-check products are unreliable for marriage and divorce data nationwide, and in a closed-record state like Maine there is no open source for them to draw on in the first place; treat any result with real skepticism. And none of this may be used to screen someone for employment, housing, or credit, which are regulated uses under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act.

If a couple never obtained a license, no certificate exists to look for. See Maine common law marriage. For the sibling records franchise, see Maine death records.

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about how Maine marriage and divorce records are held and released. It is not legal advice. Fees, eligibility practice, and court access rules change, and the information here reflects official State of Maine sources as of August 2026. Anyone dealing with a sealed file, a contested record, or an active court proceeding should consult an attorney licensed in Maine.

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Last updated: 2026-08-04.