Colorado Vital Records

Colorado vital records: choosing a certificate, county marriage copy, court decree or historical file

Choose the Colorado document before choosing the delivery method

A Colorado family event can produce documents in several offices. A hospital birth worksheet, a certified birth certificate, an application for a marriage license, the recorded marriage certificate, a dissolution verification and a signed divorce decree describe different stages of different processes. Start with the wording used by the organization that will receive your document. If it asks for a certified divorce decree, searching for a marriage record or buying a birth certificate will not answer that request. If it needs the recorded marriage certificate, a license application showing that two people intended to marry may omit the completed ceremony information.

The practical division is visible in the offices' own instructions. Denver's health department handles Colorado birth certificates and Denver County death certificates. Denver's Clerk and Recorder keeps the marriage licenses it issued and directs divorce questions to the district court. The Colorado Judicial Branch accepts requests for individual court documents, including decrees, parenting plans and separation agreements. Colorado State Archives describes particular transferred county series with specific dates. Those are four separate starting points, even when every record concerns the same family living in Denver.

Do not use a current residential address as the answer to every location question. A person living in Fort Collins may have been born in Pueblo, obtained a marriage license in Boulder and divorced in El Paso County. A convenient county counter can issue a Colorado birth certificate under the statewide birth service described below, but that does not transfer custody of a Boulder marriage license to Larimer County. Keep the event's place, the issuing office and the applicant's mailing address in separate notes.

Colorado birth orders can be placed beyond the county of birth

Denver's birth and death certificate instructions state that Colorado birth certificates can be requested at any Colorado county vital records office. You do not have to return to the county where you were born or currently live. Denver also states that its office cannot issue a birth certificate for a person born in another state. A Colorado address therefore helps determine where to receive the order, while the birth jurisdiction determines which state's certificate can be issued.

The statewide service does not erase differences in local access hours, payment methods or older-record processing. Jefferson County advertises Colorado birth certificates from 1903 to the present. Routt County warns that records before 2014 may take additional time because the state office may need to complete the electronic record from hard copy. These statements address different questions: one describes an issuing office's stated date coverage; the other describes preparation of a record for issuance. Neither statement means every birth in every earlier year was registered or is immediately printable.

Use the names recorded at birth in the registrant portion of the application. Denver's February 2026 form separates the requester from the person whose birth is being requested. It asks for the full birth name, date, city and county of birth, and parents' information. A mother or Parent A's name before the first marriage is specifically requested. For an adopted person's ordinary certificate request, Jefferson County's application says to provide adoptive information. Writing a birth parent's name into that particular search field can send the office toward a record other than the current certificate you intend to obtain.

The Denver birth request form, linked by the city's certificate office, also asks whether the registrant is deceased and directs the applicant to provide a certified death certificate when applicable. It requires a valid ID and matching signature. It lists no refunds, with exchanges considered individually, and warns of a further copy charge if a customer takes a certificate after identifying an error. Read the record at the counter before leaving; a spelling problem and an unfilled mailing field need different solutions.

For a newborn order through the Jefferson, Gilpin and Clear Creek issuing office, the current Jefferson County birth application says to allow ten days after birth before requesting a certified certificate. That is a local published instruction for hospital birth information, not a promise that every delayed or disputed registration will be complete on the tenth day. If the hospital has submitted a correction, tell the issuing office that a revision is pending before purchasing multiple copies of the earlier information.

Identity evidence and relationship evidence answer separate questions

The Colorado county applications reviewed here require the requester to have a direct and tangible interest in the birth record. The listed birth categories include the registrant, parents, spouse, siblings, adult children, stepparents and legal guardian. A representative must document the client relationship. An applicant's name being absent from the birth certificate can create a separate relationship-document requirement, even when the applicant has a current driver's license. The license identifies the customer; it does not establish that the customer is the registrant's sibling or spouse.

Denver explains the sibling example directly: a birth certificate establishing at least one common parent is required. For a spouse, it identifies a marriage license as relationship evidence. Treat the chain of documents as a connected explanation. If the applicant's present name differs from the name in the relationship document, prepare the record that connects those names. For example, an adult child whose surname changed after marriage may need to show both the parent-child relationship and the later name connection. Ask the issuing office which documents it will accept for that actual chain instead of assuming that one family surname proves it.

The primary and secondary identification categories in the county forms have different rules. Denver and Jefferson County's current application instructions call for one document from the primary list; the alternative uses two secondary documents when a primary document is unavailable. Their primary lists do not accept expired documents. The secondary instructions impose a six-month limit for expired documents. Do not read an item in a secondary column as a document that will work alone. In a PDF, the column heading is part of the requirement, even when a text extraction places neighboring columns close together.

Denver separately links its detailed identification schedule. That schedule recognizes several circumstances beyond a standard current license, with conditions for each. It explains that a qualifying state or territory photo license need not display the applicant's current address. A Colorado temporary driver's license has a stated thirty-day period. School identification must be verifiable and current for the academic year plus summer break. Some employment documents have their own time limits. These are document-specific conditions; a statement that an office accepts alternative identification does not waive them.

For El Paso County service, bring physical identification. Its health department says digital ID is not accepted for this transaction, and relationship or identity documents must be intact and legible. A phone image of a Colorado digital credential therefore should not be your only preparation for a counter visit there. If the available identification differs from the published examples, describe the document to that office before traveling, including issuer, photograph, issue date and expiration date. That focused question is more useful than asking whether the office accepts "other ID" without explaining what you have.

Select the death product and document the reason for access

The Jefferson, Gilpin and Clear Creek death application, supplied by Jefferson County Public Health, distinguishes three products: a standard death certificate with legal and medical information, a legal death certificate without medical information, and a verification of death with limited legal information and no medical information. Ask the insurer, estate administrator or other recipient which product it requires before filling the quantity boxes. The most detailed product is not automatically the one every recipient needs.

The same application ties eligibility to evidence. A current spouse or parent must be listed on the death certificate. An ex-spouse must demonstrate a direct and tangible interest, with an insurance policy or Social Security record given as examples. Siblings and half siblings use birth evidence showing a common parent; children use birth evidence connecting them to the deceased. A stepchild's chain includes both a birth certificate and marriage certificate. A family description in an obituary can help locate the person, but it does not replace the application's specified relationship evidence.

Denver's death certificate request form provides another current local checklist. It asks for the deceased person's full name, date and place of death, age, and reason for the request. Its eligibility table includes people with a documented legal or financial interest, along with qualifying family and professional categories. A beneficiary should be ready to explain the benefit being claimed and provide the supporting insurance or pension evidence. An attorney or paralegal needs the client connection as well as the client's qualification.

A death certificate search is based on where the death occurred, not merely where the person is buried. Denver advertises Denver County death certificates; El Paso Public Health describes deaths occurring in El Paso County. An out-of-county funeral home, family residence, cemetery or mailing address can appear in related paperwork without moving the event into those offices' coverage. When the family remembers only a hospital or hospice name, establish its city and county before choosing a local death-record route.

There are also differences between the record used to resolve present legal matters and sources useful for historical research. Colorado State Archives holds certain earlier death registers, coroner records and burial records, discussed below. A coroner's account or cemetery application is not the same product as a current certified death certificate. When a financial institution asks for certification, give it the exact document title and issuing office before substituting an archival record. A source can establish a fact for family research while serving a different evidentiary role in an administrative transaction.

Separate the 2026 certificate price from payment, postage and vendor charges

Current county notices show a $25 first birth or death certificate and $20 for each additional copy of the same record ordered at the same time. Jefferson County and Routt County identify January 1, 2026 as the effective date of the increase. This distinction matters when an older downloaded application or search result still displays an earlier price. For three copies of one record in a single qualifying transaction, the certificate component is $65: $25 plus two copies at $20. Three separate first-copy transactions do not use that same calculation.

Jefferson County's current fee notice separately adds a 2.25% credit or debit card service fee beginning March 1, 2026. It says there is no such fee for cash, business or personal check, or money order. Denver's notice uses a different percentage, 2.5%, effective May 1, 2025. Those local payment percentages should not be combined into a single Colorado surcharge, and neither should be mistaken for the base certificate fee.

Routt County's ordering instructions identify GoCertificates as its online route. The notice identifies VitalChek and GoCertificates as approved Colorado third-party services and lists processing amounts of $14 and $12 respectively. For a mailed county application, Routt asks for a check covering the certificates plus $1 postage. That mailed-order postage amount and the online processor's charge belong to different methods. Check the selected route's actual total before payment; do not add every amount mentioned by an office to every order.

El Paso County Public Health says its vital records office does not add a service fee, but the same current instructions separately describe a card payment surcharge. The payment section states a $2 minimum or 2.39% of the total, whichever is higher, and points to payment-screen fees for online methods. Read the two statements together as an office-fee versus payment-processing distinction, and ask for the final transaction total if the wording leaves uncertainty. The health department identifies cash, check and money order as counter payment alternatives.

Shipping speed is another separate choice. Denver lists optional expedited shipping at $25 and describes a response within thirty days for mailed and online orders. Faster shipping does not remove identity review or create a missing registration. If a deadline is approaching, compare the office's actual issuance option with the carrier option. Denver's same-day counter service is conditional on meeting the regulated requirements. A prepaid express label does not establish that those requirements have been met.

Plan the visit around the issuing office's own schedule

The local examples below identify routes that were read during this review. They are not a statement that every county uses the same schedule. The El Paso County Public Health birth and death office is at the Citizens Service Center, 1675 W. Garden of the Gods Road, Suite 2044, Colorado Springs. Its check-in periods are 8 a.m. to 11:50 a.m. and 1 p.m. to 3:50 p.m. The lunch closure matters if travel brings you there around noon; the department says check-ins are not accepted outside those intervals.

Use the address belonging to the specific service. Jefferson County's broader health department footer gives another main address, while the vital records instructions give Suite 1300 at 800 Jefferson County Parkway. Routt County's website footer lists a general county suite different from the vital records suite. A footer is useful for the organization, but the service instructions should control the destination of a certificate application. Confirm the envelope's addressee and office before mailing identification copies.

There is a similar difference between a local health counter and the state office. Denver's correction guidance describes the State of Colorado Vital Records Office as appointment only. A walk-in invitation for Denver's ordinary certificate counter does not establish walk-in availability for a state amendment appointment. If the task is changing a parent's entry or correcting the underlying record, explain that task while arranging service; asking only for a birth certificate appointment can direct you to the wrong workflow.

For older certificates, allow for the local exceptions already identified. Jefferson County warns that death certificates from 1985 through 1995 take additional processing time. Routt flags pre-2014 records requiring possible state hard-copy work. A current driver's license and full payment address applicant readiness, while these exceptions concern the source record. If a clerk cannot print the certificate immediately, ask whether the remaining step is applicant evidence, record retrieval or an amendment. That distinction tells you what information can actually move the request forward.

A correction, a parentage entry and an adoption record use different routes

Denver directs corrections to the state vital records office, with identification and evidence supporting the proposed change. Its child-correction guidance lists a $25 processing fee. For a name change after age one, it instructs applicants to obtain a certified legal name-change order before submitting the correction form. Those instructions should not be expanded into a rule that every typographical correction at every age requires a court order. Identify the field, the present entry and the requested entry when consulting the state office.

Denver separately identifies voluntary acknowledgment of parentage as the route for adding a father or mother when no second parent is currently listed. A request to replace an already listed parent is a different situation from the empty-second-parent scenario described there. A standard birth certificate order purchases the record as it exists; it does not itself adjudicate parentage or change a name. Keep the certificate order and the supporting correction transaction distinguishable in correspondence.

Original birth records for adult adoptees are also distinct from ordinary replacement certificates. Denver and Jefferson County direct those requests to Colorado Vital Records, and their notices describe the program beginning January 4, 2016. The agency's original-record application must determine the applicant's eligibility and required evidence; this review does not substitute a county ordinary-copy form for that process. The state health department's detailed current adoption body was unavailable in this retrieval, so no unverified statewide fee or delivery promise is assigned to it here.

The Archives' adoption holdings guidance addresses court case files, not the state original-birth-certificate program. It says every requester, including the adoptee, must obtain written permission from the original court before the archived case can be released. Its holdings include named adoption and juvenile series, with incomplete descriptions for some counties. Identify which document you seek before relying on an adult-adoptee rule from one repository to request a different record at another.

Marriage and civil union copies follow the issuing county

Denver's marriage and civil union instructions say its marriage records are kept by the county that issued the license. The county describes the license and certificate as distinct instruments on one form. After solemnization, the completed certificate must return for recording. An index entry for a license and a recorded completed certificate can therefore represent different stages. When ordering proof of an existing marriage, ask for the recorded document and confirm that the return has reached the issuing county.

Denver lists ordinary license or application copies at $0.25 and certified copies at $1.25 for a one-page document. Its general certification explanation is $1 per document plus $0.25 per page. The $30 marriage or civil union license price is the cost of obtaining a new license, not the price of a replacement certified copy. The office's online records search provides a copy-request path. Do not book a new-license ceremony-related appointment merely because the needed document is called a marriage license.

Boulder County's recorded-license copy instructions offer certified copies by mail or telephone after recording. Provide both parties' names, the ceremony date and the return mailing address. Certified copies are $1.25 each. Boulder accepts a self-addressed stamped envelope or lists postage of $0.75 for up to four copies and $2 for five or more. Its Recording Division advertises Monday through Thursday hours and closure on Fridays. That schedule differs from the weekday pattern at several health offices.

Larimer County's marriage and civil union service asks for the recorded license's reception number, both names and ceremony date. It lists $1.25 certified copies and $0.25 ordinary copies, with mail requests directed to the Clerk and Recorder, Attn: Copies, P.O. Box 1280, Fort Collins, CO 80522. Its instructions distinguish a license returned to Fort Collins, where a certified copy can be obtained immediately upon return, from returns to Loveland or Estes Park, for which it allows three days. A ceremony having occurred does not establish that every branch can issue the recorded copy immediately.

El Paso County's recording answers direct marriage-copy requests to its Clerk and Recorder and divorce-decree requests to the Fourth Judicial District Court. For mailed marriage copies, include both names and the marriage or civil union date. Its instructions also say recorded documents before 1996 are available only at the Citizens Service Center location. An older recording can require a different counter or retrieval step from a recent digitally available instrument.

For a county beyond these examples, use the Archives' Colorado Clerk and Recorder directory. It identifies recording-office contacts and warns that counties can have multiple offices. The directory is a routing aid; it does not establish each destination's current fees, online-image years or appointment availability. Tell the recording office which county issued the license, even if the ceremony occurred elsewhere, so that it can confirm custody before collecting a copy payment.

The underlying marriage application may have a different access rule

The El Paso County recording fee schedule distinguishes a copy of the license or certificate from a copy of the marriage or civil union application. Both have a listed $0.25 copy component, with an additional $1 certification per document, but the application requires its own request form and valid identification. A search result displaying a recorded certificate therefore does not imply that every accompanying application field is open to every researcher.

The office-linked application-copy authorization form describes access for a person in interest or an immediate family member under the cited Colorado statute. It defines the person in interest as either party to the application and asks for photo identification. Specify "application" if that is what you need; an ordinary request for a marriage copy may return the recorded license-certificate instead. If the purpose is historical parentage research, first determine whether the requested application contains the information sought and whether your relationship qualifies.

The same form illustrates why the original fee source should travel with a request. A certified application copy, a recorded marriage certificate and a mailed packet can involve a copy amount, certification and handling. El Paso's marriage-copy schedule separately lists handling tiers. Boulder uses its own published postage arrangement. An amount from one county should not be pasted into a check for another county, even when both publish $1.25 for a single certified marriage copy.

For a divorce decree, request the court document by name

The Judicial Branch's Record/Document Request Form identifies divorce decree, parenting plan, separation agreement, support order and petition as separate family-document choices. Select the document that answers the receiving organization's need. A decree may establish dissolution, while a particular agreement or later order contains terms someone needs to review. Asking for the entire case without a purpose can increase copying and review work while still leaving uncertainty about which order is operative.

The form requests the case number, case type, county or record location, parties and other identifying details. It provides an option for applicants who do not know the county. Give the known names and approximate time period accurately rather than inventing a case number. If paperwork supplies a docket number, reproduce its year, letters and digits exactly. Similar family names can occur in multiple counties; a precise number and document title make a request narrower than a name-only search.

The published fee table lists $0.25 per page, a $20 certified or exemplified document charge, and $5 for a name search. It lists actual cost for an off-site retrieval and $30 per hour for research or redaction after the first hour, assessed in fifteen-minute increments. It also describes a $15 copying cap for parties and their attorneys, without that cap for nonparties. These are listed components and estimates, not a quoted final total for every divorce order. Ask the responding clerk how the components and any applicable waiver apply to the documents requested.

A response is ordinarily provided within three business days unless there are extenuating circumstances, according to the request form. A response can involve further information, a cost estimate or an access decision; it should not be read as a guaranteed delivery date for an off-site file. The court may require a U.S. government-issued photo ID for suppressed cases or protected information. Do not send a protected attachment through an unrelated public comment channel to speed up review. Use the court's directed request or follow-up channel.

The separate Judicial Branch public-records access guide explains that commercial search services provide limited register-of-actions access, not document copies. A docket listing may help identify the case, but the signed decree must come from the filing court or the branch's record-request process. The guide distinguishes case-document requests from aggregate court-data requests and administrative records. A request for one family's decree belongs in the case-record path, rather than the channel for compiled statewide data.

The official trial-court county directory supplies the location route when the county is known. Denver County Court is administered separately from the state courts, and the branch form flags certain Denver County Court number patterns for a different destination. That exception should not be turned into an assumption that every Denver family case is a Denver County Court case. Use the actual caption and court named on the papers; Denver's marriage office itself directs dissolution questions to Denver District Court.

Privacy review is document-specific. The public existence of a family case does not establish unrestricted access to financial exhibits, a parenting agreement or every attachment. The branch's access guide points to Chief Justice Directive 05-01 and other governing authorities. For a request denied in part, identify the missing document and the applicant's status in the case when seeking an explanation. A general statement that a case is public does not resolve the status of a particular protected filing.

Historical birth coverage is a county-series question

The Archives' birth-record holdings distinguish earlier county material from the modern certificate service. The guidance says post-1908 birth certificates generally are not held there and applies a one-hundred-year access threshold to birth records in its holdings. Its inventory includes Adams birth and death records for 1902-1907; Arapahoe birth reports for 1905-1909 and outside-incorporated-town records for 1891-1898; and several Boulder series with differing spans. These are named collections, not one uniform statewide index.

The dates require careful interpretation. Denver birth books are listed through 1963, but the Archives' one-hundred-year access rule does not make the full date span open today. A volume's ending year describes the material held, while the access policy determines what can be released. If an indexed volume includes both older and more recent entries, request the specific person and event date rather than presuming the entire book is unrestricted.

Use the inventory to make a targeted inquiry. For a late-nineteenth-century Arapahoe birth, ask whether the event was outside an incorporated town, because that qualifier appears in one series description. For a Boulder ancestor, distinguish a birth certificate series from a register entry; the inventory lists both. For a Custer County inquiry, the published title is a birth certificate docket book. Recording the actual title keeps a response about a docket from being misdescribed later as a certified state certificate.

A negative search in one Colorado collection is therefore bounded evidence. If an archivist searches a particular Arapahoe series for the supplied year and finds no entry, the result does not prove that no birth was recorded anywhere or that the person was born elsewhere. Preserve which collection, county, dates and spelling were searched. A later search can change a meaningful variable, such as the county jurisdiction or a parent's recorded name, instead of repeatedly purchasing the same unsuccessful search under the same assumptions.

Earlier death evidence includes hospital, burial and coroner series

The Archives' death-record inventory explains that statewide registration began around 1908 and that earlier deaths may have no death record. It identifies Denver hospital deaths as a particularly useful early collection. The listed Arapahoe/Denver holdings include a Denver General Hospital death register for 1887-1899, a death register for 1887-1902, and Riverside Cemetery plot certificates for 1878-1899. Each collection concerns a different activity and population.

A hospital register is most promising when the family evidence places the death at that hospital. A cemetery plot certificate concerns burial property or arrangements and may require another source to establish the actual death date. A coroner's record concerns cases handled by that office; its absence cannot stand for the absence of all deaths in a county. Build the inquiry around what each creator was recording. This is especially relevant when an ancestor died before broad civil registration and several partial local sources remain.

Other examples in the inventory show why county and record type must stay together. El Paso has a death register for 1899-1907 alongside coroner records with different periods. Jefferson has a death record for 1899-1911 and separate coroner inquests. Rio Blanco lists both burial and death records, extending to different ending years. If you request "the death records" without the series title, the archivist cannot tell which of those sources you have already checked.

Consider a family account that places a death in Denver in 1895 but gives a burial outside Denver. The useful first question is which institution or office created a surviving record, not which county currently houses the descendant. A hospital name can point toward the hospital register; a cemetery name can point toward burial documentation; a coroner reference can point toward an inquest. Keep each finding's original wording and date. Conflicting dates may reflect death, burial, registration or a later filing, and should be compared before choosing one as the event date.

An Archives marriage date range does not cover every document type

The Archives' marriage holdings list separates licenses, applications, certificates, registers and indexes. It warns that most Colorado marriage records do not include the parties' parents. A researcher looking specifically for parents should therefore establish what fields the particular series contains before ordering a large group of copies. A license can still be useful for a name, date, place or associated official without answering the parentage question.

The publication lists Adams certificates for 1903-1975, licenses for 1902-1958 and applications for 1904-1912. Those three ranges cannot be collapsed into a claim that all Adams marriage documents exist for 1902-1975. Boulder likewise has licenses for 1870-1959, certificates for 1868-1891, a separate combined license-certificate segment and a register with another span. Match the requested product to its listed dates before deciding that the Archives holds it.

The difference can change a research plan. Someone investigating a 1960 Adams marriage might find that the published certificate series covers the date while the listed application series does not. A person seeking an application should then ask the issuing county about custody instead of treating the certificate range as application coverage. Similarly, an index entry can supply a reference number that helps order a document, but the presence of an index does not prove that the image of every underlying instrument is online.

Denver holdings include certificate and application-stub series, and the list includes a historical Arapahoe marriage index in its Denver grouping. Preserve that description when reporting a finding; historical jurisdiction labels can differ from the modern office selected by a casual address search. The Archives directs users back to the county Clerk and Recorder for unlisted counties or years. That referral is a custody decision, not a statement that an unlisted marriage never occurred.

Transferred divorce and adoption files retain access conditions

The Archives' divorce-file instructions require attention to both the county and the court series. The repository usually needs a case number; if it is unknown, the guidance sends the requester to the originating court for help identifying it. Its holdings are selective. Arapahoe District Court, for example, is listed for 1907-1919 and 1992-2008, with an intervening gap. A range should not be silently filled in because two surrounding periods are present.

The Archives describes full public access to divorce case files over one hundred years old. For more recent files, it describes access to the decree only when that document does not include restricted parenting or financial agreement information; access to other portions requires a party or legal representative with proof of connection. This is the repository's stated access policy for its transferred records. It is not a promise that a current court's entire recent divorce file can be downloaded by any visitor.

Use the inventory to ask a bounded custody question. For an El Paso case in a year falling between the listed transferred segments, contact the court about the actual file rather than treating the Archives' broadest beginning and ending dates as uninterrupted coverage. Some entries are explicitly unresolved, such as the Las Animas dates listed as being determined. Keep that uncertainty visible in your research notes. A repository can hold some material without having published a complete date inventory.

For an archived adoption case, the written-court-permission instruction described earlier remains a separate requirement. An Archives catalogue hit, an adult adoptee's identity and a state original-birth-record request do not by themselves supply that permission. A useful inquiry names the original court, approximate year, parties or former names, and the file or docket title identified in the holdings. That gives the court and Archives the same record to discuss.

Build a request the Colorado custodian can answer

The Archives' formal request instructions ask for specifics such as a case number, full name and time period. They distinguish requesting copies from scheduling an in-person appointment and state that walk-ins are not accepted. The office does not charge merely to submit a request, view records in person or receive a response that the requested record is absent, but copying can carry fees. Broad questions about planning a research project are directed to a conversation with an archivist instead of the specific-record form.

A productive Colorado request can therefore be short and exact: identify the event or case; name the document; provide the county, date and known number; state whether certification is needed; and explain the relationship or access basis where the office requires it. For a Boulder recorded marriage copy, the ceremony date and parties are central. For a Jefferson birth copy, the registrant and parents' recorded names matter. For an archived Arapahoe divorce, the district-court series and case number become the useful identifiers.

When a response does not produce the intended document, diagnose the remaining issue from the response itself. "Application incomplete" calls for the missing applicant information. "Record held by another county" calls for a custody change. "Not in the transferred years" calls for the original court or another named repository. "Identity or relationship evidence required" calls for the relevant proof. A new order through a different payment vendor will not resolve those four problems in the same way.

Finally, retain the source of every result: office, document title, event date, filing or reception number, copy status and request date. This is particularly useful in Colorado because the same person may appear in a state birth service, a county marriage book and a district-court decree. Keeping those references distinct lets you request another certified copy later, correct an entry with the right custodian, and explain precisely what a historical finding does and does not establish.