New Hampshire Divorce Records

New Hampshire divorce records after 1938 are filed in the county where the final decree was issued. Before 1938, they are filed at the New Hampshire Bureau of Vital Records. When searching through current divorce records and you don’t know which county to contact, you can contact the following office:

Division of Vital Records Administration
Archives Bldg.
71 South Fruit St.
Concord, NH 03301-2410
Phone: (603) 271-4654

Send your request for a divorce certificate (or fill out a form that you can download from the state) to this office and it will be forwarded to the appropriate county. They will search and find the decree and send you that information. If you happen to know the county where the divorce took place, it’s best to send the request there in order to save time.

NH Divorce Records

You’ll also want to include a check or money order for $15 – the standard fee charged for the search. New Hampshire, as with other states are overwhelmed with the volume of divorces now occurring. States are usually under-staffed and may not be able to handle requests in a timely and accurate manner. For these reasons and more you may want to check out a private, online search service that can find the record in moments and deliver it to your computer in a concise and accurate manner. When you write the letter of request, be sure that you only provide the details important to the search – don’t include extraneous information that will only take time and might confuse the searcher. Important details that you should include in your request letter are the full names of those involved in the divorce, date of divorce, county (if known) in which the divorce took place and the maiden name of the wife mentioned in the decree. Also, keep in mind that in order to receive information about the divorce you must be related to at least one of the persons mentioned in the decree – such as a daughter or parent – and list a reason for wanting a copy. You may also obtain a copy of the decree if you’re the fiancé of one of the people listed in the decree.

If you decide to use a fee-based, Internet search service, you’ll be able to enter the basic information about the record and submit it. In record time, you’ll receive detailed information about the decree – much more data than you’d receive from a state-based search. Plus, your identity is kept strictly confidential and you don’t need to state a reason for the request or state how you’re related to a person in the decree. The process is simple and straightforward. Genealogy data is one of the main reasons that people search through New Hampshire divorce records, but you may want to know the background status of a person or many other reasons. Click on the link to find out more about how you can search through divorce records on the Internet.