What is the best website to use to locate my father's marriage and
divorce records from his previous marriage?  Unfortunately, he has
forgotten not only the dates but also the state in which his divorce
was finalized.  A quick search on Google comes up with dozens of
"undercover spy" sites.  Of these, which is most legitimate and would
be able to locate the documents with what little information I have
about the marriage and divorce?

Hi there,

I receive queries like yours about once a week, and there is no easy
answer. Each state, and sometimes counties within each state, keep
their local records. There is no national database. Any service that
offers a nationwide search must go to each state individually, and
such a service will charge quite a lot for their time.

"Undercover spy" services tend to me nothing more than link
compilations, often out-dated. I know - I have used them all. The best
is Net Detective, but they merely give you addresses you can write to,
whereas my list below has the website links as well...

Your best bet is to start with the most likely states (i.e. where he
and she had lived), and try their official vital records services, one
by one. Some states will search a decade or two for you, others say
that they need to know the particular year (I like to think that if
you are polite they can help more than their websites say).

A list of all the official divorce records resources I have found is here:
http://searchenginez.com/divorce_records_usa.html

Similar information can be found at VitalRec.com:
http://www.vitalrec.com/divorce.html

SearchSystems have links to divorce records - drill down by state (and
county if necessary). Or search their site for "divorce". Also try any
links they have to court records, these sometimes include family
courts. This is the best catalog of public records available online.
http://searchsystems.net/

At RootsWeb you can search FL divorce records by county, plus Greene co. MO
http://userdb.rootsweb.com/divorces/

This site might be worth a look if you are in a hurry, but will cost
you more than doing it yourself:
http://www.divorcesearch.com/



KnowX
=====

An alternative that I usually keep to myself is KnowX:
http://www.knowx.com/infoam.exe?form=dv/search.htm

This is a free search of Florida, Nevada, and Texas divorce records.
Enter his surname and her first name, and search once for each state.
If you use this form too much, they require you to register (it's
free, but you need to give them your credit card details). To see the
full records there is a $7.95 fee for all the records found, per
state.

The Florida file contains records that date back to 1970. The Nevada
records go back to June 1968, and Texas to 1966.



It is quite ridiculous that one must go to such lengths to find
divorce details, but if it is any comfort, in the UK they keep the
records sealed for 100 years. I'd love to know if I am divorced in the
UK, and there appears to be no way to find out!

Best wishes,
robertskelton-ga

If you have some idea of the city/county they were married or divorced
in, you can visit searchsystems.net and then click on the particular
county information you are interested in.  Some records are available
online, but most often you will have to pay a small fee to the county
clerk's office to have them do the search for you.

SINCERELY,
4KEITH (I'm NOT a GOOGLE Researcher)