South Dakota Divorce Records

Divorce Records in South Dakota

Each individual state regulates the granting of divorces. Therefore, the state where the divorce was filed and finalized maintains all of the divorce records. Usually, divorce records are held at the Prothonotary Office in the local County Divorce Records courthouse. Some courthouses may not have this type of office, but divorce records will still be found at the County Divorce Records courthouse.

Most requests should be made at the County Divorce Records courthouse for certified copies of divorce records. Although states may also store divorce records at the state repository if they have one, the copies obtained from the state repository will not be certified.

Basic information about the divorced couple is included in each of the divorce records. On general, the husband�s full name, the wife�s full name with her maiden name, and the name of the County Divorce Records where the divorce took place will always be included in the document. The recorded date for the filing of the divorce, the actual date of the finalized divorce, and an identifying certificate number is included.

The number of children under the age of eighteen at the time the divorce was filed might also be included by some states. Much of t his information is requested when you request an official copy of the divorce record to assist in the search.

You should not provide information that is not requested because it will not help the search. However, in the case of genealogical searches where little information is available additional information might be useful. Requests for divorce records that contain the greatest amount of requested information will lead to the quickest results. With a genealogical search, it might take longer to locate the proper files.

Divorce records are generally filed by the husband�s last name, first name, and middle name. Therefore, your search for divorce records should begin with the husband�s name. If you do not know the name of the County Divorce Records where the divorce was filed, you can start your search in any one of the following three ways.

You can begin at the state repository for the search. As soon as you locate the information that you need, such as County Divorce Records, and you may then continue your search at the County Divorce Records courthouse.

You can attempt a search County Divorce Records by County Divorce Records. When dealing with states that have numerous counties, this will take time. Each individual County Divorce Records will also request a fee for the search.
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A search on past and current spouses of the person for whom you want the records can also be done. This type of search will produce the names and accompanying addresses. With the addresses, you can get the name of the County Divorce Records and continue the search. With this method, you will know the number of counties you need to search.

It takes between two to ten days to perform a typical search for current divorce records. Influencing factors to this are: the size of the courthouse, the number of available staff members, the time of year, and the amount of provided information. Five to twenty dollars is usually requested to recover the cost of time and materials.