Delaware Birth, Marriage, Divorce and Death Records

Court, Probate & Tax Records | Birth, Marriage, Divorce and Death Records | CENSUS Records | Land Records |
Military Records | Church & Cemetery Records |

See Also Researching in Vital Records - Vital records, as their name suggests, are connected with central life events: birth, marriage, and death. Maintained by civil authorities, they are prime sources of genealogical information; but, unfortunately, official vital records are available only for relatively recent periods. These records, despite their recent creation in the United States, are critically important in genealogical research, often supplying details on family members well back into the nineteenth century.......

State copies of vital records for Delaware are available from the Bureau of Vital Statistics, Division of Public Health, Department of Health and Social Services, State Health Building, P.O. Box 637, Dover, Delaware 19901-0637. The bureau holds birth records from 1920 and marriages and deaths from 1930. Delaware vital records became public records with no restrictions after seventy-two years for births and after forty years for marriages and deaths. Certified copies of later records can be provided to those needing them for personal or property rights and for genealogical purposes.

Earlier records at the Delaware State Archives include those formerly at the Bureau of Vital Statistics, covering births and deaths for 1861 to 1863; 1881 to 1919 for births; 1881 to 1929 for deaths; and 1847 to 1929 for marriages.

After 1881 the City of Wilmington had a registrar of vital statistics, with fairly complete records. Elsewhere, recording of vital events was the responsibility of the county recorders of deeds, and recording practices were quite poor until the creation of the bureau in 1913. Recorders of deeds' records of a very few births and deaths for 1861–63 and for 1881–1913, and marriages for 1847–1913, are at the state archives. Also at the state archives are county clerks of the peace marriage bonds from 1744 (more complete after 1793) to 1913 when bonds were no longer required.

Search Delaware Historical Records - Databases include Court, Land, Wills & Financial Records; Birth, Marriage & Death Records; Voter Lists & Census Records; Immigration & Emigration Records; Obituary Records; Military Records; Family Tree Records; Pictures; Stories, Memories & Histories; Directories & Member Lists and much more....

For the period 1680 to the present, the state archives also has cards that index births, baptisms, marriages, and deaths from a variety of sources, such as marriage bonds, church and Bible records, and newspaper notices. There is a supplementary index for some deaths for 1888–1910. Some Kent County vital records for the late 1600s were recorded in deed books and published in Publications of The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania 7 (1920): 158–62 and reprinted in The Maryland and Delaware Genealogist 10 (1969) and 11 (1970). Some Kent and Sussex County vital records for the late 1600s to the 1750s were published in the Delaware Genealogical Society Journal 1 (1982): 92–96. A private doctor's records of births for Sussex County, 1835–69, were published in volumes 6–8 of The Maryland and Delaware Genealogist (1965–67). Also, “New Castle County...Court Records...of Illegitimate Births” was published in The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine 33 (1984): 353–58.

For the period up to 1975, divorces should be sought in the county superior courts, of which the prothonotary is the clerk. Some of these records are at the state archives, but permission to see them must first be obtained from the court. After 1975 the records are in the county family court where the divorce was granted. The earliest divorces in Delaware, to 1773, were a matter for the governor and council. The legislature had jurisdiction until 1897, and the superior court had concurrent jurisdiction from 1832.

Legislative divorces are indexed as private acts in the published Laws of Delaware, 2–20 (1777–1897). Since 1913 courts have been required to register divorces and annulments with the state registrar.

 

Links For Birth Records

Links For Marriage Records

Links For Death Records

Back to top
Delaware Site Map | | Real Time Web Analytics by Clicky | Copyright © 2009 Genealogy Inc,