Maine Marriage and Divorce Records: A Closed Record State

Maine holds marriage and divorce records back to 1892 in a single statewide office, which sounds convenient until you read the access rule. Maine is a closed record state. Its vital records are not public, though the statutory access list reaches well past the two people named on a certificate, and older marriage records open up with time.

Information last verified on 2026-08-04. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

This page is part of our guide to marriage and divorce records by state. It covers what DRVS holds, what the closed-record rule actually blocks, and where the divorce judgment lives.

What Maine's State Office Holds

Maine centralizes more than most states. DRVS, inside the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, describes its holdings in one sentence: "All Maine's vital records (birth, marriage, divorces, death, and fetal death) are housed at DRVS and most municipal offices statewide."

The starting line is firm: "Maine officially started preserving vital records on January 1, 1892." Everything from that date forward, including divorces, sits in the same statewide file, and DRVS issues certified copies of all of it on request.

The second half of that sentence is the part people overlook. Most municipal offices hold Maine vital records too, which means a town or city clerk can often produce a certified copy without a trip through the state office. If you know the municipality, ask there first.

Divorce Records: Certificate at DRVS, Judgment at the Court

A divorce produces two different documents in Maine, and they live in different branches of government. The statute says so itself. 22 M.R.S. 2803 requires the clerk of each court to file a record of every divorce judgment with the State Registrar of Vital Statistics within 45 days, and then closes with the line that settles which file is which: "The record of divorce prepared for the state registrar shall not become a part of the official record of the court."

The divorce record at DRVS is a vital record, part of the same 1892-to-present file as marriages. Maine's state portal states it plainly: divorce records from 1892 through the present may be obtained from the Office of Vital Records. DRVS issues certified copies of it through the same application and the same fee as a marriage record, and screens requests the same way in practice. That is what you order when an agency needs proof that a divorce occurred.

One wrinkle is worth knowing if you are refused. The eligibility rule for divorce records has a different statutory footing than the one for marriage records. Section 2706's operative opening sentence, the one that conditions release on a direct and legitimate interest, applies to custodians of records of "birth, marriage and death," and divorce is not in it. Divorce is likewise absent from the list of record types that open to the public with age. What restricts divorce records is 22 M.R.S. 2706(4), which provides that "All other details of birth, marriage, divorce or death may not be available to the general public, except as specified in department rules." The restriction runs through department rules rather than through the statute's own eligibility sentence. Section 2804, for its part, directs that "When requested, the registrar shall cause a search to be made of the files for the record of any divorce or annulment and shall furnish a copy thereof," and states no eligibility condition on its face. Expect to be screened anyway, because that is how DRVS operates, but the rule you are meeting is an agency rule.

The divorce judgment, also called the divorce decree, is the court's own order, and it carries the terms: the dissolution, property division, spousal support, parental rights and responsibilities, and child support. The Maine Judicial Branch explains that "Divorce records, including the divorce judgment (also called a divorce decree), may be in paper or electronic form, depending upon when and in which court the divorce case was heard," and directs requesters to the clerk's office of the court where the case was heard or pending. A Records Search Request can also be sent to the Judicial Branch Service Center in Lewiston.

The rule of thumb is the same everywhere in this cluster. Proof that you are divorced comes from vital records. Anything that depends on what the judge ordered comes from the court. For the substantive law rather than the paperwork, see Maine divorce laws.

The Closed Record Rule

Maine states its position without hedging: "Maine is a closed record State. This means that vital records are not public records."

What follows from that has two tiers, and the first tier is considerably wider than the phrase suggests. "Applicants who are listed on a vital record may obtain a certified copy of the record upon application, identification, and the required fee." For a marriage record, that means either spouse. But the statute does not stop at the people named on the certificate. Under 22 M.R.S. 2706(5), a copy must be made available on request, once the registrar is satisfied as to the requester's identity, to that person's spouse or registered domestic partner, descendant, parent or guardian, grandparent, sibling, stepparent or stepchild, an aunt or uncle and that aunt's or uncle's spouse, a niece or nephew, a niece or nephew on the spouse's side, the spouse's parent, a personal representative, and a duly designated attorney or agent. A grandchild ordering a grandparent's marriage record, or a sibling ordering a sibling's, is inside the statutory list and does not need to argue for access at all.

Anyone outside that list has to document eligibility rather than simply assert it. Maine describes the second tier as a direct and legitimate interest, and in practice that means supporting paperwork: a marriage certificate establishing a relationship, guardianship papers, proof of lineage, or a letter from an agency explaining why the record is needed. A bare request from an unrelated person does not clear the bar.

Records also age out of the restriction. 22 M.R.S. 2706(7) provides that after 50 years from the date of marriage for marriage certificates, any person may obtain noncertified copies in accordance with the department's rules, with no relationship or interest to establish. Two limits on that: the copies are noncertified, so they document history rather than satisfy an agency that wants proof, and divorce records are not among the record types the subsection opens, so a 60-year-old divorce does not become public the way a 60-year-old marriage does. Records created before 1892 are open to the public without restriction, which is covered in the genealogy section below.

One narrowing rule cuts the other way. Under 2706(6), access can be further restricted even within the list of relatives above, according to the procedures of the Address Confidentiality Program, which shields participants such as survivors of domestic violence and stalking.

This is the defining feature of Maine's system for recent records. States on the open end of the spectrum will sell a marriage certificate to anyone who can name the parties. Maine will not, at least not within the first 50 years, and that shapes every use case below.

Court records follow separate rules. The Judicial Branch's remote-access system, re:SearchMaine, lets the public search public cases and view the Registry of Actions plus records the court makes remotely accessible, but family law and divorce cases are not among the case types it opens to the general public. For most documents beyond the registry of actions, members of the public must visit a courthouse where eFiling is available. Our page on Maine public records law covers the Freedom of Access Act framework for government records generally.

Fees and How to Order

A certified copy costs $15.00, and additional copies of the same record ordered at the same time cost $6.00 each, as of August 2026. Special services such as delayed birth registrations, amendments, and adoption-related work run $60.00.

Mail applications go to Vital Records in Augusta, with a check payable to Treasurer, State of Maine. For online and telephone orders, DRVS states that applicants "may submit an online request through an independent company that DRVS has partnered with to provide an online service; VitalChek Network, Inc." That channel adds a VitalChek processing charge of $15.50 per order, and DRVS notes that it "does not endorse any other internet ordering service," which is a useful line to remember when a search engine surfaces a lookalike site. One limitation Maine flags specifically: at present VitalChek can process requests for grandparents and prior generations only by phone, not online.

Walking into a municipal office is the other option, and often the quickest. Fees and hours are set locally, so call ahead.

Maine also issues a certified marital status letter, a research product for people who need documentation of whether a marriage exists in the state file. DRVS has published a $50.00 fee for the research and issuance of a certified marital status letter, well above the standard copy fee, so confirm the current figure before requesting one. Our general walkthrough of how to get a copy of your marriage certificate covers the identification and application steps common to every state.

Records Before 1892 and Genealogy Research

Nothing before January 1, 1892 is in the statewide file, because statewide preservation started that day. Earlier Maine marriages were recorded by the town, and those town records are the genealogical source, held by the municipality or transferred to the Maine State Archives.

The difficulty here is practical, not legal, and on the legal side the statute is on the researcher's side twice over. Under 22 M.R.S. 2706(7), certificates and records of birth, marriage and death created prior to 1892 "are open to the public without restriction," and "All persons may purchase a copy on municipal letterhead or a noncertified copy of a vital record created prior to 1892." No relationship to document, no direct and legitimate interest to establish. Maine's closed-record framing simply does not reach this material.

The second right is a standing channel rather than a date cutoff. 22 M.R.S. 2706(8) requires custodians of certificates and records of birth, marriage and death, expressly including applications regarding notice of intentions to marry, to permit inspection of records by and issue noncertified copies to researchers engaged in genealogical research who hold researcher identification cards, as specified by department rule. That channel is not limited to the pre-1892 material, which makes the researcher card the practical route for anyone working through Maine's twentieth-century records rather than assembling relationship paperwork for each one.

The practical obstacles are real all the same. The Archives is candid that early Maine records are difficult to work with. Pre-1892 vital records are incomplete and largely unindexed, and Archives staff cannot conduct genealogical research on a patron's behalf. Anyone tracing a nineteenth-century Maine marriage should plan on town-by-town research rather than a single index lookup.

We were not able to open the Archives' genealogy pages during research for this article, so we have not restated its specific holdings or index ranges here rather than repeat figures we could not confirm.

Checking Whether Someone Is Married or Divorced

Maine is one of the harder states in which to check a stranger's marital status, and the closed-record rule is the reason. Unless you are on the statutory access list or the marriage is more than 50 years old, you cannot order someone else's marriage or divorce record without documenting a direct and legitimate interest, and curiosity is not one.

The court layer does not open the door either, since Maine's remote court-records system does not expose family and divorce cases to the general public. Courthouse access to a specific file is the realistic route, and it is a physical one. Our page on how to find out if someone is married or divorced covers the lawful options.

Two limits are worth stating. Commercial background-check products are unreliable for marriage and divorce data nationwide, and in a closed-record state like Maine there is no open source for them to draw on in the first place; treat any result with real skepticism. And none of this may be used to screen someone for employment, housing, or credit, which are regulated uses under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act.

If a couple never obtained a license, no certificate exists to look for. See Maine common law marriage. For the sibling records franchise, see Maine death records.

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about how Maine marriage and divorce records are held and released. It is not legal advice. Fees, eligibility practice, and court access rules change, and the information here reflects official State of Maine sources as of August 2026. Anyone dealing with a sealed file, a contested record, or an active court proceeding should consult an attorney licensed in Maine.

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Last updated: 2026-08-04.