There must be occasions when you wonder about people’s marital history and wished there was a way you could know instantly. Well, there is and it’s called Divorce Records Online. They come in two versions: free and fee-based. Both could work but the question is which one suits your needs better? Time and money, that’s basically what’s at play between Free Online Divorce Records and paid ones. With a little research, understanding divorce records becomes easy.

Divorce records are regarded as one of the principal vital records. Together with Marriage, Birth and Death Records, Divorce records are at the core of Public Records departments across the country. Most states have had them centralized since the mid 60′s. Prior to that, they were generated and maintained at the respective district offices of the county where the divorce was granted. County Divorce Records are known to date back hundred over years.

The Freedom of Information Act in 1966 was a key turning point for public records in general, not least Public Divorce Records. Public divorce records under the control of government offices that were previously undisclosed became open to the public and have not looked back since. Except for officially sealed and private information by the courts, anyone has the right to request anybody’s records from the authorities in charge of the function in person, by phone, fax, mail or the internet.

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With the Freedom to Information Act (1966), divorce records and various others such as Marriage, Birth, Death, Criminal records and so forth became public records. This applies to all states although the use and treatment of these records are subject to variations in laws between the states. They are widely available from both government and private sources and County Free Public Divorce Records in Texas are known to date as far back as the 19th century.

One of the public services that are provided by The Texas Department of State Health Services is Texas Divorce Records. They can be requested from the Vital Statistics Unit in Report of Divorce Indexes and can be downloaded free of charge from the department website. Although nominal, fees are usually involved beyond that. About a hundred thousand divorces have been filed at the office since 1968 but not much beyond Divorce Letters of Verification is available directly from this office.

A Divorce Letter of Verification from the Vital Statistics Office only states whether or not a divorce was issued in the state of Texas. It contains the names of the divorcing parties, the county where the divorce was granted and the court case number. Fees are $20.00 for a letter. They are considered searching charges and hence not refundable or transferable to another record whether or not a search yields any results. However if a search results in a ‘no record found’, it can be used as proof of single-status (marital). Verification letters are available to divorces that occurred from 1968 to the last day of the year preceding the current one.

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