Tennessee, county records
Find the right office in Rutherford County. Court cases, deeds and parcels, sheriff and jail records, vital records and county filings, each linked to the office that keeps them.
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Every card below goes to the government office responsible for that record. Use the category buttons to narrow the list.
County court
The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, in the Customs House in Nashville, handles bankruptcy filings for Middle Tennessee. Case dockets are searched through PACER.
Open official site Tennessee Federal CasesProperty records
Obtain property tax info by contacting the TN Comptroller of the Treasury.
Open official site Tennessee Property RecordsVital records
Request birth and death certificates from the TN Dept. of Health.
Open official site Tennessee Birth RecordsState records
Find active and inactive corporations by name from the Tennessee Department of State.
Open official site Tennessee Business & Corporation SearchState records
Search property and claim status by individual name or business through the Treasury Dept.
Open official site Tennessee Unclaimed PropertyPolice & jail
The Tennessee Department of Correction publishes its own list of offenders now under a sentence of death in Tennessee, with related facts on the state's death penalty.
Open official site Tennessee Death RowVital records
Request a copy of a marriage certificates from the TN Department of Health.
Open official site Tennessee Marriage SearchLocal record guide
County profile
Sheriff & Law Enforcement. Rutherford County Sheriff's Office is responsible for maintaining law and order in the unincorporated areas of Rutherford County.
Police Departments. Rutherford County is served by multiple law enforcement agencies, including Rutherford County Sheriff's Office and municipal police departments in cities like Murfreesboro, Smyrna, and La Vergne. The Murfreesboro Police Department, Smyrna Police Department, and La Vergne Police Department handle law enforcement within their respective city limits, while the Sheriff's Office covers the unincorporated areas.
Law Enforcement & Arrests. Rutherford County Sheriff's Office, led by the elected Sheriff, operates from its main facility at 940 New Salem Highway in Murfreesboro, Tennessee 37129, and can be contacted through the office’s website. Rutherford County Adult Detention Center, operated by the Sheriff's Office, houses inmates and provides an online inmate lookup system accessible through the Sheriff's website, allowing the public to search current inmates by name, booking date, or charge. Municipal police departments serve incorporated cities within Rutherford County, including the Murfreesboro Police Department (serving Rutherford County seat with over 200 sworn officers), Smyrna Police Department, La Vergne Police Department, and the Eagleville Police Department. Under Tennessee Code Annotated § 10-7-503 and § 10-7-504, the Tennessee Public Records Act governs access to arrest records, incident reports, and booking information. Citizens may request arrest records by submitting written requests to the Sheriff's Office or respective police departments; while some records are immediately accessible, certain investigative files may be withheld during active investigations as permitted by law. Sex offender registry information is publicly searchable through both the Sheriff's website and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation's state registry.
Arrest Records. Arrest records in Rutherford County are maintained by Rutherford County Sheriff's Office. Residents and attorneys can request arrest records by contacting the Sheriff's Office directly, following the procedures outlined under the Tennessee Open Records Act.
Mugshots & Booking Photos. Mugshots in Rutherford County are taken and retained by Rutherford County Sheriff's Office during the booking process. These booking photos are part of the public record and can be accessed through the Sheriff's Office website or by request.
Abandoned mine records
Where the workings are, and the office that holds the mine maps.
From the old mine records
The mine records hold 12 mine sites inside the county: 2 past producers, now closed, 3 prospects or occurrences that were never worked, 6 sites producing when the record was made, 1 processing plant, which is not a working; the old survey maps add 16 holes drawn inside the county, 0 of them shafts or tunnels. The minerals the records name are Zinc; Fluorine-Fluorite; crushed stone.
A point in either file is a location, not a property line: the sheet shows the opening on the surface, not the rooms under it. The record that shows what runs under a parcel is the mine map. The OSMRE National Mine Map Repository holds scanned underground mine maps and answers requests for a named mine or an area. Tennessee's coal regulatory program was run by OSMRE until the state took it back; the state AML program is in TDEC.
Rows taken off the old survey maps open the USGS record of what sits at that spot, because no single feature on those maps has a page of its own. Rows from the mine records open their own USGS page.
Tennessee abandoned mine maps ranks every county and town in the state by the workings recorded inside it, names the office that holds the mine maps, and says what to do if the ground moves.
Disclaimer: The mine information here is for general information only. Old mine records can be incomplete, outdated or wrong, and finding nothing here does not mean there is nothing there. Check with the mine map office named here before you rely on it, and have a qualified engineer look at any ground you are worried about. PublicRecordCenter.com assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors, omissions, or consequences arising from the use of this information.
Know before you ask
Each figure below was read on the official source linked beside it, October to November 2026. A fee or rule the source does not state is left out rather than guessed, and offices can change their schedules, so confirm on the source before you pay or travel.
Rutherford County Archives publishes separate marriage indexes for 1804 through 1888 and 1889 through 1940, plus will indexes divided at the turn of the century. It also lists Chancery and Circuit Court files, tax material and historical probate holdings with their own coverage. Identify the series and reference in the index before asking for the original. The archive at 435 Rice Street in Murfreesboro can help route that request; an index entry is a lead to the record rather than a substitute for its contents.
The Register of Deeds expressly says the office does not guarantee that a property or deed is free of outstanding claims. A document can be recorded while later instruments affect the same property. Follow the recorded names, land description and references through the relevant instruments, and use a qualified title researcher when a transaction requires an ownership or lien conclusion. Keep a downloaded deed separate from a professional title report in your research file.
The Register fee schedule gives standard documents a $5 per-page recording charge with a $10 minimum and a separate $2 computer-fund charge. Releases and assignments have their own rules, and transfer or mortgage taxes can add amounts beyond the recording charge. These are filing costs, not prices for retrieving existing documents. Identify the instrument category, pages and applicable taxes before preparing payment, especially when several liens are released in one instrument.
The County Clerk marriage instructions say the certificate is supplied only after the signed documents return to the office, and the couple collects it rather than expecting automatic mailing. That step is separate from the original license application. For a recent event, confirm the return was recorded before assuming the certificate is missing. For an older family-history search, use the archive collection descriptions to decide whether the relevant license period is among its historical holdings.
The county public-records policy excludes named offices that maintain separate policies, including the Property Assessor, Register, County Clerk and several court clerks. Select the custodian before applying a general request procedure or fee assumption. A request for an administrative contract and a request for a court case document can therefore follow different office instructions even though both involve Rutherford County. Keep the office response and the policy used with your request log.
The county request form asks for the record type, timeframe and subject or keywords, and separates inspection from copies and delivery preferences. Use those fields to define a manageable search rather than ask the office to create an analysis. If you want copies, state whether you need electronic delivery and whether you authorize a particular cost ceiling. The Tennessee records guide adds state court, business and criminal-history routes beyond the county series.
Where to go
Each office below was read on its own site. A field the office does not publish is left out rather than filled in from a directory.
Historical court, probate, marriage, tax and local collections.
Office page: rutherfordcountytn.gov
Labor Department file
The U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division closed 263 investigations in Rutherford County since fiscal 2005 and recorded $4,022,881 in back wages agreed for 4,758 workers. The county is the one the Census Bureau puts each employer's ZIP code in. Snapshot of April 22, 2026; a case here is a finding by the Division, not a court judgment.
The 25 employers with the most back wages agreed, of 238 on the Rutherford County record; 83 employers have a page of their own and open from the table, the rest show their whole record here. The 213 more with smaller records are on the Tennessee wage theft records page, whose search answers for every employer in the state.
Straight answers
Open only the answer you need.
Booking photos are kept by the agency that made the arrest, such as the Rutherford County Sheriff or a city police department in Rutherford County. Ask that agency for its record.
The Tennessee criminal history record comes from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI). Request a Tennessee name based criminal history check online through Tennessee Open Records Information Services (TORIS), paying by credit card. Fee: $29.00 for each name based check.
Search the Tennessee Sex Offender Registry (TBI), or every state at once on the National Sex Offender Public Website run by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Register with the county election commission or through the Tennessee Secretary of State, Division of Elections. You can also register online with the state online registration. You must be registered no later than 30 days before the election; mailed forms must be postmarked at least 30 days before.
Deeds and other recorded land documents in Rutherford County are kept by the Rutherford County register of deeds. Property values are set by the county assessor of property, and tax bills come from the county trustee.
Certified birth and death certificates for Tennessee come from the Tennessee Department of Health, Office of Vital Records. All county health departments can issue any birth or death certificate registered statewide with the Tennessee Office of Vital Records; you do not need to go to the county where the event occurred. In person with no appointment at Tennessee Vital Records, 1st Floor, Andrew Johnson Tower, 710 James Robertson Parkway, Nashville, TN 37243, or at any county health department; by mail to that address with a check or money order payable to Tennessee Vital Records; or online through VitalChek. Fee: $15.00 for each birth or death certificate, first and additional copies.
Business entity filings are searched with the Tennessee Secretary of State, Division of Business and Charitable Organizations. Business licenses are issued by the county clerk, and by the city if it imposes the business tax, where the business is located; businesses with taxable receipts over $3,000 need one.
The archive collection list separates the marriage series into earlier and later date ranges.
The holdings list identifies Chancery, Circuit and probate collections, each with its own period.
The Register explanation expressly declines to guarantee a property or deed is free of claims.
The fee list includes a minimum, a computer-fund charge and document-specific taxes or other amounts.
The Clerk instructions require return of the signed documents and state that the couple picks up the certificate.
The county policy identifies court and elected offices that use separate policies.
The request form asks for the record type, relevant period and subject or keywords.
The archive directory lists 435 Rice Street, Murfreesboro, with telephone 615-867-4609.
Same county
Use the city page when a record was created by a municipal police department or city office; use the county page for courts, deeds, vital records and jail custody.