About Vital Records
Vital Records refers to govenment records of individual births, deaths, marriages and divorces. States may have one agency that handles all of these records, but it is more common for divorce records to be housed in the court system. Birth and death records are often handled by a department of health agency while marriage records may be handled by a county clerk, auditor or probate court. Not only does the agency handling these records vary from state to state, the records deemed "public" also varies. Some states limit access to birth and death records, but all deem marriage and divorce records public information. Some states allow for online searching of these records, but even if one state agency allows for online record searches, another agency in the same state may not. Where searching is available, most often the search capability is by name.
Find Vital Records Resources by State:
| Find public records by town or zip code |
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| Find Public Records by City and State or by Zip Code. |
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Go to the public records pages for any state. |
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National and General Vital Records Links - see state links above for state and local resources.
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