Researching and Obtaining Public Records

What Type of Information Do I Need?

If you want to go down to the county recorders office and get a copy of the marriage record for John and Mary Johnson, you would first need to know in what county the license was filed. Without knowing that information, you would have a harder time obtaining the records. What county were they married in, and better yet, what city and the year? You will need to know Mary’s maiden name as well, it’s a little more difficult if you only know that Jane’s last name is Johnson because she married John. The ideal amount of information to have would be: Mary Jane and John Johnson married on June 1, 1985 in Los Angeles County, in Norwalk. Their marriage records would be filed in Norwalk, at the County Recorders Office. If they were married in a smaller area, you could just go straight to the county office.

If you are looking for general information, then you can also perform a search online with much less information. That type of search will then return more information than you have, and with the added information you can find the answers you are looking for. So depending on where you live, who you are looking for, and where the records you are seeking are located, it is often cheaper to just get public records online.

---

Technorati tags:
marriage, people search, public records