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General Information

Washington County PA Courthouse Resources with Addresses

Washington County Courthouse
One South Main Street
Washington, PA 15301
(724).228.6770

The storage of Court House records has changed a lot over the last 20 years.  Many original documents have been moved to off-site storage locations, and other originals have been microfilmed.  For off-site storage, you must make a request for the record to be brought back to the Court House.  If the storage area is in the uptown area, it may only take a few hours to retrieve, but for storage outside the county it may take 1 to 3 days.  

Here is a description of which offices handle which documents (as of 2006):

CLERK OF COURTS (724).228.6787

• Criminal cases.

RECORDER OF DEEDS (724).228.6806

• Land (Indenture) documents.
• Military discharges.

PROTHONOTARY'S OFFICE (724).228.6770

• Civil cases.
• Liens.
• Divorces;
• Naturalizations.
• Wills (Register of Wills can be reached at 724-228-6775).

ORPHAN'S COURT (Dial Court House main number and ask for Orphan's Court)

• Marriage Licenses (back to 1885)
• Adoption Records (Pennsylvania is a closed adoption state; records remain sealed).
• Guardianship of minors and incapacitated adults.
• Probate of Estates for those who died Intestate (without a Will).
• Probate of Will when the document or contents has been challenged.

If you plan a trip to the Court House and want to save time, call or write ahead of time to ask about retrieval of records from off-site locations.  You might want to add an extra day or two to your planned trip and make your first Court House visit in the first couple days of your stay to make your records-request, and plan to return to the Court House on the day your requested documents will be brought back on-site.

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