Pennsylvania Marriage & Divorce Records: How to Get a Copy (2026)

Pennsylvania is one of the few states where the health department issues no marriage or divorce copies at all. A Pennsylvania marriage certificate comes from the Marriage License Clerk at the county courthouse that issued the license, and a divorce decree comes from the Prothonotary in the county where the divorce was granted.

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, and it covers who actually holds Pennsylvania records, how to request a copy, and what is and is not public.

Pennsylvania Has No State Marriage or Divorce Certificate

Most states run two parallel layers for these events: a court layer that holds the license and the decree, and a vital-records layer at the health department that holds a certificate or a verification letter summarizing the same event. Pennsylvania has only the first layer. The Department of Health's Division of Vital Records issues birth and death certificates, but its own guidance states that the office does not issue copies of Pennsylvania marriage and divorce records.

That single fact resolves most of the confusion readers arrive with. There is no Harrisburg office to write to, no statewide index to search, and no state fee schedule. If you need documentary proof that a Pennsylvania marriage or divorce happened, you are going to a county courthouse, either in person, by mail, or through whatever online request form that particular county offers.

It also means the usual decree-versus-certificate distinction collapses in Pennsylvania. In states like Texas or South Carolina, a reader has to decide whether the summary record the state holds is enough or whether the full court document is required. In Pennsylvania the full court document is the only option, which is generally what agencies want anyway.

How to Get a Pennsylvania Marriage Certificate Copy

The State Library of Pennsylvania's vital records research guide states the rule plainly: since September 30, 1885, marriage licenses have been required in Pennsylvania and are maintained by the Marriage License Clerk in the county courthouse of the county issuing the license. In most counties that function sits within the Register of Wills or the Orphans' Court division, which is why searching for a standalone "marriage bureau" sometimes turns up nothing.

The county you need is the county that ISSUED the license, not necessarily the county where the wedding took place. Pennsylvania couples may apply for a license in any county and marry elsewhere in the state, and the completed license is returned for filing to the issuing county. If you are unsure, start with the county where you or your spouse lived at the time you applied.

A request generally asks for both spouses' full names as they appeared at the time of the marriage, the date of the marriage, and identification for the requester. Because each county runs its own office, the accepted request methods, the identification standards, and the fee all vary. Fees are set locally rather than by a statewide schedule, so confirm the current amount with that clerk before sending payment.

How to Get a Pennsylvania Divorce Decree

Divorce in Pennsylvania is handled by the Court of Common Pleas, and the office that keeps the civil case file is the Prothonotary, an old title that simply means the chief clerk of the civil court. The State Library's research guide dates the arrangement precisely: since 1804, divorce records have been kept in the Prothonotary's Office in the county where the divorce was granted. That office holds the docket, the pleadings, and the final decree.

Ask specifically for a certified copy of the divorce decree. The decree is the order that dissolved the marriage, and it is the document that the Social Security Administration, immigration authorities, pension administrators, and a subsequent county marriage clerk will accept. A plain docket printout showing that the case closed is not the same thing, and an uncertified photocopy usually is not accepted for those purposes.

If property division, support, or custody terms matter to you, note that those may live in a separate order or in a marital settlement agreement filed alongside the decree. Ask the Prothonotary for the specific documents you need rather than for "the divorce papers," which is not a defined term in the file.

For how the underlying law works rather than how to obtain the paperwork, see our guide to Pennsylvania divorce laws.

What the Department of Health Does Publish

The Department of Health does collect Pennsylvania marriage and divorce data, but only as statistics. Its marriage and divorce statistics pages report counts by county and by year, useful for research and journalism and useless for proving that a specific marriage occurred. The Department is explicit about the boundary, noting that more detailed breakouts, which are not available from the Department of Health, may be available through the county courthouse where the event occurred.

So treat the state health department as a data publisher for this record type, not a records office.

Are Pennsylvania Marriage and Divorce Records Public?

Two different access regimes apply, and they are worth separating.

The divorce case file is a court record. Pennsylvania's Right-to-Know Law does not treat courts the way it treats executive agencies: the Office of Open Records explains that judicial agencies provide access to financial records under the Unified Judicial System's Rule 509, and access to other records under the Unified Judicial System's public access rules and policies. In practice that means you do not file a Right-to-Know request for a divorce file. You ask the Prothonotary, and the court's own public access policy governs what is released, what is redacted, and what a judge has sealed. Individual documents can be sealed or restricted by court order, and confidential information such as full Social Security numbers and financial account numbers is filed on separate confidential forms rather than in the public record.

There is a free statewide way to check whether a case exists. The Unified Judicial System publishes Common Pleas docket sheets through its web portal, which lets anyone look up a case and read its docket entries without registering. Use it to confirm the county and the case number before contacting the Prothonotary, and remember that a docket sheet is a summary of filings, not the decree itself.

Marriage records sit with a county office rather than the Prothonotary's civil docket, but whether they are public is not a county-by-county question. Under 23 Pa.C.S. 1309, the applications for marriage licenses and consent certificates shall be immediately filed and docketed as public records. That status is fixed by statute and applies statewide. What actually varies between counties is the mechanics of obtaining a copy: the accepted request methods, the identification the clerk asks for, and the fee for a certified copy.

One narrow confidentiality exception is built into the application itself. Under 23 Pa.C.S. 1302(b)(2), an applicant who participates in Pennsylvania's Address Confidentiality Program may list the substitute address designated by the Office of Victim Advocate instead of a home address, and 23 Pa.C.S. 1302(b)(5) extends the same substitute address to a parent's residence in defined circumstances. The record stays public; the protected address does not appear in it.

For the broader framework covering executive-branch agency records in the state, see Pennsylvania public records laws.

Older Records and Genealogy

The Pennsylvania State Archives holds a specific and fairly narrow set of early marriage material rather than a statewide series. Its marriage records page describes partial marriage lists within the Governor's Accounts for 1742 to 1763, marriage bonds for Philadelphia County for 1784 to 1786, a record and index of births, deaths, and marriages for 1852 to 1854 covering 49 of the state's 64 counties at the time, and an incomplete Record of Marriages for 1885 to 1891 from various counties. For the period after 1885 it holds digitized microfilm copies for some counties, while the originals remain at the county level with the Register of Wills or Clerk of the Orphans' Court.

For most genealogical marriage research in Pennsylvania, then, the trail still runs back through the county offices, because the counties have been the custodians of marriage licenses since the license requirement began in 1885.

The State Archives does hold early divorce material, but it is narrow and it sits inside Supreme Court record groups rather than in a statewide divorce series. Its marriage records page lists Divorce Papers, 1786-1815, in Record Group 33 for the Supreme Court's Eastern District, with images available through the Pennsylvania Digital Archives, and a General Motion and Divorce Docket, 1750-1837, also in Record Group 33, which the page notes includes references to divorces for the period 1800 to 1805.

Those two series are the exception rather than a research path for most families, and neither substitutes for a county Prothonotary's file. If your divorce falls outside those years or those courts, contact the State Archives reference staff directly and ask what survives for the county and period you need.

If you are researching whether a marriage existed at all rather than obtaining a copy of one, note that Pennsylvania abolished new common-law marriages after January 1, 2005, and a common-law marriage produces no license or certificate to look up. See Pennsylvania common law marriage for how those relationships are proven instead.

Related Pennsylvania Records

The same county-first pattern shows up across Pennsylvania record types. For the state's death certificate process, which unlike marriage and divorce IS handled by the Division of Vital Records, see Pennsylvania death records.

If you are still deciding which document you actually need, our cluster guides to getting a copy of a marriage certificate and finding out if someone is married or divorced walk through the choice in general terms.

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about locating Pennsylvania marriage and divorce records. It is not legal advice. County offices set their own fees, hours, and request procedures, and those change without notice, so confirm current details with the specific Marriage License Clerk or Prothonotary before relying on them. Consult a licensed Pennsylvania attorney for advice about your specific situation.

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Last updated: 2026-08-04. Office responsibilities and published guidance reflect their status as of 2026-08-04.