Saturday, January 11, 2014

Indiana Free Divorce Records

By Ben Kingsley


In the US, records that deal with the birth/death and marriage/divorce are called Vital Records. These records provide important details concerning the named individuals and can be useful in searching for one's genealogy. They can serve as the named supporting document to determine their identity and eligibility as well. To obtain these records, one simply has to request them from the Vital Record section of each State. There are however, certain records that are not available from the State's Vital Records but rather are available from the county where the records originated from such as divorce records in Indiana.

The divorce records are only available from the County Clerk's office where the divorce was granted. Each county has different divorce records with some dating back as far back as 1795 wherein record keeping starts from when a county was established. Each county has their set of guidelines to ensure that a request is accommodated. Requests can be made through email, fax, standard mail and in-person.

As divorce records are confidential, access is restricted only to the following persons authorized by Indiana State law. These individuals are those that are named in the divorce, legal guardian or parents, siblings, relatives and those legal entities that are authorized by the person's named in the divorce certificate to act on their behalf.

Divorce records for example in Marion County, Indiana are available from the Marion County Clerk office and can be requested through mail, email and in-person. The researcher will have to submit the request form that is available for download from the county's website. Complete the application form and together with the payment fee, send these to the Records Division. Each record page costs about $1 and certification is $1. For those who are unsure of how long the reports would be can, they may send in a minimum of $5 in either money order or check. Any remaining amount will be refunded by the Office and for those who incur more costs then the requesting party will be contacted to add additional funds. Processing time varies depending on the volume of requests although normally it would take ten business days. Researchers must include a self-addressed stamped envelope with their request form. For walk-ins, the Record Office is available weekdays and payments should be made in cash. Researchers must present proof of their identity to the County Clerk by showing current identification such as passport or driver's license.

Another example would be in the Allen County where the records are available from the County Courthouse Records Division. Requests via standard mail, e-mail, fax and in-person are all accepted. To request via standard mail, the researcher has to download the request form from the website, fill up the pertinent details and send the request to the Records Division. Records that need certification for purpose of employment, social security and court proceedings should be noted in the request form. Payment fees are the same as those with Marion County.

For those who want to obtain their own divorce copies, the easiest and perhaps the simplest way to do so is to check out online sites that offer free public divorce records. One can easily retrieve the information that they want without having to wait for days for the report. Full reports are usually available for a minimal fee and processing time is shorter than coursing the request through the County office.




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