Boston Vital Records: Certificates, Ordering, and Corrections

Boston vital records — certified birth, death, and marriage certificates for events that happened inside city limits — are issued by the Registry Division at Boston City Hall, 1 City Hall Square, Room 213. You can order online, by mail, or in person Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Copies cost $12 at the counter and $14 online or by mail.¹

What the Registry Actually Holds

The Registry’s birth and marriage records go back as far as 1630. Death records are a different story: the office only holds them from 1956 forward, for people who died in Boston or listed Boston as their home address. Anything earlier has to be requested by mail, and death records from before 1870 carry a $10 research surcharge on top of the regular fee.²

One boundary worth stating up front: the Boston Registry only covers events that happened in Boston. If the birth, marriage, or death took place in another Massachusetts city or town, you need that municipality’s clerk or the state Registry of Vital Records and Statistics in Dorchester, which holds statewide records from 1936 to the present.³ Being a Boston resident does not get you a record for an event somewhere else.

What You Need Before You Order

Three facts about the record itself: the full name of the person on the certificate, the date of the event, and the place of the event. For a birth certificate, have the parents’ names ready too.⁴

You also need valid ID. The Registry accepts a driver’s license (even if expired), a state ID, or a passport. If you’re ordering as a legal guardian or representative, bring documentation of that relationship.⁵

The Three Ways to Order

Online

The city runs its own ordering portal at registry.boston.gov. Each copy is $14, which includes shipping, plus a card-processing fee of up to $0.25 plus 2.15% of the total. Your card isn’t charged until the order is confirmed, usually within two to three business days. After that, delivery runs on standard mail speed.⁵

By Mail

Print the request form from Boston.gov, fill it out, and mail it with payment and a self-addressed stamped envelope to:

Registry Division
1 City Hall Square, Room 213
Boston, MA 02201-2006

Copies are $14 each. Pay by check or money order made out to the City of Boston. Add $10 if you’re requesting a death record from before 1870.² Boston doesn’t publish a separate city processing time; the state Registry runs about 30 business days for standard mail orders and 7 to 10 business days if you write “Attention: Expedited Mail Service” on the envelope, which is a reasonable yardstick.⁴

In Person

Walking into Room 213 is the fastest route and the cheapest: $12 per copy, usually issued while you wait. The office takes cash, checks, money orders, credit cards, and pinless debit cards. Card payments add a non-refundable 2.5% processing fee with a $1 minimum. PIN debit cards aren’t accepted.⁵

When You Can’t Just Order a Copy

Most Boston vital records are available to anyone with ID and the required details. Two categories are not.

Massachusetts law impounds certain sensitive records under Chapter 46, Section 2A: births to unmarried parents, records involving certain medical conditions at birth, fetal death records, and marriage records where a physician’s certificate was filed under a specific provision of state law. Only the person named in the record, their attorney, a parent, a guardian, a conservator, or a government official whose duties justify access can get a copy. Everyone else needs a court order. Records filed before January 1, 1841 are exempt from these restrictions.⁶

Adoption records are handled separately and more tightly. No adoption information is released without a written order from a Probate Court, or approval from a placement agency for limited non-identifying information.⁷ An adopted person can’t access the court adoption file about their biological parents without showing good cause to a judge.⁸

Death Certificates: Two Extra Wrinkles

Beyond the 1956 cutoff for in-person and online orders, there’s one more thing to know. If the death involved a Medical Examiner’s autopsy and the final results aren’t in yet, the record is pending. You can still request it, but the certificate will show incomplete information. The mail request form includes a checkbox to indicate you’d rather wait until the record is finalized.²

Fixing a Mistake on a Record

A vital record reflects what was true at the time it was created, so an amendment generally fixes errors rather than updating the record for later changes like a legal name change. You need to show evidence that the information was wrong at or near the time of the event.⁹

Start by contacting the clerk where the event occurred. For a marriage record, that’s the clerk where the notice of intentions form was filed. The clerk will tell you what evidence to bring.

Parentage changes have their own rules:

To add a biological father, use a Voluntary Acknowledgment of Parentage form. If the mother was married to someone else at the time of birth, you also need an Affidavit of Non-Paternity from the mother and her spouse.
To add, replace, or remove a parent, you need a court adjudication of parentage.
For adoption, Massachusetts Probate and Family Courts send the evidence directly to the Registry, so no separate amendment is needed.

The one-time amendment fee is $50. A certified copy of the amended record afterward costs $20 in person or $32 by mail.⁹

When Boston Isn’t the Right Office

Three common wrong turns are worth flagging so you don’t waste a trip to City Hall.

Divorce records. The Registry does not hold them. Divorce decrees sit with the Massachusetts Probate and Family Court that handled the case. Search the Massachusetts Trial Court’s online docket portal or contact the specific court directly.¹⁰

Events outside Boston. For a Massachusetts event that happened in another city or town, contact that town’s clerk, or the state Registry (1936–present), or the Massachusetts State Archives (1841–1935). Events before 1841 go through the original city or town clerk.¹¹

Apostilles for use abroad. If you need a Boston certificate for use in another country, the apostille is issued by the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s Commissions Section, not the Registry. Each apostille is $6. You can get up to three documents done at the counter at One Ashburton Place, Room 1719; four or more require next-business-day pickup. Mailed requests take two to three weeks, with a check payable to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and a prepaid return envelope. The underlying document must carry an original signature from a valid authority such as a city or town clerk or the Registrar of Vital Records; photocopied signatures can’t be certified.¹² Plan the apostille step after the certificate itself is in hand.

Checking on a Pending Order

There’s no online tracker. To check on a request, call the Registry at 617-635-4175 or email registry@boston.gov during business hours, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.¹

1
Boston.gov. Registry: Birth, Death, and Marriage
2
Boston.gov. How to Get a Death Certificate
3
Mass.gov. Registry of Vital Records and Statistics
4
Mass.gov. Order a Birth, Marriage, or Death Certificate
5
Boston.gov. How to Get a Birth Certificate
6
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Part I, Title VII, Chapter 46, Section 2A
7
Legal Information Institute. Massachusetts Code 110 CMR 7.211 – Adoption Records
8
Mass.gov. Access to Adoption Records
9
Mass.gov. Amend or Correct a Birth, Death, or Marriage Record
10
Mass.gov. Search Court Dockets, Calendars and Case Information
11
Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Vital Records, 1841-1935
12
Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Apostilles and Certifications