Which office holds the record you need?
Deeds, court files, marriage and divorce records, birth and death certificates and wills are kept by different offices, and the names change from state to state. Pick a state and a record to see the office that holds it, what a copy costs and the official link.
Record finder
Public records by state
Each state guide says which office holds each kind of record, explains the public records law and names every county: with a link to our full county guide where we have one, and otherwise to the county's own website where the Census Bureau lists one that opened when we checked.
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
How to get each kind of record
- Deeds and land recordsFind a deed, read the index and order a certified copy from the recording office.
- Property records and ownersWho sets values, who bills the tax, and how to look up a parcel or an owner.
- Court recordsWhich court and which clerk keeps a case, and the official case searches.
- Marriage recordsWho issues marriage licenses and certified copies, and how far back they go.
- Divorce recordsDecree from the court clerk or a certificate from the state, and who may order.
- Birth certificatesWho keeps birth certificates, who may order one, ID and fees by state.
- Death certificatesWho may order a death certificate, the ID needed and the fee in each state.
- Probate records and willsWhere wills are filed after a death and how to search or copy probate files.
- Public records requestsEach state's public records law: who can ask, response time, fees and appeals.
- Liens and judgmentsWhere mortgages, tax liens, judgment liens and UCC filings are recorded.
- Business names (DBA)Where assumed names are filed: county clerk or Secretary of State, by state.
Which office is which
The same job has different titles: a register of deeds in one state is a county recorder, a county clerk or a clerk of court in the next. These explainers map the titles state by state.
- County clerkWhat a county clerk keeps: deeds, marriage licenses, probate, elections, by state.
- Recorder or register of deedsRecorder, register, registry or clerk: who records deeds in each state.
- Clerk of courtWhich clerk keeps court files, divorces and probate cases in each state.
- Assessor vs treasurerWho values property and who collects the tax, state by state.
- Town clerkStates where town and city clerks keep land and vital records.
- Vital records officeThe state office for birth and death certificates, with fees.
Official records cost little or nothing to search
County and state offices publish their fees, most of them set by law: many let you search their indexes free of charge and charge a set fee for copies. A site that asks for a subscription, a "processing" fee or monthly payments for a deed or court record is a commercial reseller, and what it sends is not a certified copy.
How to tell an official record source from a paid look-alike
Where the information comes from
Every office, fee, phone number and link on this site comes from the office's own website, the state law that sets the fee, or an official state directory. A second researcher re-opens each source and checks every figure before a page goes live, and each page names the date it was last checked. We never use data brokers or people-search sites as sources, and we never host or sell personal records. How we check records.