Records of divorce are generally held by the county in which the divorce was originally obtained. These records may be held by a variety of agencies, depending upon one’s location and the organization of their county government. These records fall under the category of Vital Records which also includes records of births, marriages and deaths within the county. In the vast majority of cases, these records are public and freely available though a request for a specific record must generally be made before it will be available to any interested party.
There are online sources that can help one find information regarding a specific divorce. Records have largely been digitized over the last decade. Some counties, generally only the wealthiest and most advanced, will have their records available in this form. If not, a third-party agency can oftentimes handle the work of getting any needed records. The agencies that perform this work may be contracted online but, in cases where they have to chase down paper records, they will generally do so in the conventional fashion and provide either an electronic copy to their client, mail a paper copy or simply provide both versions of the record requested.
The records of divorce may vary somewhat in format depending upon their origins but the necessary information will be included. Some county pages will allow users to search their databases directly and, in many cases, the results returned for these searches will simply be a summary document. For more comprehensive documents, one must generally make a formal request of the applicable agency. In general, it’s best to call the agency and to ask them specifically what is needed for them to honor the request. Most often, the requirements will be more bureaucratic than legal and the process is fairly easy.