Tennessee Marriage & Divorce Records: How to Get a Copy (2026)

Tennessee's Office of Vital Records does not keep marriage and divorce records forever. It holds roughly the most recent 50 years and hands the older material off, which means the right office for a Tennessee record depends less on what you want than on when the event happened.

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, and it sorts out Tennessee's rolling retention window, the three different custodians, and what the state copy proves.

The 50-Year Rule Is About Retention, Not Secrecy

A widely repeated claim online says Tennessee divorce records are confidential for 50 years and then become public. That is a misreading, and it sends people to the wrong office.

What the Department of Health actually says, on its own application for a certified copy of a Certificate of Divorce or Annulment, is that records are filed in this office for the past fifty (50) years, and that records prior to this date are available from the clerk of the court where the divorce was granted and may be available from the State Library and Archives.

That is a custody statement. The Office of Vital Records keeps a rolling 50-year window of records and transfers or retires what falls outside it. Nothing unlocks at the 50-year mark; the paper simply moves. Confusing the two matters practically, because someone chasing a 1968 divorce at the state office is writing to a place that no longer has the file.

The Tennessee State Library and Archives describes the same arrangement from the other side, noting that the Office of Vital Records holds divorces which have occurred in the past 50 years, and that a statewide divorce index for the years 1980 through 2014 is available on the website of the Shelby County Register of Deeds.

Which Office Holds Your Tennessee Record

Think of Tennessee as three layers stacked by date.

The Office of Vital Records in Nashville holds the most recent roughly 50 years for both marriage and divorce certificates, and it is where current requests go. For marriage specifically, the State Library and Archives tells researchers to contact the Department of Health for records from 1976 to the present.

The State Library and Archives holds the middle tranche. For marriages, it maintains a year-by-year statewide microfilm index covering July 1, 1945 through December 31, 1975. Its divorce holdings run from July 1, 1945 through December 31, 1975, the same span as the marriage index. That end date advances on a schedule: the Archives guide notes that the Department of Health released 1975 death, marriage, and divorce records to the Library and Archives in January 2026, so the boundary moves forward by roughly a year each January. Divorces from 1976 to the present stay with the Department of Health, the same split the Archives applies to marriages.

County courts hold everything older, and they hold the decrees in every era. The Archives states that Tennessee marriages from 1861 through June 30, 1945 are found in the records of each county, with no statewide index for that period, and that county court clerks recorded marriages in bound ledger books going back much further. Tennessee divorces before the mid-1940s likewise sit with the county Chancery or Circuit Court that granted them.

Certificate Versus Decree, and Ledger Versus License

Tennessee's state document for a divorce is a Certificate of Divorce. It records that a divorce occurred, with the identifying details. The decree, meaning the court's judgment with its property, support, and parenting terms, is a court record, and the Department's own application points requesters to the clerk of the court where the divorce was granted for older files.

So if a lender, a plan administrator, an immigration filing, or an opposing party has asked for your decree, the state certificate is not a substitute. Contact the clerk of the Circuit or Chancery Court in the county where the case was heard.

Marriage has a parallel distinction with a Tennessee twist. The State Library and Archives explains that in many cases the marriage license itself was given to the bride and groom, and that the official marriage record on file in the state is an entry made into a marriage ledger book by the County Court Clerk. For historical Tennessee research, in other words, the ledger entry is the record, and the paper license may never have been retained by any office at all.

For how Tennessee divorce law works rather than how to obtain the record, see Tennessee divorce laws.

Fees, Ordering, and Who May Apply

Tennessee's published fee schedule prices a Marriage Certificate at $15.00 for the first copy and $15.00 for each additional copy, with the same $15.00 and $15.00 structure for a Divorce Certificate. There is no volume discount for additional copies, which is unusual, so order what you need without assuming extras are cheap.

Certificates cannot be obtained through the state's online help center. The Vital Records Help Center states that vital records certificates, including birth, death, marriage, and divorce certificates, are not available through the Help Center, and that for security and privacy reasons you must request these documents through the official application process. For online payment, the state names VitalChek as the only official vendor authorized to process credit and debit card transactions.

One practical note on channels: county health departments across Tennessee can issue birth and death certificates, but that convenience does not extend to marriage and divorce certificates, which run through the Nashville office and the official application process.

On eligibility, Tennessee does not publish a fixed enumerated relationship list for these two record types the way many states do. The Department's divorce application instead requires the requester to state their relationship to the record and the purpose of the copy, and requires either notarization of the application or a photocopy of a valid government-issued photo ID showing the signature. Contrary to some secondary sources, we did not find an official page setting out a closed list of eligible relatives for marriage and divorce certificates, so present your relationship and purpose accurately and expect the office to evaluate them.

Researching Older Tennessee Marriages and Divorces

For genealogy, the sequence that works is chronological. Start with the date, pick the layer, then pick the office.

For a 1990s or later event, the Office of Vital Records. For a marriage between July 1945 and 1975, the Archives microfilm index. For a divorce in that same postwar period, the Archives. For anything from the nineteenth century through the mid-1940s, the county, using the county court clerk's marriage ledgers for marriages and the Chancery or Circuit Court for divorces.

The Shelby County Register of Deeds statewide divorce index covering 1980 through 2014 is a genuinely useful free lookup that the Archives itself points to, and it is worth trying before paying for a search when you are unsure of a date or county.

If your question is whether a marriage existed at all, remember that Tennessee does not recognize new common-law marriages formed in the state, so there may be no license, ledger entry, or certificate to find. See Tennessee common law marriage.

Related Tennessee Records

Death certificates follow a different retention and access pattern and can be issued by county health departments, covered in Tennessee death records. For the state's general records-request framework, see Tennessee public records laws.

If you are still deciding which document you need, see our guides to getting a copy of a marriage certificate and finding out if someone is married or divorced.

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about obtaining Tennessee marriage and divorce records. It is not legal advice. Fees, retention windows, and ordering channels change without notice, so confirm current details with the Tennessee Department of Health, the State Library and Archives, or the county court clerk before relying on them. Consult a licensed Tennessee attorney for advice about your specific situation.

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Last updated: 2026-08-04. Fees, custody windows, and archive ranges reflect their published status as of 2026-08-04.