What you should know

Vital Records, such as birth certificates, death certificates, marriage records, and divorce records, are documents which record major events in each person’s life – and as such, are critical pieces of identity information. Keeping these documents, and your identity, as secure as possible is something we take very seriously.

Part of our secure ordering process is designed to ensure that each certificate is ordered only by the person(s) legally entitled to receive such documents, as defined by specific requirements set by each Vital Record Agency in charge of issuing these certificates. In most instances, a person may order a certificate for themselves or for a member of their immediate family.

Based on each Agency’s unique requirements, and to help ensure the certificate is not put into the wrong hands, certain personal information will be requested during the ordering process to verify specific details about the event, and about the person ordering. While specific questions will be asked during the ordering process, we have summarized some of the most common items here:

• For birth or death certificates, the state, city and/or county where the event occurred

  • for marriage records, the state, city and/or county where the marriage license was purchased
  • for divorce records, the state, city and/or county where the divorce was granted
• The month, day and year of the event
• The names of all the parties named on the requested certificate, as they appear on the certificate (including Mother’s maiden name for a birth certificate)

• Valid billing and shipping addresses for the person ordering the certificate

  • Street addresses only, as express courier deliveries cannot be shipped to PO boxes, APO or FPO military addresses
• Method of payment, such as a valid credit card with number and expiration date
• Some Agencies will require additional identity verification, including a Social Security Number and birth date of the person ordering. Additional information specific to the person ordering the certificate may also be requested, either in the form of identity questions or a copy of an identity document (such as a driver’s license or similar). This information is required by the Agency, used only to validate the identity of the person requesting the certificate, and is handled in the most secure manner possible.