In Massachusetts, divorce records, or divorce case files and/or decrees, are considered public information. Any financial information contained in the more contemporary records however, is available only to the two parties named in the divorce or to a designated legal representative.
As with other vital records, changes have occurred over the years as to the current location of divorce file records. Massachusetts divorce records since 1922 are located at the county probate court in which the libellant filed.
Also, and this is very important, divorce records are generally filed in the county where the couple last lived as husband and wife - not necessarily where they last lived at the time of the divorce. A statewide index, from 1952 to the present is available at the Massachusetts Department of Health's Registry of Vital Records in Boston. This statewide index is known to contain many errors and omissions. It is only an index. The actual divorce files are, for the most part, still located at the county probate court. In addition to the statewide index at the DPH, each probate county court maintains a county wide index to divorce records since 1922. Before 1922 and as far back as 1887, divorce cases were heard in the various county Superior Courts, such as Suffolk County Superior Court. The Massachusetts Court and Judicial Archives, located in the same building as the Massachusetts Archives in Boston, has some docket books which index divorces for Hampshire, Middlesex, Norfolk, Plymouth and Worcester counties. However, most of the divorce files themselves are either still located at the county Superior Court in which they were filed or the records are held in offsite storage facilities. It can take weeks to get some of these files.
Again, the state archives has only the index, not the actual files. Before 1887 and as far back as 1786, divorce cases were handled by the Supreme Judicial Court. These records are indexed in Law dockets. Both the indexes and the files are held by the Judicial Archives at the Massachusetts Archives. Records prior to 1786 and as early as 1639, were heard by a variety of courts within the state and in most cases, the originals are held by the Massachusetts Archives. Researchers at mass-doc.com provide divorce file retrieval from 1922 - 2012 in Bristol, Norfolk, Middlesex, and Suffolk counties.
If you'd like mass-doc.com to process a divorce file request, please go to our divorce file request form. Upon receiving payment of your order, we generally ship divorce records within 10 - 21 business days, or less.
Additional Massachusetts Divorce Web Sites
General Laws of Massachusetts, Chapter 208: Divorce. Causes for Divorce
General Laws of Massachusetts, Chapter 210: Adoption of Children and Change of Name.
Massachusetts Bar Association - Law Help
Birth, marriage. divorce and death record information for all other states.
| | Order Forms
Vital Records
Birth Marriage Divorce Death
Probate Records You can easily order a
probate file, such as a will, a name change, a guardianship file or an administration file.
Newspaper Research
Need us to search for an obituary,
a birth,
a marriage
or other type of
news story?
United States
Naturalization Records
Where did they come from? How did they get here? And when did they arrive?
Massachusetts
Census Records Who really lived in that house in 1920?
Massachusetts
City Directories Researched as part of an overall family history project. We do not provide individual lookups.
Massachusetts Cemetery Research Researched as part of an overall family history project. We do not provide individual lookups.
Research Fees How much does this information cost?
Custom Research Projects
Are Available ! Send us an email to request a specific research project. We'll respond ASAP with a price quote and estimation of time to complete your request.
Massachusetts
Research Guides Cemeteries
Probate Courts
Registry of Deeds
Daily Newspapers
Research Links
|