Van Buren County Clerk
Courthouse, 212 Paw Paw Street
Paw Paw, MI 49079
Phone: 269-657-8218
Fax: 269-657-8298
E-mail: learyt@vbco.org

Genealogy Research Hours: Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, 10:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Identification Requirements: Drivers License or Picture ID

Certified Copy/Additional: $10.00 for first copy and $4.00 for each additional copy of the same record purchased at the same time

Genealogy Record Copy: Same as certified copy

Other Copy Fees: Search fee done by clerk's staff is $1.00 per liber per name

Comments: Space allows for two genealogists at one time. Children are allowed but not encouraged. Appointments on the scheduled days and hours are encouraged. Indexes of Deaths, Marriages, and Divorce are provided on a first come, first serve basis. Upon written request and payment of search fee, staff can verify the following information: Name or names, Nature of event, Date of the event, Place of the event, and Date of the filing.

Births: 1867 to present. Not available for public inspection. Birth records are available only to the individual named on the birth record (registrant), the parents of the registrant, a legal guardian of the registrant, a legal representative of the registrant or an heir of the registrant. An heir is defined as any relative of a deceased individual. Heirs must supply the date and place of death of the registrant when requesting a copy. This policy is in accordance with MCL 333.2882. Information and copies are available on all births, providing the record is at least 100 years old.

Deaths: 1867 to present.

Marriages: 1836 to present.

Divorces: 1857 to present.

Other: Van Buren District Library, Webster Memorial Library Bldg., 200 N. Phelps Street, Decatur, MI 49045 has death and marriage indexes and some records on computer. Local History/Genealogy information, location and hours: http://woodlands.lib.mi.us/van/vanburen.htm.

Other: For additional local and state government records with potential genealogical value, see the Archival Circulars for records maintained at the Archives of Michigan.

NOTE: Please call before visiting or mailing fees to confirm hours and other specifics. This information is current to July 2002. If you find differences between the information here and the practices or holdings of the County Clerk's office, please ask the Clerk to inform the Archives of Michigan about needed revisions.

Anne Norlander, Calhoun County Clerk-Register, and Toni Fritz, the Clerk-Register's Administrative Assistant, conducted a survey of offices in 1993 in order to make this information available to the public. Calhoun County printed the 1994 Michigan County Clerks Genealogy Directory, prepared as a product of this inventory. The Archives of Michigan revised this on-line edition of the directory in 2001.

Click Archives of Michigan to visit the Archives of Michigan home page.

Click Michigan County Clerks for other entries in the Michigan County Clerks Directory.

Archives of Michigan
Michigan Library and Historical Center
702 W. Kalamazoo Street
Lansing, MI 48913
Phone: (517) 373-1408
E-mail: archives@michigan.gov