For many people, marriage is the logical end of a romance that may have begun without either of the two parties even knowing about it. On the day that the beautiful blushing bride walked down the aisle to the waiting arms of her groom, there would be no naysayer amongst the gathered crowd who have taken to their feet and cheer her on. The bond of marriage is formed on love, trust, and commitment to each other, a bond that many would always think is so strong that nothing on the world could break it.

The truth is far from perfect. Not every fairy tale story has a happy ending, and the sobering statistic of three out of every five marriage in the United States would end in a divorce gives a chilling reality to this cold statistic. That being said, however, it does not mean that a person who had undergone the oftentimes long and arduous process of ending their marriage would be forever doomed to live their life alone.

Divorce records are those sets of records that are maintained by a competent authority not only because the same is mandated by law, but also because of other practical considerations. These records exists not only as a means to ensure that there is a divorce and that the same was granted, but also as a means for a higher authority to ensure that the requisite substantial and procedural due process required by law had been complied with. After all, marriages do not just end because the two parties agreed to end it.

Henderson County was founded in 1846, and their District Clerk, that competent authority under Texas Law that has custody of divorce records, has divorce records that date back to the year 1890. Under the Texas Public Information Act, divorce records, like all public records, are considered to be public documents and as such, should be available to the public, subject to specific exceptions.

The Texas Public Information Act mandates the procedure that one must follow in order to acquire a certified copy of a divorce record. This procedure starts with a written request addressed to the office that has custody of the records that are being sought and requesting that a copy of the same be made available. The more information that could be provided by the searcher, the faster and easier the district clerk would be able to locate the desired record. It should be noted that any fee must be settled within ten days after the request for payment was written, otherwise, the office would consider the request as having been withdrawn.

In the state of Texas, the state government cannot give certified copies of divorce records. What the state government could do, however, through the Texas Department of State Health Services, is to provide verification of a divorce. This would provide the searcher a certification that there really is a divorce, but not a copy of the record itself. This verification costs twenty dollars and could take anywhere between ten to fifteen days to complete. The procedure begins either through the internet with the use of a credit card, or by sending a filed out form to the department. The form is available for free download from the website of the department.

A more efficient method of acquiring divorce records is to use the internet. Specialized online search databases are all over the World Wide Web. These databases are easy to use and provide information not only on divorces but on other vital documents. They are mostly free and almost instantaneous with their results, and as an added bonus, their use does not require the searcher to leave the comforts of their home. What is only truly required is a computer and an internet connection, as well as information on the divorce.