Maine has preserved vital records since January 1, 1892, and the Maine CDC vital records page says all of them are housed at the Data, Research and Vital Statistics office in Augusta and at most municipal offices statewide, with records before 1892 held by the municipality where the event happened or by the Maine State Archives. The death records page explains that once a death is registered and given a state file number, copies of the certificate may be issued by the state office, by the municipality where the death occurred, or by the municipality where the decedent lived, which gives most families two town offices and one state office to choose from.
Whoever prints it, the rule is the same. Maine is a closed record state, vital records are not public, and the request documents page says an applicant who is listed on the record gets a certified copy with an application, identification and the fee, while anyone not listed must also document a direct and legitimate interest. The fee is $15 for a search of the files covering a year before and a year after the stated date of death, one certified copy included, charged whether or not the record is found, with $6 for each additional certified copy ordered in the same search.
- $15 and $6: the search fee covers one year either side of the date given and includes one certified copy; extra copies of the same record are $6, and a non certified copy is $10.
- Closed record: only a person listed on the certificate, or someone who documents a direct and legitimate interest, can receive a copy.
- Free for VA benefits: one certified copy of any vital record is free when it is used to determine eligibility for Veterans Administration benefits.
- State, town of death or town of residence: all three can issue copies once the record carries a state file number.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Maine's own systems: the Maine CDC vital records page, the Maine CDC death records page, the Maine CDC request documents page with the fee schedule and eligibility rules, the Maine CDC page on amending, correcting or completing vital records, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Direct and legitimate interest, with the proof for each
The request documents page defines a direct and legitimate interest as the position of someone who normally has no right to the record but needs it to protect a personal or property right, and it lists the proof. A spouse shows the marriage certificate and a registered domestic partner the partnership certificate. A guardian shows the court papers. Grandparents, siblings, stepparents, stepchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and in laws show proof of lineage.
An attorney or agent shows a vital records release form signed by the person represented or a contract naming both. A minor's surviving parent shows the minor's birth certificate or a court order. Someone needing the record for a lawsuit shows the will or guardianship papers, and someone needing it for a creditor, mortgage lender, Social Security or an insurer shows a letter on that agency's letterhead saying why. Clearing a vehicle title takes the registration with both names.
Government agencies, Maine municipalities, school districts and tribal agencies complete a verification form, and genealogists show identification and a valid researcher card. The page excludes media representatives and commercial firms outside health, medical or social research, and it says every supporting document must be an original or a notarized copy. Lineage is proven first with certified vital records; failing those, two secondary documents such as a hospital or physician record, a baptismal record, school or military records, court records or a census enumeration will do, and the clerk may verify any document that looks doubtful.
Identification at the counter and by mail
An applicant shows a driver license, passport or other government photo identification, and the same requirement applies to certified and non certified copies alike. Someone without a photo document sends photocopies of two items from a long list: a utility bill, bank statement, car registration, tax return, personal check with an address, a previously issued vital record or marriage license, a letter from a government agency requesting the record, a corrections card, a Social Security card, a DD214, a lease, a pay stub or W-2, a voter card, a Medicare or MaineCare card, a school, college or employee photo card, or a disability award from the Social Security Administration.
Fees from the department rule
Chapter 7 of the department's rules at 10-146 CMR sets the fees, and the office says it has no authority to waive them. The $15 search covers a year before and after the stated date and includes one certified copy if the record is found; each additional certified copy of the same record requested at the time of the search is $6. A non certified copy, which is not a legal document, is $10 for the same search. One certified copy of any vital record is free when it is used to determine eligibility for Veterans Administration benefits.
Verification of facts in a record is $25, a disposition permit is $30 of which $5 goes to the Cemetery Preservation Commission fund, a delayed disposition permit is $55, a returned check is $30, and a non certified copy of a record from 1892 to 1955 whose microfilm at the Maine State Archives proves illegible is $25.
Same day in Augusta, mail, or VitalChek
The Data, Research and Vital Statistics office at 220 Capitol Street in Augusta gives same day walk in service between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., with a possible turnaround of up to 24 hours, and takes cashier's checks, money orders, Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover. Corrections, delayed registrations, adoptions, name changes and marital status letters are by appointment only. A mailed application needs the completed application for a vital record, a copy of a signed government photo identification, proof of eligibility for anyone not on the record, a self addressed stamped envelope and the exact fee by check or money order payable to Treasurer, State of Maine; cash is refused and an application without identification or payment is returned.
Mail orders average 5 to 7 business days from receipt, and the office asks applicants not to call until the check has been cashed.
Online orders go through VitalChek, the one internet service the office endorses, at www.vitalchek.com or 1-877-523-2659, for a processing charge of $15.50 per order plus express courier options from $17.50 to $19.50 and a $5 alternate delivery location. The page notes that VitalChek can process requests for grandparents and earlier generations only by telephone.
Genealogists and the researcher card
Maine sells family history access rather than giving it away. A genealogist registers for a researcher identification card at $50, valid for one year from issue, and then shows the card and identification to order records. Each request of up to three records a week is provided at no cost, limited to one such request per week, and each additional record beyond the first three is $10. Records before 1892 come from the town where the event occurred or from the Maine State Archives, whose microfilm covers 1892 to 1955 as well.
Correcting or completing a death record
The amendment page says corrections are governed by 22 MRS section 2705 and department rule chapter 2, cannot be done at a municipal office, and take about 4 to 6 weeks. For a death record the funeral director, the authorized person who made the arrangements or the informant may apply, using the application to correct a vital record in Maine, form VS-7, signed before a notary or municipal clerk. A correction more than 90 days after the record was filed needs two pieces of documentary evidence, and medical items on a death record are corrected by the certifier through a supplemental cause of death.
The fee schedule prices an amendment, correction or completion of a vital record at $60 including one certified copy. The page also lists a sex or gender marker change on a death record among the corrections it handles.
Arrangements without a funeral home, and cremation timing
The death records page describes how a spouse, child or domestic partner who makes the arrangements without a Maine funeral director, called an authorized person, obtains a VS-3 form from the municipality or the state, returns it with the decedent's personal information, and waits while the medical certifier completes the medical portion in the state system before a state file number is assigned and copies can be issued. The authorized person then obtains a disposition permit from the municipality of death or the state office to move the body.
Cremation, burial at sea, use by science or removal from the state requires a medical examiner's release, and a body cannot be cremated until 48 hours after death. Disinterment needs a notarized application from the next of kin, who verifies that no closer relative objects. The estate that follows a death is covered in the Maine court records guide, land passing to heirs in the Maine property records guide, the birth side of the office in the Maine birth certificates guide and other agency files in the Maine public records law guide.
Questions about Maine death records
Related Maine records
Maine readers can continue with the Maine birth certificates guide for the same Augusta office, Maine court records for probate, Maine property records for the registry of deeds, the Maine public records law guide, and the Maine county pages for every town clerk.