West Virginia Public Records

The State of West Virginia provides access to public records including birth, death, marriage and divorce records, property information, court records, access to criminal records and a sex offender registry. If you need to obtain a certificate or a record for a specific purpose, then you should read the terms carefully on each site to determine the length of time it will take to receive the record that you require.

Public Libraries

Libraries are a great place to search for West Virginia public records. Library staff regularly help patrons with public records requests. They can quickly point you the specific government agency that maintains the type of records you are looking for.

Birth, Death and Marriage Records

Birth Certificates, Death Certificates and Marriage Certificates can all be obtained from the Health Statistics Center of the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources.

Walk-in service can be completed within about fifteen minutes if you can produce the proper identification. The office is located at:

Health Statistics Center
350 Capitol Street, Room 165
Charleston, WV 25301-3701
(304) 558-2931

The office does not accept credit card payments, so you will need to bring a check, money order or cash.

Divorce Records

You won’t find divorce records through the Health Statistics Center. This is something that you must find through the individual county where the divorce decree was granted. This site provides a list of counties and links to their websites. Click on the appropriate county and then navigate to their site to find the information or the contact information so that you can find what you need.

Driver Records

You can obtain your driving record through the West Virginia Department of Transportation website. The form is available on the site. You can complete the form and mail it in, email it or fax it, but you must follow up by phone to (304) 926-3802 in order to make the required payment.

Mailing Address:
WV DMV
Driving Records Section
PO Box 17020
Charleston, WV 25317
Email: DMVDriverRec@wv.gov
Fax: (304) 926-3899

Property Records

The West Virginia State Tax Department handles all property taxation issues and their site is located here. For individual counties and more property information, you can access the county websites on this page.

Court Records

The West Virginia Judiciary has an official website where you can locate the specific court that you would like to access and then find out more information on obtaining the records you seek. If information is not publicly available, you will not find it on the site.

Criminal Background Checks

The West Virginia State Police handles background checks for anyone who needs one conducted for the State of West Virginia. You can search for criminal records at this website and find out how to request such a record check.

Sex Offender Registry

The West Virginia State Police maintains the State Sex Offender Registry. As with many state run sex offender registries, you need to accept the disclaimer in order to enter the site. Once you are inside the registry, you can conduct a search by first name, last name, street address, county, by keyword or by internet search with the username or email address of the person.