About U.S. Territories
The United States has five permanently inhabited territories and one federal district: Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, and the District of Columbia. Each maintains its own court, vital-records, and property-recording system - in some cases under state-equivalent local law, in other cases under unique arrangements.
This page links to the most commonly-requested records in each jurisdiction. For Washington, D.C., see our DC page.
Puerto Rico
Population ~3.2 million. Spanish and English legal system; civil-law inheritance from Spanish code.
Guam
Unincorporated territory with a Department of Revenue & Taxation; mixed civil / common-law system.
U.S. Virgin Islands
Three main islands (St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. John). District court is federal; Superior Court is local.
Northern Mariana Islands
Commonwealth; unique legal status as a CNMI under covenant with the U.S.
American Samoa
Unincorporated unorganized territory; unique land-tenure rules (communal Samoan land).