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How do you go about looking up marriage/divorce records online?

The free of charge kind. I just want to see of someone was married and how many times, etc... When I do a web search for sites all that seems to come up is the kind of site you have to pay for. Aren't vital statistics supposed to be public record?

Public Comments

1. not all are free each state differs
2. call the county you think they got married in and ask. if that's not the right number it's a good start and they will point you in the right direction.
3. Vital statistics are public record, but it costs money to put them online and make them searchable. That's what the companies that charge you are doing and why they're charging for it.
4. I don't know about online but you can call the Bureau of Vital Statistics and they can tell you.
5. Google the county clerk's office for the county you believe they would have been married in. You only need one persons full name. To see if they've been married is usually free. To get copies of the records, there's going to be a fee. ~aj
6. If you want a complete background on a person then you may need to use a service. If you know the specific county which the person lives MOST country have their records on line which you can search court records by county with knowing only the name of the individual. If someone has lived in multiple counties, you search will be that much more difficult. Your right, they are public record and there for you to go and research . . . but YOU must inquire in each of the individual counties which each have their own separate data base. It's free, but a lot of work
7. It depends a lot on the state. Some places see marriages as public records, some don't. But even if the records are considered public, that does not mean they are required to be available for free on the internet. It takes a huge amount of work and equipment and time to make those sort of records available. If you are searching for marriages in Washington State, for example, virtually all of the marriages ARE available online for free at www.digitalarchives.wa.gov There was a LOT of work that went into that project, including many tens of thousands of dollars of temporary help and of equipment purchases.