Obtain Free Montgomery County Divorce Records (Texas)

Access free Montgomery County divorce records using the guidance, search tools, and databases linked throughout this resource.

When conducting a divorce record lookup, there are a few things for inquiring citizens to keep in mind: first, there are many Montgomery Counties throughout the United States, so always make sure that the result you find is for the one located in Texas. Second, while divorce documents are available to the public in the state, the methods of requesting or accessing them can vary between custodians.

To expedite and streamline your search for information on dissolved marriages in Montgomery County, Texas, this resource provides helpful links and steps for retrieving them at no cost.

How To Find Montgomery County Divorce Records for Free

Montgomery County’s official custodian for its divorce records is the district clerk’s office’s Records & Research Department, which deals with all the public records requests related to civil and family court.¹

If a search for the record needs to be conducted in order to find the necessary information to request a copy, individuals must fill out a public access request form. After filling this out and submitting it, the district clerk’s office will return the form to the sender with a login and password to use to search through its databases.

You can mail the form to the following address:

Montgomery County District Clerk
Attn: Records & Research
PO Box 2985
Conroe, TX 77305

To drop off the form in person, use the following street address:

Montgomery County Courthouse
301 N. Main Street, Suite 103
Conroe, TX 77301

Once the necessary records and details have been located, the best option for obtaining copies of divorce papers is to fill out the request for copies form, for which individuals will need to know the case number and names of both parties involved in the marriage absolution.²

Because common law marriage is legal in the state of Texas, it’s worth noting that divorce records in Montgomery County also include those of common law marriages (common law divorce does not exist), and the process of locating those records is the same as for legal marriage.

Once completed, the request for copies form can be turned in via email, mail, or in person. For email, send the form to [email protected]. If submitting the form via mail, send it to the same PO Box listed above or hand deliver it to the district clerk’s office at the Montgomery County Courthouse, also listed above, in Suite 103.

The courthouse is open from 8:00 am – 5:00 pm from Monday to Friday, and can be reached by phone at 936-539-7855. Non-certified copies of public divorce records cost $1.00 per page, while certified ones cost at least $6.00 ($1.00 per page, $5.00 for the certification). The only accepted forms of payment are cashier’s checks, money orders, and cash, as per the district office’s webpage.

The request could take up to 10 days to process (more likely 2-3 days), so if the citizen inquiring would prefer to receive his or her copies via mail rather than physically go to the courthouse again, please include a self-addressed and stamped envelope with other documents and payment.

The district clerk’s office is the only local-level custodian of divorce records in Montgomery County; no towns, cities, or municipalities have access to these documents, and will instruct to all interested individuals to circle back to the district clerk.

How To Run a Texas Divorce Record Lookup via the Department of State Health Services

If individuals cannot locate the sought-after divorce record through the Montgomery County district clerk’s office, then perhaps a search at the state level should be considered in case the absolution occurred within a neighboring county.

If it did happen elsewhere, then all local-level government agencies would not be able to help, but the Texas Department of State and Health Services (DSHS) might house the record.

Within this department is the Vital Statistics Section, which holds divorce indexes for the state of Texas dating back to 1968 (the years 2018 and 2019 will be available this spring, and 2020 and 2021 will become available in the next couple of years; anything more recent does not have an index yet).³ These indexes can be searched for free.

If an individual finds the event he or she was looking for, an order can be placed for verification, which is a type of divorce paper that shows basic facts about the event but does not legally serve as a substitute for official documentation.

Citizens can order a divorce verification virtually using the department’s online form.⁴

To order by mail or in-person, download, print, and complete the state’s Application for Divorce Record. If sending by mail, use the following PO Box:

DSHS – VSS
PO Box 12040
Austin, TX 78711-2040

If submitting the form in person, you can go to the following location:

DSHS – Vital Statistics Section
1100 W. 49th Street
Austin, Texas 78756

The Department of State Health Services’ Vital Statistics Section is open from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm on weekdays and can be reached by phone at 888-963-7111. In-person requests can usually be serviced the same day, while mail-in and online orders may take a month or two to complete. Regardless of how the application is submitted, there is a cost of $20.00.

If the sought-after divorce record is from before 1968, the Texas State Library’s genealogy resources may have microfilm detailing the event.

The Texas State Library (TSL) does not offer copies of divorce documents; typically, knowing where the absolution occurred is necessary to locate the corresponding film. Because of this, going back to the Montgomery County District Clerk is the safest bet, as the office houses all archives from the 1900’s onwards for the county as well.

Who Can Look Up a Person’s Divorce Records in Montgomery County Texas?

All citizens have the same access to divorce records in the county, due to the Texas Public Information Act (statute 552).⁵ Sometimes, though, divorce documents can be sealed if there is sensitive information within the papers, such as domestic violence or financial information. If a citizen wishes to receive a copy of this type of document, he or she should fill out a sealed record request form.

Some of the information needed to complete this form includes the case number and the reason for requesting the sought-after record.

Typically, a divorce certificate received from Montgomery County is a paper that can be used to show proof that a marriage ended. Copies of a divorce decree, the actual order that dissolved the marriage, are available as well and need to be specified when filling out the request for copies form.

The associated fees are the same for a decree as for a divorce paper ($1.00 per page, $5.00 per certification), but because decrees typically have more pages, the price will most likely be a little higher.

While there are costs associated with receiving copies of these documents, both the county and state custodians offer free search tools and indexes to assist in finding the correct information.⁶

There are third-party agencies that may be able to provide helpful information on divorce records in Montgomery County, or within the state of Texas. However, these companies cannot provide official documentation of a dissolved marriage, only information on the event, and are not officially endorsed by the state or county as a custodian of these records.

The best place to begin any search for Montgomery County divorce records is the district clerk’s office’s Records & Research Department, which has all information pertaining to both archived records and more recent documents.

If there is uncertainty as to whether or not Montgomery County is the correct location for the absolution, the Texas Department of State Health Services’ Vital Statistics Section will be able to provide some assistance.