Vermont People Search

A Vermont search usually starts with the statewide court portal and the Secretary of State business search, which often show the town where a person lives; then the town clerk holds the deeds, the grand list and local vital records.

• Vermont Judiciary Public PortalCivil, criminal, family and probate cases statewide
• Vermont Secretary of State business searchCorporations, LLCs, trade names and registered agents
• OPR Find a ProfessionalLicenses and discipline of professions under the Office of Professional Regulation
• Vermont DOC Offender LocatorPeople in state custody, with release dates and parole status
• Vermont Sex Offender RegistryKept by the Vermont Crime Information Center
• Vermont Department of Health, Vital RecordsCertified birth, death, marriage and divorce certificates

The foundation of transparency in the state is the Vermont Public Records Act (1 V.S.A. § 315 et seq.). The law operates on a fundamental "rebuttable presumption of openness," meaning that any record produced or acquired in the course of public agency business is considered open for inspection unless it falls under one of the specific statutory exemptions.

Agencies must answer a public records request within three business days and may extend that by up to ten business days in unusual circumstances, for example when many documents must be reviewed. The Secretary of State publishes guides on how to make a request.

Requests go to the official who holds the record: a town clerk, a state agency or a police chief. The law lists many exemptions, mostly for personal privacy, open criminal investigations, medical information and security details.

The main state offices for records on people:

Vermont.gov links every executive branch department. The Secretary of State handles business, election and professional license records, and the Vermont State Archives and Records Administration (VSARA) keeps historical and genealogical records.

• Vermont.govState agencies, departments and online services
• Vermont Secretary of StateBusiness registrations, professional licensing, elections and the data broker registry
• Vermont State Archives and Records Administration (VSARA)Permanent state records, historical vital records and genealogy sources

Vermont's court system operates as a unified entity under the Vermont Supreme Court. The primary trial courts are the Superior Courts, which are divided geographically across the 14 counties. Each Superior Court contains specific divisions: Civil, Criminal, Family, Probate, and Environmental.

Vermont courts now use one case system, and the Vermont Judiciary Public Portal, linked in Where to Look, lets the public search dockets statewide.

In addition to the Superior Courts, the Judicial Bureau handles statewide traffic violations, civil ordinances, and minor municipal infractions. For federal matters, researchers must utilize the PACER system to search the US District Court for the District of Vermont, which holds divisions in Burlington, Rutland, and Brattleboro, rolling up to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.

Common Mistake: confusing the Superior Court Criminal Division with the Judicial Bureau. Traffic tickets and civil ordinance violations are only in the Judicial Bureau. Sealed or expunged cases do not appear on the public portal.

• PACER, District of VermontFederal bankruptcy, civil and criminal cases

In Vermont, counties do not record deeds or assess property: town clerks record deeds, and town listers value property. A search for a county recorder or county assessor will find nothing.

Every deed, mortgage and lien is filed with the town clerk of the town where the land is. Property values are set by listers, elected or appointed by the town, and recorded on the town grand list, the official tax roll. To find an owner, first find the town, then search its grand list.

Many towns post their grand lists through private vendors, but the state Parcel Program of the Vermont Center for Geographic Information joins town parcel maps with the grand list statewide.

• Vermont Parcel Program, VCGIStatewide parcel maps joined with each town grand list
• Vermont Department of Taxes, Property Valuation and ReviewState oversight of town listers and grand list data

The Corporations Division of the Secretary of State registers LLCs, corporations, nonprofits and trade names; its free search, linked in Where to Look, shows officers, registered agents and business addresses.

The Office of Professional Regulation (OPR), part of the Secretary of State, licenses and disciplines dozens of professions, from nursing and real estate to accounting and tattooing, in one search, linked in Where to Look.

Attorneys are licensed by the Vermont Supreme Court, and banking, insurance and securities professionals by the Department of Financial Regulation. UCC filings are kept by the Secretary of State.

The Vermont Department of Corrections runs one state prison system with six facilities: Chittenden Regional (South Burlington), Marble Valley Regional (Rutland), Northeast Correctional Complex (St. Johnsbury), Northern State (Newport), Northwest State (Swanton) and Southern State (Springfield).

Vermont also sends some inmates to an out-of-state prison under contract, including a CoreCivic facility in Mississippi. They stay under Vermont DOC jurisdiction and appear in the Offender Locator, linked in Where to Look.

The Vermont Crime Information Center keeps the sex offender registry, linked in Where to Look. There is no federal prison in Vermont; federal prisoners are listed in the Bureau of Prisons locator.

• Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locatorFederal prisoners held since 1982

Common Mistake: County Jail Holds. Unlike larger states, Vermont's unified system means the state DOC handles both sentenced inmates and pre-trial detainees. However, very temporary overnight holds may occur at local municipal police departments or county sheriff outposts. If an individual was arrested hours ago, they may not instantly appear in the state DOC locator.

Vital records in Vermont (births, deaths, marriages, divorces, and civil unions) exist in a dual-custody system between the Vermont Department of Health and the local Town Clerks. Town Clerks physically hold the original books and ledgers for events that occurred within their municipal borders, while the state maintains a centralized registry for more recent events.

Vermont strictly enforces confidentiality rules for birth and death certificates to prevent identity theft. Birth records become fully public 100 years after the event, and death records become public after 50 years. Prior to those thresholds, only immediate family members, legal guardians, or authorized legal representatives may obtain certified copies. Marriage and civil union records, however, are generally considered public records available for inspection.

Vermont holds a unique place in marriage equality history, which impacts vital records research. It was the first state to legalize Civil Unions (2000) and the first state to legalize same-sex marriage through legislative action rather than a court order (2009). These historical milestones are reflected in the vital records held by town clerks statewide.

Privacy Note: Genealogical Access via VSARA. If you are researching ancestors rather than contemporary individuals, the Vermont State Archives and Records Administration (VSARA) is your primary resource. VSARA holds unrestricted, public-domain vital records (births over 100 years old, deaths over 50 years old) on microfilm and digital formats, allowing for extensive family history mapping without violating modern privacy statutes.

Vermont towns hold Town Meeting Day on the first Tuesday in March, with secret paper ballots and open floor votes on budgets and local questions, so town meeting minutes are a local record source.

Voters can check their own registration on the state voter information site. Bulk voter lists cannot be used for commercial purposes.

• Vermont voter informationCheck your own registration and polling place

The Secretary of State publishes campaign finance reports, so political donations, PAC spending and candidate funding can be traced to individual donors.

• Vermont Campaign Finance SystemContributions and spending of candidates, PACs and lobbyists

Many Vermont town records go back to the late 1700s.

The Vermont State Archives (VSARA) is the state repository, and the Vermont Historical Society in Barre, the University of Vermont Special Collections and the Middlebury College Archives hold personal papers, early maps and business ledgers.

Digitized Vermont newspapers from the Vermont Digital Newspaper Project are in Chronicling America at the Library of Congress, useful for old obituaries and local news.

• Vermont Historical SocietyDeep historical research, architectural history, and ancestral tracking

Town clerks keep most records, but Vermont's 14 counties each have a Superior Court location and group the towns into regions:

Chittenden County: The economic and population engine of Vermont. Anchored by Burlington, South Burlington, and Winooski, it hosts the University of Vermont (UVM) and the largest Superior Court docket in the state.

Rutland County: the city of Rutland and the Killington ski area, with many seasonal property owners.

Washington County: Montpelier, the smallest state capital, and Barre, long a granite center; many state employees live here.

Windsor County: Part of the "Upper Valley" bordering New Hampshire. Key towns include White River Junction, Springfield, Hartford, and the historic, wealthy enclave of Woodstock.

Windham County: The gateway to Southern Vermont, anchored by Brattleboro. A major corridor for out-of-state residents traveling up Interstate 91.

Franklin County: St. Albans, on the Canadian border, with dairy farms and many cross-border records.

Addison County: Dominated by the Champlain Valley's agricultural lands and Middlebury (home to Middlebury College).

Bennington County: The southwestern corner bordering NY and MA. Features dual historic hubs in Bennington and Manchester, heavily influenced by out-of-state wealth.

Orange County: A rural, agricultural county in Central Vermont. The county seat is Chelsea, maintaining deeply traditional town governance.

Caledonia County: The anchor of the Northeast Kingdom (NEK), centered around St. Johnsbury. Rugged, isolated, with unique logging and rural property histories.

Lamoille County: Stowe and the county seat, Hyde Park, with ski resort real estate.

Orleans County: Newport and the border town of Derby Line, where some buildings cross the US and Canada line.

Essex County: The most remote, sparsely populated county in the Northeast Kingdom. Guildhall serves as the tiny county seat.

Grand Isle County: The "Lake Champlain Islands" county. Anchored by North Hero, records here are heavily tied to seasonal lakefront properties and water access rights.

Vermont has deep French-Canadian, Irish and English roots, so some surnames cluster by region (French-Canadian names in Franklin and Orleans counties, Irish names in Rutland). In a county of 30,000 people, a middle initial or the name of a spouse helps avoid mixing up people with the same name.

Skiing, fall tourism and farming bring many second homes, so property searches often show owners who live in New York, Massachusetts or Connecticut; check those states too.

Researcher Tip: there is no county recorder in Vermont. Use the court portal to find the town a person gives in court filings, check the business search, then go to the town clerk for deeds, mortgages and vital records.

Vermont was the first state to require data brokers to register.

Vermont Act 171 of 2018 was the first law in the United States to make data brokers register. Every business that buys and sells personal data of Vermonters must register each year with the Secretary of State and disclose its opt-out methods and data breaches.

• Vermont data broker registryData brokers registered with the Secretary of State

In June 2026 Vermont also enacted the Vermont Data Privacy and Online Surveillance Act (S.71, Act 145), which sets rules for how businesses handle personal data. The Secretary of State runs Safe at Home, an address confidentiality program that keeps the addresses of victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking out of public records.

The Vermont Crime Information Center handles criminal record checks. Under 13 V.S.A. Chapter 230, many convictions can be sealed or expunged, and an expunged record is treated as if the arrest or conviction never happened, so it disappears from public court and police records.