Which office has my record?
Choose where the event happened and the kind of record. Add the year and county if you know them: older records and some local records sit with a different office.
How the finder decides
Birth and death records stay in the state, city or territory where the event happened, whatever your address is now. The finder uses each office's own statement of which years it holds and where older records went: some states moved their oldest records to the state archives, and some keep only recent decades at the state office while the county probate court or the city holds the rest.
Marriage and divorce records are different. In many states the county office that issued the marriage license keeps the certified record, and the full divorce decree always stays with the clerk of the court that granted the divorce. The finder names that office where the state says so.
New York City and New York State
Births and deaths in the five boroughs (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island) are filed with New York City, not New York State. Type the borough or county name in the county box and the finder sends you to the city office.
What the finder does not do
It does not search for a person or a record, and it does not order anything. It tells you which office to contact and links to that office's own page. Where the state also lets local offices issue copies, it links the state's official list of those offices.