North Dakota Marriage and Divorce Records: County Custody (2026)

North Dakota's state vital records office issues no certified copies of marriage or divorce records. Both live with the county: marriage with the county that issued the license, divorce with the county clerk or recorder where the decree was entered. The state's own website is organized around that fact.

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

This page is part of our state-by-state guide to marriage and divorce records. North Dakota is the clearest county-only example in the country, because the state does not bury the arrangement; it builds its website around it.

The State Issues No Certified Copy of Either Record

North Dakota Health and Human Services organizes its vital records section into a short list of categories, and two of them are labelled "County Marriage Records" and "County Divorce Records," sitting alongside the birth and fetal death records the state does hold. The naming is the policy.

On marriage, the department states that "All certified copies of marriage records must be issued by the county where the license was originally purchased and filed," and adds that "the fees may vary from county to county."

On divorce, the rule is stated even more narrowly: "Copies of divorce records can only be obtained from the county clerk or recorder in the county in which the divorce or annulment was decreed."

For a certified copy, then, the county is the only source. That is not the whole picture on the marriage side. North Dakota Century Code 23-02.1-27(4) provides that "a noncertified informational copy of a marriage record may be issued to the general public," section 23-02.1-02.1(1) directs the state registrar to issue "informational copies of death and marriage records," and section 23-02.1-29(1)(g) sets a fee for "a noncertified informational copy of a death or marriage record." The department's public pages do not mention that option and route every marriage request to the county, so treat the informational copy as something to ask the state office about rather than a service the website advertises. It is not a certified copy and will not satisfy a requirement for one.

There is no equivalent informational copy of a divorce record in the statute. For divorce, the county is the only route the department describes.

One older provision cuts against the flat rule on its face, and it is worth knowing about. Section 14-03-22(5), still in the code and unrepealed, directs the recorder to prepare a copy of each marriage license and certificate and transmit it to the registrar of vital statistics, who "shall index the records and upon request shall issue certified copies of the recorded license and certificate for a one dollar fee." The department's published guidance describes no such service, sets out no state form or fee for it, and sends every certified-copy request to the county. Practice, and the instructions a requester actually meets, both point to the county, so plan on the county. The unrepealed text matters only if a court or agency asks why a state office once appeared in the chain of custody.

The 2008 Cutover on the Marriage Side

The two record types reached the same destination by different routes, and the difference matters for older records.

For divorce, county custody appears to have been the arrangement throughout. Nothing in the state's materials describes a period when the health department issued certified divorce copies and then stopped.

For marriage, the change is dated, and North Dakota dated it itself. Section 23-02.1-02.1(1) provides that "beginning January 1, 2008, all new birth, fetal death, and death certificates must be filed with the state registrar," and that the state registrar "shall issue certified copies of any birth, fetal death, or death record, or informational copies of death and marriage records." Marriage is absent from the certified-copy list and appears only on the informational side. The CDC's national vital records directory records the same date from the federal end, noting that as of January 1, 2008 the state health department no longer issues certified copies of marriage records. Certificates issued before that date stay legally valid under subsection 3 of the same section. The department's current pages carry no date carve-out; they route every marriage request to the county regardless of the year of the marriage.

The practical reading is straightforward. Whatever the state may have issued before 2008, it does not issue a certified marriage copy now, and a request for a 1985 North Dakota marriage certificate goes to the county that issued the license exactly like a request for a 2025 one.

Finding the Right County

North Dakota has 53 counties, and the state's marriage and divorce pages each publish a full directory of county offices with contact details and mailing addresses. That directory is the main service the state provides for these record types.

If you do not know which county recorded the event, the state office will help you narrow it down. The contacts published on the department's vital records page are (701) 328-2360 and vitalrec@nd.gov, with a mailing address at Vital Records, 600 E. Boulevard Ave., Dept. 325, Bismarck, ND 58505-0250.

Once you have the county, deal with that office directly. It sets the fee, the identification requirements, and the turnaround, and none of those are standardized statewide. Do not carry a fee quoted by one county into a request to another.

Divorce Decrees and Court Files

North Dakota divorces are heard in the district courts, and the case file sits with the court. The state's own guidance notes that divorce proceedings are usually kept by the district court for each county, while certified copies of the divorce record come from the county clerk or recorder where the decree was entered.

That gives you two possible targets, and they answer different questions. The certified copy of the divorce record confirms that the marriage was dissolved. The court file contains the pleadings, orders, and the decree with its terms, which is what a lender, a pension administrator, or an out-of-state court usually wants.

For the substantive law that governs how a North Dakota divorce is decided, see North Dakota divorce laws. Where a court file is being sought as a public record rather than as a certified copy, the state's general access framework applies; see North Dakota public records laws.

Is There a North Dakota Marriage or Divorce Index

Not in the sense of a free public lookup. North Dakota does operate a free public death index, which is a separate tool covering deaths only. Nothing equivalent exists online for marriages or divorces, so there is no name search you can run yourself.

That is narrower than saying Bismarck holds nothing, and the distinction is worth keeping straight. A record of each marriage performed in the state must be filed with the state registrar, and every license-issuing officer forwards a monthly copy under section 23-02.1-23. Each divorce and annulment granted by a North Dakota court is reported to the registrar by the clerk of court under section 23-02.1-24. Section 14-03-22(5) directs the registrar to index the marriage records it receives, and section 23-02.1-29(1)(f) sets a fee for "a search of the files or records when no copy is made." A state-level search is contemplated by the statutes; what does not exist is a public interface that exposes it or a certified copy at the end of it.

The realistic approach is still to identify the likely county and contact that office, or to use the state's locator help if the county is genuinely unknown. For historical research, the State Historical Society of North Dakota is the state's archival resource for vital records genealogy; confirm current holdings and year ranges with the Society directly rather than relying on a secondhand range.

Commercial people-search products are a weak substitute. Marriage and divorce records are held in thousands of independent county offices across the country, coverage is inconsistent, and several major vendors have dropped this data entirely. Any consumer report used to screen someone for employment, housing, or credit also brings the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act into play, with permissible-purpose and notice duties that a personal search does not satisfy. Our guide to finding out if someone is married or divorced covers the lawful routes.

For your own certified copy, our general walkthrough on getting a copy of your marriage certificate explains identification requirements and mail-order mechanics. For the sibling record type, which the state does issue, see North Dakota death records.

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about how North Dakota marriage and divorce records are held and released. It is not legal advice, and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. County offices set their own fees and procedures and change them without notice; confirm current details with the county clerk or recorder that holds the record. For advice about a specific situation, consult an attorney licensed in North Dakota.

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Last updated: 2026-08-04. Fees and procedures reflect the sources cited as of that date.