Welcome to the official website for the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Maine CDC), Data, Research, and Vital Statistics (DRVS) office. We hope you find this website both helpful and informative. If you have any comments or suggestions, please e-mail DRVS at DHHS.VitalRecords@maine.gov.
All Maine's vital records (birth, marriage, divorces, death, and fetal death) are housed at DRVS and most municipal offices statewide. Maine officially started preserving vital records on January 1, 1892. Vital records created prior to 1892 may be obtained from the municipality where the vital event took place or from the Maine State Archives.
- If you are looking for a birth, marriage, or death that occurred in another State, you must contact that state's vital records office. Events that occurred in another State or Country are not available from Maine DRVS.
Whether you're requesting a certified copy, correcting an existing record, registering as a genealogist, or accessing adoption information, our secure online services make it easy to manage your request while protecting your sensitive information every step of the way.
Vital Records provides vital records registration services and technical services for health care professionals, funeral directors, hospitals, state agencies, court officials, and municipal clerks in the registration of vital records from which statistics are gathered and issues non-certified or certified copies of vital records to eligible applicants.
Activities
- Collect and maintain record of births, deaths, fetal deaths, marriages, and divorces from 1892 to present, issuing certified copies on request.
- Maintain the domestic partner registry, established in 2004. The registry provides legal status to domestic partners with rights similar to marriage in areas like probate, inheritance, and conservatorship.
- Provide other vital registration services such as delayed birth and marriage registrations, acknowledgements of parentage, denial of parentage, court determinations, adult DNA, corrections, supplemental cause of death, legal name changes, as well as the preparation of new birth (or marriage) certificate after a gender marker change, adoption, or legitimization. Vital Records houses all sealed gender marker changes, adoptions, and legitimizations.
- Maintain the adoption reunion registry, established in 1979. The registry allows parents and adoptees to voluntarily enroll and seek contact with their biological families, and the state facilitates introductions when both parties express a desire to meet.
- Ensure all statutes, rules, and policies are compiled for transportation and disposition of human remains.
- Ensure all marriages occurring in Maine are legal joining.
- Ensure the statutes, rules, and policies are complied with for acknowledgment of parentage to add a parent’s name to a birth record.
- Ensure the vital statistics information for the interstate exchange agreements are processed on births and deaths.
- Prepare newsletters for hospitals, courts, municipal clerks, and funeral directors.
- Prepare pamphlets to assist individuals through various processes approved by Vital Records i.e.- corrections, legal name changes, marriage packets, delayed filing of records and authorized pamphlets.
- Requests: Approximately 55,000 certified copies are issued each year, 20,000 requests for services are processed and 40,000 telephone calls for information are received.
Contact
Division of Data, Research, and Vital Statistics
220 Capitol Street
Augusta, Maine 04333-0011
Phone: (207) 287-1919 or 1-888-664-9491