Benton County Marriage and Divorce Records

Getting a Benton County Marriage License

A marriage license in Benton County comes from the Circuit Clerk, not the Chancery Clerk. The Circuit Clerk, Kathy Graves, issues marriage licenses and keeps the county's marriage records. Her office sits in the courthouse at 190 Ripley Avenue in Ashland and answers at 662-224-6310. The county's official Circuit Clerk page lists the marriage-license duty alongside jury, subpoena, and judgment-roll work. Couples apply in person, so both parties should plan to visit the clerk together.

Benton County does not publish its marriage-license fee, its accepted forms of payment, an identification checklist, or a waiting-period rule on any official page. That makes a phone call the safest first step. Ask the clerk what to bring, what the license costs, and whether any prior marriage needs proof of divorce or a death certificate. The contact card below holds the working details for the office that handles the license.

How to Apply for a Marriage License

The application is short, but a little prep prevents a second trip. Because the county does not post a local checklist, the steps below follow the practical order the Circuit Clerk uses for marriage licenses. Call ahead first, then bring what the clerk names.

1. Contact the Benton County Circuit Clerk to confirm the current fee, the office hours, the accepted payment, the identification rules, and whether both applicants must appear together.
2. Bring valid identification, along with any divorce decree or death certificate from a prior marriage if the clerk asks for it.
3. Apply at the Circuit Clerk's counter at the courthouse, where both parties complete and sign the license application.
4. Pay the marriage-license fee by the method the clerk accepts, since the office sets the amount and the payment rules.
5. After the ceremony, return the completed license so the clerk can record it, then request certified copies from the same office.

Looking Up Benton County Marriage Records

Marriage records stay with the Circuit Clerk who issued the license. There is no free public marriage-license database for Benton County, so a request goes straight to that office. Reach the clerk by phone at 662-224-6310, by mail at PO Box 262 in Ashland, or at the courthouse counter. Ask for the certified-copy price, the accepted payment, and whether the office needs a written request before it pulls a record.

The county also does not publish the marriage-license application form or a list of its exact fields. Treat the form fields, the fee, and the processing time as items to confirm with the clerk rather than facts posted online. When a couple married outside Benton County, the license stays with the county that issued it, so a record search must follow the marriage to that other clerk.

Finding Benton County Divorce Records

Divorce is an equity matter, so a Benton County divorce file lives in Chancery Court, not Circuit Court. The Chancery Clerk, Marlene McKenzie, keeps these records at the same courthouse, 190 Ripley Avenue in Ashland, and answers at 662-224-6300. The county's Chancery Clerk page confirms her role as custodian of Chancery Court records. Mississippi assigns divorce, custody, alimony, and property division to this court, as the state Judiciary explains on its Chancery Court page.

Many Benton County Chancery cases can be searched free through the Delta Computer Systems portal. The Chancery Court case search covers cases and scanned images from August 2010 to the present. Older divorces sit only in the paper files at the courthouse. Both Chancery and Circuit courts also run on Mississippi Electronic Courts, and Benton County Chancery Court went live on MEC on May 15, 2023. Remote MEC viewing runs through the paid PAMEC registration, while the Delta search stays free.

A divorce file can hold far more than a final decree. The records most often found inside a Benton County divorce case include the following.

• The complaint or petition that opened the divorce, plus the answer.
• Financial affidavits and any property settlement agreement.
• Child custody, visitation, and child support orders.
• Contempt and modification filings made after the decree.
• The final judgment of divorce signed by the chancellor.

Benton County Divorce Search Fields

The Chancery case search is the documented form for Benton County divorce records, and it offers many fields beyond a name box. Each field works on its own, so you enter one piece of information at a time and submit. The table maps the fields on the public Chancery case form, with the values that matter most for a divorce lookup. Unlike this divorce search, the marriage-license application and its fields are not published, so no comparable marriage form table exists for the county.

The nature-of-action menu is the sharpest tool for a family-law search. Its divorce values cover fault divorce, irreconcilable differences, separate maintenance, child support, custody and visitation, alimony, property division, contempt, modification, paternity, and domestic-relations injunctions. The Delta Chancery landing page warns that online copies are unofficial and that the courthouse record controls.

Restricted Benton County Family Records

Not every part of a family file is open. A divorce judgment is generally public, but the details around children are often shielded. Child custody, child support, and minor-related material may be redacted, and a chancellor can seal sensitive parts of a case. Personal identifiers such as Social Security numbers, financial account numbers, and minor names are routinely removed before a record is released.

Adoption sits behind a stronger wall. Mississippi closes adoption proceedings, and post-adoption access runs through statute and court order under Section 93-17-25. Youth Court and juvenile matters are confidential as well, with access limited by Sections 43-21-261 and 43-21-265 to the youth, counsel, certain agencies, and the court. The broader open-records framework still applies, and the Mississippi Public Records Act favors inspection of records that no other law makes exempt.

Certified Marriage and Divorce Copies

A certified copy carries the clerk's seal and is the version courts, lenders, and agencies accept. The two record types come from two offices. Certified marriage records come from the Circuit Clerk who issued the license. Certified divorce decrees come from the Chancery Clerk who keeps the divorce file. An online copy from Delta or MEC is unofficial, so it does not replace a sealed copy for legal use.

Order a certified copy by phone, by mail, or at the counter, and confirm the price before you pay, since the county does not post copy fees. For a divorce decree, the Benton County Chancery Clerk page covers mailing and request methods in more detail. For a marriage record, the Benton County Circuit Clerk page does the same for trial-court and marriage files.

Benton County Marriage and Divorce Fees

Fees split the same way the records do. Benton County does not publish a marriage-license price or its certified-copy charges, so those amounts must be confirmed with the clerk before you visit. The only posted costs come from the statewide and Chancery online systems. The table lists what is documented and flags what is not.

The Delta and PAMEC prices buy unofficial access, not certified records. Use them to find a case and read a docket, then order a sealed copy from the clerk when a court or agency needs proof. The free Delta Chancery search remains the cheapest way to confirm a Benton County divorce exists before you pay for anything.

Marriage and Divorce Filers in County Towns

Benton County is rural, and its couples and divorcing parties live across small towns rather than one city. Snow Lake Shores is one of those towns, and its residents still use the county courthouse in Ashland for a marriage license or a divorce filing. The Town of Snow Lake Shores posts its own town hall contact for local matters.

A town clerk handles municipal business, but a town clerk does not issue marriage licenses or hold divorce files. Those records always route to the county offices at 190 Ripley Avenue. Hickory Flat works the same way for the western side of the county. The Mississippi Municipal League page for Hickory Flat lists the town's mayor and clerks.

For a marriage record, a Hickory Flat or Snow Lake Shores resident calls the Circuit Clerk. For a divorce record, the same resident calls the Chancery Clerk. The town offices are useful for local questions, not for vital-record copies.

Mississippi Vital Records Office

The state can be a second route for some vital-record needs. The Mississippi State Department of Health Vital Records unit handles statewide vital-record services, which can help when a record predates a county's files or when the marriage happened elsewhere. Benton County's official pages do not link a local marriage-copy process through the state office, so the county clerk remains the primary source for a Benton County marriage record.

For a divorce, the Chancery Clerk is almost always the better contact, because the full file with custody and property terms lives at the courthouse rather than in a statewide index. Start local, confirm the fee with the clerk, and use the state office only as a backup channel for vital records the county cannot supply.