Divorce Records
Records that detail the legal dissolution of a marriage or a partnership. Divorce records include documents that pertain to a marriage/partnership ending, such as custody issues, financial documents, estate settlements, and more. In the United States, there are two types of documents that are records of a divorce:
Divorce Decree
A document that details that contains all the information from a divorce certificate as well as a summary of the divorce proceedings and the terms of the divorce. A divorce decree contains the courts case number, division of property, child custody settlements, and additional data. A divorce decree is signed by a judge and is issued by the court that granted the divorce.
Divorce Certificate
A certificate that contains the following: names of the spouses, location of the divorce, date of the divorce. A divorce certificate is usually maintained by the state's vital statistics office.
Divorce Records
Divorce records contain the data mentioned above. You can get access to complete divorce records or to individual files that compose such records.
Divorce records are vital records and vital records, which classifies them as public records. So, if you need access to divorce records, you can get it from the court were the divorce was granted or the local vital statistics office.
Depending on the jurisdiction and state laws, divorce records may not be available to the public in their entirety. In most states, if a divorce is occurred 50 years ago, the divorce records will be transferred to the local or state departments of archives.