Dubuque County, Iowa Vital Records

State office vs. county office

Dubuque County sits within Iowa, which means birth and death records are held by the state — the Iowa Department of Public Health, Bureau of Vital Records at 321 E. 12th St, Lucas Building, Des Moines, IA 50319, reachable at (515) 281-4944. The state agency holds the official copies of birth and death events that occurred anywhere in Dubuque County since statewide registration began in 1880.

Marriage licenses and divorce decrees, however, are typically handled at the county level: marriage licenses by the Dubuque County Clerk, divorces by the trial court (superior, circuit, or district court depending on Iowa's naming convention) sitting in Dubuque County. Pick a record type below for the specific routing.

Records for Dubuque County

Quick reference

About Dubuque County

Dubuque County is one of the larger counties in Iowa by population, which means its courthouse handles a high volume of marriage license applications and divorce filings each year. Higher-volume counties typically offer more flexible request channels — in-person, mail, fax, and increasingly online — and frequently maintain a public-facing case search for civil filings, including divorce indexes.

If you are uncertain whether your event was filed in Dubuque County rather than a neighboring county, consider both the address listed on the original document (if you have a copy) and where the parties were living at the time of filing. For old marriage licenses in particular, the license was issued in the county where the couple applied — not necessarily where they were married.

If you are out of state and unable to visit the courthouse in person, this remote document-retrieval comparison outlines the trade-offs between mailing a request, using the state's approved online vendor, and hiring an authorized agent.

Tips for working with the county courthouse

• Call before you visit. County clerk and court clerk hours vary, and some windows close earlier than the rest of the courthouse for cash handling.
• Bring exact change or a money order for older records that may not be in the credit-card system.
• For divorces, know the case number if you can — the clerk may charge a per-name search fee on top of the per-page copy fee if a full lookup is required.
• For marriage records older than the county's digital index, expect a longer wait while staff retrieve the physical book.