Nebraska Vital Records sits in the Division of Public Health of the Department of Health and Human Services, on the first floor of the Nebraska State Office Building at 301 Centennial Mall South in Lincoln, and takes postal applications at a box in the same city. Its certificate request site prices a birth certificate at seventeen dollars a copy and a death, marriage or dissolution certificate at sixteen, and warns before anything else that an applicant must meet proper purpose, pointing to the regulation that defines it.
Three sentences on the same page set the expectations. Online orders take four to six weeks to arrive by post. Historical records requested for genealogy take up to twelve weeks of processing. Expedited shipping is not offered through the internet site, and no refunds will be issued, which matches the regulation requirement that the fee is paid for each search whether or not the record is found. The service choices page sets out the faster routes. Local offices that issue vital records appear on the Nebraska county pages.
- Seventeen dollars a birth copy: sixteen for a death, marriage or dissolution certificate, paid for each search whether or not a record is found.
- Purpose, not relationship: the regulation lists nine proper purposes and puts the burden of proving one on the applicant.
- A view only option: at the same fee you may read the record and take notes, but it stays in the office and cannot be photographed.
- Fifty years for genealogy: a family history request is open where the person has been dead fifty years or more, otherwise written consent is needed.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Nebraska's own systems: the Nebraska Vital Records certificate request site, the department vital records pages, the vital records service choices page, the required identification page, the family history and genealogy page, Title 174 of the Nebraska Administrative Code, the vital records regulations, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
The nine proper purposes
The regulation defines proper purpose by listing circumstances rather than people. Personal use covers a registrant obtaining their own certificate on proof of identity. Legal use covers the registrant, the registrant family or a legal representative needing documentation of a vital event to obtain a legal right or privilege, and the regulation gives examples: establishing the fact of death or identity in a probate or estate action, transferring title to a motor vehicle or other property, obtaining government documents such as a driving licence, an identification card, social security or a passport, obtaining admission to school, and establishing a legal relationship or property right such as an inheritance, insurance or dependency benefit.
Consensual use rests on the written consent of the registrant, which the department keeps as part of the application. Then come scientific or medical use by a qualified researcher, law enforcement use, genealogical use, historical research use, governmental use, and media use by someone employed with a newspaper, magazine, radio or television station for the purpose of reporting news to the public.
What the application must prove
The burden, the regulation says, is on the applicant to prove that a valid proper purpose exists. In practice that means five things: enough information for the department to locate and identify each copy requested, payment of the statutory fee for each copy or search, a name, address and telephone number with proof of identity, where more than one identity document may be required, a description of the purpose for each copy, and satisfactory proof of that purpose.
A researcher has more to supply, including the name of the entity represented, the name of the principal investigator if that is someone else, the applicant qualifications, where the research will take place and how it will be done. All applications must include a copy of the current government issued identification of the person making the application, such as a current driving licence, passport, military identification or state identification card.
Six grounds for a refusal
Nebraska also publishes the reasons an application is turned down, which is a useful checklist before posting one. The department will deny an application where the reason for which the record is sought is not a proper purpose, where the applicant cannot show proof of identity, where the information or documentation provided is incomplete, where the certificate or record requested is confidential, sealed or protected by statute or court order, where the documentation does not provide the proof necessary for release for a proper purpose, and where there is reason to believe the applicant has provided inaccurate or false information.
The department also reserves the right to verify some or all of what an applicant supplies independently rather than take it at face value.
What each route costs in time
The fee does not change with the route, but the wait does. Expedited service exists only for postal orders, and asks the applicant to enclose prepaid postal or courier return packaging, after which processing takes one to two days in the office; without a prepaid envelope the certificate comes back by regular mail. A walk in at the Lincoln office takes a minimum of thirty minutes. A regular postal order takes a minimum of fifteen days of processing, and the department suggests the expedited route to anyone who needs a certificate as soon as possible.
An online application takes a minimum of seven days of processing on top of the four to six weeks the ordering site quotes for delivery. Every genealogy request for a historical record takes up to twelve weeks and is not available for same day service, whichever route it arrives by.
The view only visit
Among the standard services is one that most states do not sell: a view only appointment, charged at the same seventeen dollars for a birth record as a certified copy. The applicant reads the record and may make and keep notes on its contents, but the document must stay in the office and cannot be photographed, and the regulation adds that any copies produced for viewing must be returned to the department before the applicant leaves the viewing area.
To view a record not closed by statute, an applicant visits the Lincoln office, shows current government issued photo identification, meets the proper purpose regulations, pays the non refundable search fee and correctly identifies the record. For a researcher who needs to read rather than to hold a certificate, it is the cheapest honest way to do it.
Where the Nebraska register begins
The department family history page is unusually candid about the gaps. Birth and death records start in 1904 and marriage and divorce records in 1909, with some counties keeping ledgers before those years. From 1904 to 1911 births were usually filed only under the father name and did not list the name of the child, because the filing registered the birth rather than creating a birth certificate, and certificates for births started in 1912.
From 1941 a person born in Nebraska before 1905 could ask to have their birth record put on file as a delayed birth, and all delayed birth records granted by the courts before October 1, 1985 were filed in Lincoln. Birth and death certificates were sent to Lincoln in 1985, except for Lancaster and Douglas counties. For a marriage before 1909 the county where the licence was filed or the state historical society is the place to ask, and for a divorce before 1909 the clerk of the district court in the county where it was granted. The office does not keep census records.
Genealogy, stillbirth and adoption
The fifty year line governs family history. A genealogical request for a birth or death certificate is granted on proof of the applicant identity where the person whose certificate is requested has been deceased for fifty or more years, and otherwise needs the written consent of the registrant or a member of the registrant family. One record type is outside genealogy altogether: a certificate of birth resulting in stillbirth is available only to the parents listed on the fetal death record, costs seventeen dollars like a birth certificate, and is not open to the public for genealogical use.
Where no record is found the office sends a no record response and keeps the search fee. Two other services are worth knowing: an adopted person born in Nebraska can contact the office to learn how to obtain original birth information under the state statutes, and the office maintains the Notice of Intent to Claim Paternity Registry. The ordering site also publishes printable applications and separate printable notary statements for birth and marriage certificates.
Questions about Nebraska birth certificates
Related Nebraska records
Nebraska's other records guides on this site are the Nebraska public records law guide for the public records statutes, the Nebraska death records guide for the same office, the Nebraska court records guide for the judicial branch case search, and the Nebraska county pages for every county office.