US County Public Records Directory

Last updated: June 2026 · Reading time: ~28 minutes

A Plain-English Guide to How America’s 3,143 County Governments Actually Work

Almost every record you may want about a person, a piece of property, a court case, a marriage, or a death in the United States is filed at the county level—but that single sentence hides a remarkable amount of complication. The United States has counties called parishes in Louisiana and boroughs in Alaska. Virginia has 38 cities that belong to no county at all. Connecticut has “counties” that no longer have any government. New York City is five counties glued together. Hawaii runs an entire state on five counties, one of which has a population of just 82. This directory explains the system from the ground up and tells you which records sit at which level—so you stop guessing and know exactly where to look.

According to the National Association of Counties (NACo), the U.S. Office of Management and Budget recognizes 3,143 counties and county equivalents for statistical and geographic purposes [NACo]. Wikipedia's complete enumeration, which includes the District of Columbia and the five inhabited U.S. territories, lists a total of 3,235 counties and county equivalents, ranging from Delaware's three counties to Texas's 254 [Wikipedia]. The system is unified in concept but wildly different in execution from one state to the next, which is why most people get stuck the moment they try to look something up.

“County governments trace our roots to the English shires of the 9th century. Rechristened ‘counties’ after the Norman Invasion in 1066, they continued to serve a dual function—acting as administrative arms of the crown or national government as well as the citizens’ local government.” — National Association of Counties [NACo]

1. The Big Picture: One Country, Fifty Different Local Government Systems

The U.S. Constitution says nothing about how states must organize themselves internally. Counties exist because states create them, and each state writes its own rules. After the Northwest Ordinance opened up the western territories, the 19th century saw a wave of county creation: between 1790 and 1900, more than 2,000 counties were established [NACo]. The pace, shape, and powers of those counties depended entirely on the politics and geography of the state doing the creating. That is why two adjacent states—say, Pennsylvania and New Jersey—can have almost nothing in common in how they structure local government.

Before we dive into the exceptions, here are the headline numbers that define the system as of the 2020 Census and the most recent NACo Primer (2024):

The rest of this guide walks through each of the systemic peculiarities, what they mean for the records you may be looking for, and how to use this directory effectively. If you already know the state you need, you can also jump directly to our state public records index or browse county records by jurisdiction.

2. Why Louisiana Has Parishes Instead of Counties

Louisiana is the only U.S. state whose primary subdivisions are called parishes (French: paroisses), and it has exactly 64 of them [Wikipedia]. The name is not a quirk of translation; it reflects three centuries of religious and political history that the state has consciously preserved.

The colonial origin

Both French and Spanish colonial Louisiana were officially Roman Catholic territories. Under the French, religious life was controlled by a single Quebec-based Catholic diocese; under the Spanish, local civil administration was built around the boundaries of ecclesiastical parishes [Britannica]. When the United States acquired Louisiana in 1803, the territory was already organized into church parishes that doubled as the practical units of civil administration. American officials briefly imposed “counties” in 1807, but local usage never abandoned the parish, and the 1816 official state map used the term parish, as did the 1845 constitution [Wikipedia].

How parish government works today

Functionally, a Louisiana parish is identical to a county anywhere else. It has the same powers: assessment and collection of property taxes, recording of deeds and mortgages, court administration, sheriff and jail services, public health, roads, libraries, and elections. The two structural differences are vocabulary (parish council, parish president, parish clerk) and the unique police jury form of government used by 38 of the 64 parishes [Wikipedia]. The remaining 26 use council-president, council-manager, parish commission, or consolidated parish/city structures (Orleans Parish is consolidated with the City of New Orleans; East Baton Rouge Parish is consolidated with Baton Rouge).

Are parish records different from county records?

No—they are the same records under a different name. Real property records (deeds, mortgages, liens, plats) are filed with the Parish Clerk of Court. Civil and criminal court filings are with the district court for each parish. Marriage licenses are issued by the Clerk of Court except in Orleans Parish, where the State Registrar issues them. Birth and death certificates are state records held by the Louisiana Department of Health, Office of Vital Records, not the parish. If you are looking for a Louisiana property record or a court file, you go to the parish; if you are looking for a birth or death certificate, you go to the state.

3. Why Alaska Has Boroughs (and “Census Areas”)

Alaska is the other state that does not use the word “county.” Its primary subdivisions are called boroughs, and the system is unique in American government because the state's constitution allows enormous areas to have no organized local government at all.

The constitutional design

Article X, Section 3 of the Alaska Constitution requires that the entire state be divided into boroughs—organized or unorganized [Alaska Department of Commerce]. Because much of Alaska is sparsely populated wilderness, the framers refused to force every region into a borough government it neither needed nor could afford. The result: 19 organized boroughs cover the populated parts of the state, and one giant Unorganized Borough covers the rest [Wikipedia]. Inside the Unorganized Borough, the U.S. Census Bureau—working with the State—has drawn 11 census areas for statistical purposes only. Census areas have no government, no elected officials, no sheriff, and no tax-collecting power.

The 11 Unorganized Borough census areas

• Aleutians East (organized) and Aleutians West (census area)
• Bethel
• Chugach
• Copper River
• Dillingham
• Hoonah–Angoon
• Kusilvak
• Nome
• Prince of Wales–Hyder
• Southeast Fairbanks
• Yukon–Koyukuk (the largest census area, larger than most U.S. states)

City and Borough: Alaska's consolidated governments

Seven Alaska boroughs are also consolidated city-boroughs, meaning the borough and its main city share a single government [Wikipedia]:

• Municipality of Anchorage
• City and Borough of Juneau
• City and Borough of Sitka (the largest consolidated city-county by land area in the U.S.)
• Municipality and Borough of Skagway
• City and Borough of Wrangell
• City and Borough of Yakutat
• Haines Borough (consolidated with Haines)

Petersburg Borough, created in 2013, dissolved the former city of Petersburg into the new borough; it is effectively another consolidated unit [Wikipedia].

What this means for records in Alaska

If you need a record from the organized part of the state, you go to the borough recorder, clerk, or police department in the usual way. In the Unorganized Borough census areas, there is no borough government to ask—records are handled by the State of Alaska through its district recording offices (Alaska is divided into 34 state recording districts), the Alaska Court System, and the state Department of Health for vital records. There are no county-equivalent sheriffs in Alaska; law enforcement outside organized boroughs is provided by the Alaska State Troopers.

4. Virginia's 38 Independent Cities

Virginia is the most extreme example of a quirk that exists in only a handful of U.S. states: the independent city. An independent city is a city that is legally not part of any county. Of the 41 independent cities in the United States, 38 are in Virginia; the others are Baltimore (Maryland), St. Louis (Missouri), and Carson City (Nevada) [WRIC] [Wikipedia].

Why Virginia did this

Virginia's constitution of 1870 (effective 1871) required that any incorporated municipality of a certain population be governed as a city separate from its surrounding county. The reasoning was practical: counties were the traditional unit of agrarian Virginia, and as cities grew, the state did not want urban-rural political conflicts inside a single county government. By splitting cities off completely, both city and county could elect their own officials, collect their own taxes, run their own schools and courts, and not have to negotiate with each other. The rule was hardened by the state's 1902 constitution, which formally identified an initial set of 18 cities [VirginiaPlaces.org].

The 38 cities, in alphabetical order

Alexandria, Bristol, Buena Vista, Charlottesville, Chesapeake, Colonial Heights, Covington, Danville, Emporia, Fairfax, Falls Church, Franklin, Fredericksburg, Galax, Hampton, Harrisonburg, Hopewell, Lexington, Lynchburg, Manassas, Manassas Park, Martinsville, Newport News, Norfolk, Norton, Petersburg, Poquoson, Portsmouth, Radford, Richmond, Roanoke, Salem, Staunton, Suffolk, Virginia Beach, Waynesboro, Williamsburg, and Winchester [VACo].

What this means for Virginia records

Independent cities are county equivalents for census and federal statistical purposes. Records for any of these 38 cities are held at the city level, not at any county level:

• Real property records are filed with the City Clerk of the Circuit Court (e.g., Roanoke City, Lynchburg City).
• Court cases are heard in the city's Circuit Court, General District Court, or Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.
• Marriage licenses are issued by the city circuit court clerk.
• Police and sheriff functions belong to the city, although a few independent cities contract with the surrounding county.

The trick to using this system: look at a map. The cities of Roanoke and Lynchburg are surrounded by counties of the same name (Roanoke County, Campbell County), but their records are completely separate. If a deed is for a property inside the city limits, do not call the county; call the city. Several Virginia “county records” pages on this site reflect that division.

5. The New England Riddle: Counties That Don't Govern

In most of the United States, when you ask about a record you go to the county. In Connecticut, Rhode Island, and large parts of Massachusetts, that question makes no sense—because their counties either no longer exist as governments, never had real authority, or have been mostly abolished and what survives lives at the town level instead.

Connecticut: counties abolished in 1960, sheriffs abolished in 2000

Public Act 152 of 1959 abolished Connecticut county government effective October 1, 1960 [Wikipedia] [Connecticut History]. By the time the state pulled the plug, the only major function county governments still performed was running the jails; everything else had been transferred to the state or towns over the previous decades. Connecticut's county sheriff system was then itself abolished in October 2000 [Wikipedia]. Today, Connecticut's eight historic counties (Fairfield, Hartford, Litchfield, Middlesex, New Haven, New London, Tolland, and Windham) are geographic names with no governing authority. To complicate things further, in 2022 the state asked the federal Office of Management and Budget to begin using its nine Councils of Government (COG) planning regions as “county equivalents” for federal statistical purposes, a change OMB approved in 2024 [CT Mirror].

Where do Connecticut records live? Almost entirely at the town level. Deeds and land records are filed in the town clerk's office of the town where the property sits. Vital records (birth, marriage, death) are recorded at the town level and at the state vital records office. Criminal cases are handled by the state's Superior Court, organized in 13 judicial districts that do not correspond to the historic counties. There is no Hartford County Clerk to call—because there is no Hartford County government.

Rhode Island: counties that never really governed

Rhode Island's five counties (Bristol, Kent, Newport, Providence, Washington) have never had county-level government. The U.S. Census Bureau itself describes Rhode Island counties as “geographic subdivisions for the judicial administration of the state. They have no associated governmental structure and are not functioning governmental units” [U.S. Census Bureau]. All meaningful local government is done by the state's 39 municipalities (eight cities and 31 towns) [Wikipedia]. As in Connecticut, deeds, marriage licenses, and most other local records are filed at the town or city level; the state holds vital records.

Massachusetts: a patchwork

Massachusetts has 14 counties on paper, but between 1997 and 2000 the state legislature abolished eight of them: Berkshire, Essex, Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire, Middlesex, Suffolk, and Worcester [Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth]. The six remaining functional county governments are clustered in the state's southeast: Barnstable, Bristol, Dukes, Nantucket, Norfolk, and Plymouth [Boston.com]. In the eight abolished counties, most former county functions (including the registry of deeds in most cases) were transferred to the state. The registries of deeds, however, often still operate under the county name even where the county government itself is gone—so the “Middlesex North Registry of Deeds” still exists as a state office.

Vermont and New Hampshire

Vermont and New Hampshire kept counties but with very limited powers. Their primary local government is the town, which dates to colonial times and remains the principal civil division—a New England tradition. In New Hampshire, counties historically handled infrastructure, land records, law enforcement, and the courts; today, county functions have shrunk considerably and most land records are filed at the county Registry of Deeds while almost everything else lives at the town or state level [New Hampshire Association of Counties]. Vermont's counties exist primarily as judicial districts.

6. Hawaii's Five Counties (and One Ghost)

Hawaii runs a state of 1.4 million people on only five counties, each corresponding roughly to one major island or island group [Wikipedia]:

Kalawao County is one of the strangest county equivalents in the United States. It was created in 1905 to administer the isolated leprosy settlement at Kalaupapa and is administered today by the Hawaii Department of Health rather than by an elected county government. Its population was 82 at the 2020 census. By contrast, the City and County of Honolulu is one of America's largest local governments, serving close to a million residents over the entire island of Oahu.

For records: vital records (birth, marriage, death) in Hawaii are state records held by the Hawaii Department of Health, not the counties. Property records and court records are county-level (except in Kalawao, where they are handled by state agencies).

7. Consolidated City-Counties: When the City IS the County

Throughout American history, cities and the counties they sit inside have sometimes decided to merge into a single government to reduce overlap, save money, and simplify services. NACo identifies 42 such city-county consolidations nationwide [NACo]. The most famous examples:

• Philadelphia, PA—borders made conterminous in 1854; governments fully consolidated in 1952 [Wikipedia]
• San Francisco, CA—consolidated since 1856; the only true city-county in California
• Denver, CO—consolidated 1902; Broomfield, CO became a city-county in 2001
• New Orleans, LA—city is consolidated with Orleans Parish
• Baton Rouge, LA—consolidated with East Baton Rouge Parish
• Indianapolis, IN—“Unigov” merger with Marion County in 1970
• Jacksonville, FL—consolidated with Duval County in 1968
• Nashville, TN—consolidated with Davidson County in 1963
• Louisville, KY—consolidated with Jefferson County in 2003
• Lexington, KY—consolidated with Fayette County in 1974
• Augusta, GA—consolidated with Richmond County in 1996
• Athens, GA—consolidated with Clarke County in 1991
• Macon, GA—consolidated with Bibb County in 2014
• Columbus, GA—consolidated with Muscogee County in 1971
• Kansas City, KS—consolidated with Wyandotte County in 1997
• Butte, MT—consolidated with Silver Bow County
• Anaconda, MT—consolidated with Deer Lodge County
• Honolulu, HI—the entire island of Oahu
• Multiple Alaska boroughs—Anchorage, Juneau, Sitka, Skagway, Wrangell, Yakutat, Haines, Petersburg
• Nantucket, MA—the town is also the county

The special case of New York City

New York City is unique. The city is “an amalgamation of five consolidated city-counties, each county coextensive with a borough of New York City” [Wikipedia]:

This matters for records. If you want a marriage certificate for a couple married in Manhattan, you don't ask “Manhattan”—you ask the New York City Clerk's Office (for the license) and the NYC Department of Health (for the certificate). If you want a deed for a property in Brooklyn, you ask the Kings County Office of the City Register, not “Brooklyn.” In Queens and Staten Island, deeds are filed with the office of the City Register for those boroughs. Bronx deeds are likewise at the Bronx County office. Court cases are filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York for the county where the case arose. Every records search in NYC requires you to translate borough names into county names.

What consolidation means for records

In a consolidated city-county, you don't need to figure out city vs. county jurisdiction—there is only one government to ask. A property record in San Francisco is filed with the City and County of San Francisco Assessor-Recorder. A court case in Denver is filed in the Denver District Court (which sits as both city and county court). This is one of the few places the American system actually simplifies things.

8. City vs. Town vs. Township vs. Village vs. Borough: A State-by-State Guide

Below the county, American local government uses an assortment of words—city, town, township, village, borough—that mean very different things in different states. There is no national rule. The same word can describe a powerful general-purpose government in one state and a near-empty administrative shell in another.

A practical example: in Lancaster County, Nebraska, the City of Lincoln (the state capital) is the dominant municipality, but in surrounding rural areas of the county, the township and the village provide some services. By contrast, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, you might have a Lancaster City, a Lancaster Township, and multiple boroughs and second-class townships all with similar-sounding names but very different legal powers. Always look up the exact municipal type before searching for a record.

9. Unincorporated Communities and CDPs: Places That Aren't Governments

Open Google Maps anywhere in the United States and you'll see place names that have no city or town government attached to them. Some are unincorporated communities (historical settlements that never incorporated, or whose incorporation lapsed); many are Census Designated Places (CDPs), statistical zones the U.S. Census Bureau draws so that population and demographic data can be reported for named communities that lack a municipal government [U.S. Census Bureau].

What this means for records: an unincorporated community or CDP has no clerk, no police, no records office of its own. Whatever you're looking for is held at the surrounding county (or in New England, the surrounding town). Searching for “X public records” for an unincorporated place really means searching the records of the county it sits inside.

That is why a thorough records directory still lists unincorporated and CDP communities. Population searches, address verification, and genealogy work all benefit from being able to look up a community name, even if the underlying records live at the county level. Our city pages are designed to route you to the correct county or town records office whenever the community itself has no government.

10. Why Some States Have 3 Counties and Others 254

Why does Texas have 254 counties and Delaware only 3? The answer is mostly 19th-century politics and geography.

Texas (254 counties). When Texas joined the Union in 1845, the state encouraged county creation as a way of bringing local government close to widely scattered ranches and farms. The state had a policy of keeping county seats within roughly a day's horseback ride for every resident—a high bar in a state as large as Texas. The result is the largest county system in the country [Wikipedia] [NACo]. Brewster County (6,183 square miles) is the largest Texas county; Rockwall County (149 square miles) is the smallest.

Delaware (3 counties). Delaware was one of the original 13 colonies and was carved into three counties—New Castle, Kent, and Sussex—by 1682. Because Delaware is small (1,949 square miles total) and never had the population pressure or settlement geography to require subdivision, the three counties have remained intact for over 340 years.

The extremes by area. Largest: San Bernardino County, California, at 20,105 square miles—larger than nine U.S. states [Wikipedia]. Yukon–Koyukuk Census Area in Alaska is larger still (about 145,000 square miles) but is not a county. Smallest self-governing: Arlington County, Virginia, at 25.8 square miles [Arlington County]. Smallest by population: Kalawao County, Hawaii (under 100 people) and Loving County, Texas (64 people at the 2020 census).

11. County Subdivisions: MCDs vs. CCDs

The U.S. Census Bureau divides every county into smaller statistical units. There are two kinds:

• Minor Civil Divisions (MCDs) are legally-recognized subdivisions with formal boundaries and, usually, a government. They include the New England towns, New York and New Jersey townships, Pennsylvania boroughs and townships, the civil townships of the Midwest, and similar units in 29 states total [U.S. Census Bureau] [Wikipedia].
• Census County Divisions (CCDs) are statistical lines the Census Bureau draws in the 21 states that have no MCDs (mostly in the South and West), so that county subdivisions can still be reported in census data [Federal Register]. CCDs have no government function; they exist only on paper for data reporting.

This matters when you read demographic data: a population figure for “Bridgeport Charter Township, Michigan” refers to a real MCD with its own government, while a population figure for “Indio CCD, California” refers to a statistical zone that doesn't really exist on the ground.

12. Which Records Sit at Which Level? A State-Aware Cheat Sheet

The single most useful thing to know about U.S. public records is that the level a record lives at depends on the type of record and the state. Get this wrong and you'll spend hours calling the wrong office. Here is the practical breakdown.

“In Rhode Island, counties are geographic subdivisions for the judicial administration of the state. They have no associated governmental structure and are not functioning governmental units.” — U.S. Census Bureau [U.S. Census Bureau, RI]

13. Four Myths That Send People to the Wrong Office

Myth 1: “Every city is in a county.”

False. Virginia has 38 independent cities that belong to no county [Wikipedia]. Baltimore, St. Louis, and Carson City are independent of any county. New York City contains five counties inside one city; San Francisco, Philadelphia, Denver, Honolulu, and dozens of others are their county. Looking up records for Lynchburg, Virginia by calling Campbell County will get you nothing because the City of Lynchburg's records are entirely separate.

Myth 2: “Counties always have a sheriff.”

False. Connecticut abolished county sheriffs in 2000 [Wikipedia]. Rhode Island has no county sheriffs; the state has a Sheriff's Division that serves courts, not a traditional county sheriff. Most of Alaska has no county sheriff because most of Alaska has no county-equivalent government. In these jurisdictions, the law-enforcement functions a sheriff would normally provide are handled by state agencies or by municipal police.

Myth 3: “Town and township mean the same thing.”

False. In New England, a town is the dominant unit of local government—the equivalent of a city, often with full powers over schools, police, and land use. In New York and New Jersey, a town is a general-purpose government inside a county. In Pennsylvania, there is one town in the entire state (Bloomsburg), and the rest are boroughs or townships. A township in Michigan, Ohio, or Pennsylvania is often a weaker, more rural form. The same word describes very different governments depending on the state, and the records they hold differ accordingly.

Myth 4: “All public records are at the county level.”

False. Birth and death certificates are state records in all 50 states. Property records sit at the town level throughout New England and at the city level in Virginia's independent cities. Marriage records are state-level in Hawaii. Court records often follow judicial-district lines that do not match county boundaries. If you assume “the county has it,” you will be wrong about a quarter of the time depending on what you're searching for.

14. How to Use This Directory

The publicrecordcenter.com directory is built around the realities described above. We organize records by state, then by county or county equivalent (parish, borough, independent city), then by city, town, township, village, or borough where appropriate. Each page lists the correct government office or offices to contact for that jurisdiction, links to the official records portals, and explains any state-specific quirks. Use the state public records hub as your top-level navigation; from there you can drill into county records and finally into individual community pages.

If a community name on this site corresponds to an unincorporated area, a CDP, or a community whose records live at the surrounding county or state level, the page will route you to the correct office. The directory is intended to be the fastest way to skip the wrong-office phone calls.

15. Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Louisiana use parishes instead of counties?

Louisiana was a French and then Spanish Roman Catholic colony, and local government was organized around ecclesiastical parishes—the geographic territory served by a Catholic parish church. After the Louisiana Purchase, American officials briefly imposed “counties” in 1807, but the parish name stuck. The 1845 state constitution formalized parishes as the primary civil divisions, and there are 64 today [Wikipedia] [Britannica].

Why does Alaska use boroughs instead of counties?

The Alaska Constitution (Article X, Section 3) requires the state to be divided into boroughs, organized or unorganized. The framers chose “borough” in part because Alaska's enormous, sparsely populated areas needed flexibility—much of the state has no organized borough government at all and is covered by a single Unorganized Borough divided into 11 census areas [Wikipedia].

What is the difference between a township and a town?

It depends on the state. In New England, a town is the principal unit of local government—equivalent to a city in most other states. In the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic, a township is usually a more rural, less powerful subdivision of a county. The two words can describe very different governments. Pennsylvania has 1,456 second-class townships and 93 first-class townships, plus boroughs and one solitary “town” (Bloomsburg) [PA Municipal League].

Are NYC boroughs counties?

Yes. Each of New York City's five boroughs is coextensive with a New York State county: Manhattan = New York County, Brooklyn = Kings County, the Bronx = Bronx County, Queens = Queens County, and Staten Island = Richmond County [NYC.gov]. For records purposes, you almost always need to use the county name, not the borough name, when searching official databases.

What is the smallest county in the United States?

By population, Kalawao County, Hawaii, the former leprosy settlement on Molokai, has fewer than 100 residents [Wikipedia]. Loving County, Texas has fewer than 70. By area among self-governing counties, Arlington County, Virginia is the smallest at 25.8 square miles [Arlington County].

What is the largest county in the United States?

By area within the contiguous United States, San Bernardino County, California is the largest at 20,105 square miles—larger than nine U.S. states [Wikipedia]. Including Alaska's county equivalents, the Yukon–Koyukuk Census Area covers roughly 145,000 square miles but is not a county government—it is a statistical zone in the Unorganized Borough.

Why doesn't Connecticut have county government?

Connecticut abolished its eight county governments by Public Act 152, effective October 1, 1960; by that point county governments had been reduced to a single major function, running the jails [Connecticut History] [Wikipedia]. The state then absorbed most of the remaining functions, with towns handling the rest. County sheriffs were abolished in 2000.

How many independent cities are there in Virginia?

Thirty-eight. Virginia is unique in having so many; the next-closest state, Maryland, has one (Baltimore). Independent cities are county equivalents for census purposes and hold their own records [VACo].

Why does Texas have 254 counties?

Texas had a long-standing policy of keeping county seats close to every resident, so that anyone in the state could reach the county courthouse in roughly a day's travel. As settlement expanded westward in the 19th century, the state subdivided existing counties to maintain that proximity. The result is the largest county system in the U.S. [Wikipedia] [NACo].

Where are property records kept in Massachusetts?

At the Registry of Deeds, organized by historic county district even where the underlying county government has been abolished. The Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth oversees the statewide system; counties such as Middlesex North, Middlesex South, Suffolk, and others each have their own registry [MA Secretary of the Commonwealth].

What is a CDP and why are CDPs listed in public records directories?

A Census Designated Place is a statistical zone the U.S. Census Bureau draws around an unincorporated community so demographic data can be reported for the place [U.S. Census Bureau]. A CDP has no government, no clerk, no records of its own—but people still search for them by name, and directories include them because the records you want live in the surrounding county or town.

Why is New Orleans both a city and a parish?

The City of New Orleans is consolidated with Orleans Parish; they share the same boundaries and the same government [Wikipedia]. This is Louisiana's version of a city-county consolidation. The Clerk of Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans handles civil court filings, while the City Council legislates for what is simultaneously a city and a parish.

What is the difference between a county clerk and a county recorder?

In many states, the same official handles both functions—recording deeds and keeping court records—and the title varies (Clerk of Court, Clerk-Recorder, Recorder of Deeds, Register of Deeds, Probate Judge in some Southern states). In other states the two functions are split between separate elected offices. Always check the specific county's website to identify the office responsible for the record you need.

How do I find court records in a state where judicial districts don't match counties?

Use the state court system's own “court locator” tool. Most states publish a directory mapping each county or town to its assigned trial court. For example, Connecticut's Superior Court is organized into 13 judicial districts; Massachusetts has its Trial Court Department; Alaska is organized by judicial district rather than borough.

Are county records the same as state records?

No. State state public records typically include vital records (birth, death), criminal-history repositories, sex-offender registries, professional licensing, and corporate filings. County records typically include property records, marriage licenses (in most states), local court files, and local arrests. Many records require checking both levels.

16. Authoritative Sources Used in This Guide

This directory was compiled from primary and authoritative secondary sources, including the National Association of Counties [NACo], the U.S. Census Bureau [Census.gov], state government publications (including the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth [sec.state.ma.us], the Connecticut General Assembly's Office of Legislative Research, the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development [commerce.alaska.gov], the New Hampshire Association of Counties [nhcounties.org], and the Pennsylvania Municipal League [pml.org]), as well as encyclopedic resources verified against those primary sources [Britannica] [Wikipedia]. Counts and statistics reflect the most recent decennial census (2020) and the 2024 NACo Primer.

For a record-by-record starting point, browse the state public records hub. For county-by-county listings, including parishes, boroughs, independent cities, and consolidated city-counties, browse the county records index.