Record types
Marriage and Divorce Records
A divorce file is the most complete financial disclosure most people ever make outside bankruptcy. Even where the file is impounded, the index almost never is.
Two different records, two different offices
| Marriage | Divorce | |
|---|---|---|
| Created by | Town, city or county clerk | The court |
| Certificate held by | Clerk and state vital records | Court, plus a state abstract |
| The useful document | The license application | The case file |
The marriage certificate confirms it happened. The license application is the interesting document — it typically carries both parties’ full names, dates and places of birth, current addresses, occupations, parents’ names including mothers’ maiden names, and the number of prior marriages.
That’s a genealogy and an identity package in one form, and people forget it exists because they only ever ask for the certificate.
Index versus file
Where a divorce file is impounded or sealed, the docket index generally remains public. That tells you:
- That the case exists, and its number
- Who filed, and when
- Both parties’ names, including a former name
- The county and court
- How it ended, and when
None of that requires the file. And a case number lets you request specific documents rather than the whole file, which is a much easier ask.
Search the court index by both names
Search the subject, and search any known spouse. A person who changed their name will appear in the caption under the name they used at filing.
Divorce cases are usually in a family, probate or domestic relations division, which is sometimes a separate index from general civil.
Pull the financial affidavit if it isn’t impounded
Most states require both parties to file one. Income, employer, bank accounts, retirement accounts, real property, vehicles, debts and monthly expenses, signed under oath.
Whether it’s public varies enormously by state and sometimes by county. Ask rather than assume.
Read the separation agreement and the judgment
Who kept the house, who assumed which debts, what support was ordered, how retirement accounts were divided.
A property division order is a roadmap of what the person owned at that date and what happened to it.
Note the name change
Divorce judgments frequently restore a former name. That gives you a second name to search under across every other record type, and it’s a very common reason a records search comes back empty.
Use the marriage license application for identity
Mother’s maiden name, place of birth, prior marriages. This is often the fastest way to break into a family line or confirm you have the right person among several of the same name.
Check whether the state closed vital records
Many states restrict certified copies of marriage and divorce certificates to the parties and immediate family. That does not affect the court file, which is a separate record governed by court rules rather than vital records law.
When the vital records office says no, go to the court.
Where the money shows up
For asset work, divorce files are second only to bankruptcy. Contested cases produce discovery, appraisals, valuations of businesses, and sometimes forensic accounting reports — all of it filed and much of it public.
A business valuation prepared for a divorce is a professional assessment of what your subject’s company was worth, with the workings attached.
Support arrears are a debt with teeth. If the file shows a support order, check whether it was ever enforced. Support enforcement agencies have collection powers that ordinary creditors don’t, and a person already under an income withholding order has less capacity to pay you.