How to Get a Birth, Death, Marriage or Divorce Certificate

Any of New Hampshire’s 234 town and city clerks, or the state’s Division of Vital Records Administration in Concord, can issue a certified copy. You fill in an application, show photo identification, and pay $15, which includes one copy; more copies of the same record made at the same time are $10 each. Only the person named, close family and a few others may get a recent record.

1. Check that you may get the record

   Birth records from before 1901, and death, marriage and divorce records from before 1948, are public. A newer record is issued only to someone with a direct and tangible interest in it:

   • the person it is about;
   • a member of their immediate family;
   • their legal guardian or legal representative;
   • someone who needs it to establish or protect a personal or property right;
   • the news media, for information of a public nature;
   • someone the immediate family has authorized to do genealogical research; and
   • a former spouse, for the divorce record.

   If you are not immediate family, include a letter saying which record you need, why, and any evidence for it. The clerk or the state registrar decides, and a refusal can be appealed.

   The law: RSA 5-C:102

2. Fill in the application

   Fill in the section for the kind of record you want, and the applicant section with your name, address, reason and relationship, and sign it. For a death record you choose whether it shows the cause and manner of death, and whether the Social Security number is suppressed. A false statement on the application is a felony.

   The application

   The law: RSA 5-C:14

3. Apply in person, or by mail

   In person: take the application and your photo ID to your town or city clerk.

   By mail: send it to the Division of Vital Records Administration, 9 Ratification Way, Concord, NH 03301-2455, with:

   • a check or money order in U.S. funds, payable to “Treasurer-State of New Hampshire”;
   • a legible photocopy of your photo ID;
   • proof of your mailing address, such as a utility bill or lease, if it is not on your ID; and
   • a stamped envelope addressed to you, for faster return.

   A driver’s license, passport or other picture ID is accepted. Without one, there is a form listing the other documents that will do.

   Request a certificateIf you have no photo ID

4. Pay the fee

   The fee is $15 for the search, which includes one copy, and $10 for each further copy of the same record issued at the same time. The law sets both. The $15 is paid whether or not the record is found, and a card payment may cost extra.

   Current fees

   The law: RSA 5-C:10

Your town or city clerk issues certified copies, and is the nearest place to ask. The Division of Vital Records Administration lists how to reach it on its contact page. A certified copy needed only to register to vote is free: see How to Vote.

Find your town or city clerk Contact Vital Records

Chapter 5-C: Vital Records Administration

Bills now before the General Court that would change it:

• SB 53-FN Interim Study

Laws that changed it since 2020, newest first:

• HB 1260-FN Became Law
• SB 189 Became Law
• SB 530-FN Became Law
• HB 464 Became Law
• SB 92-FN Became Law
• SB 146-FN Became Law
• SB 269 Became Law
• SB 285 Became Law

• How to vote in New Hampshire

• Vital Records (Secretary of State)sos.nh.gov
• Request for Certificates (Secretary of State)sos.nh.gov
• Application for a certified copy of a vital record (Secretary of State)sos.nh.gov · PDF
• Vital Records Administration, RSA 5-CGranite Record