Recording & Marriage Licenses

Kittitas County Recording is a division of the Kittitas County Auditor’s Office. Document recording is an essential function of your county government to ensure that legal ownership is filed and accessible. We also provide an extensive, historical search capability for all public records and state archives.

Records become public upon filing and are indexed accordingly. The recorded document is given a unique filing number for ease of retrieval. We will only certify a document in its entirety. When certified by the auditor, these documents are admissible in courts of law.

Records Search: Legal descriptions can be lengthy. Due to this, and to minimize the possibility of error, we do not provide legal descriptions over the phone. To obtain a copy of a legal description or any document recorded in the Auditor's Office, you can either come into our office, or make a request in writing. If you would like us to do a search, there is an $8.00 per hour/per name search fee, with a minimum one hour. We will not do any Tax Lien searches over the phone.

Recording Fees Effective - September 01 2024

Recorded Document Search

To search for documents or to order copies, the Official Records Search is now available. At this time, we are unable to offer online payments for copies.

Requirements for recording documents as of 1/1/97

All Pages

• MARGINS
  1st page requires a three inch margin at the top and a one inch margin at left, right, and bottom. Subsequent pages require a one inch margin on all sides. The purpose of the margins is to allow application of recording information and to assure proper scanning of all portions of a document.
• EACH page of the document shall be no larger than 14 inches long and 8 1/2 inches wide.
• TEXT shall be typed, printed or written in 8 point type or larger.
• SEALS must be capable of being scanned or microfilmed by being stamped or darkened and they may NOT be in the 1 inch margin. Seals that bleed-through and obscure the document will be rejected.
• ATTACHMENTS affixed to pages will not be allowed. This includes any page or portions of a page that are taped or stapled to another page.
• ALL pages which contain printing will be considered a page of the document and recorded as such. If a printed page should not be recorded with the document, it should not be included with the document.
• All text, seals, drawings, signatures or other content within the document must be legible and capable of producing a readable image, regardless of what process is used for recording.

1st Page or Cover Page

Recorder's Indexing Form

• COVER PAGES may be used if the 1st page of a document does not conform to state standards but an additional page fee will be collected. The cover sheet must be completed by the person or firm recording the document.
• RETURN ADDRESS Person or firm and address to which the document is to be returned.
• DOCUMENT TITLE Indicate the document title. This includes any titles for multiple transaction documents. Indexing criteria will rely on information provided by the person or firm recording the document as indicated on the 1st or cover page.
• REFERENCE NUMBERS TO OTHER DOCUMENTS Indicate document numbers to which the document is referring.
• GRANTORS AND GRANTEES Names of grantors and grantees for each type of document. Indexing criteria will rely on information provided by the person or firm recording the document as indicated on the 1st or cover page.
• LEGAL DESCRIPTION Abbreviated legal description. Section/township/range and quarter/quarter section or Lot, block and subdivision.
• COUNTY ASSESSOR'S TAX PARCEL NUMBER

IF ANY PAGE OF A DOCUMENT DOES NOT COMPLY WITH THE STATE STANDARDS, THE DOCUMENT WILL BE REJECTED FOR NON-COMPLIANCE AND WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED UNTIL ALL PAGES COMPLY WITH STATE STANDARDS OR IF THE DOCUMENT MUST BE RECORDED IMMEDIATELY AND DOES NOT MEET STATE REQUIREMENTS, IT MAY BE RECORDED FOR AN ADDITIONAL $50.00. DOCUMENTS WHICH DO NOT MEET LEGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS MUST NOT BE RECORDED AS A NONSTANDARD RECORDING. IN ADDITION TO PREPARING A PROPERLY COMPLETED COVER SHEET, (RCW 65.04.047), THE PERSON PREPARING THE DOCUMENT FOR RECORDING MUST SIGN A STATEMENT WHICH MUST BE ATTACHED TO THE DOCUMENT AND WHICH MUST READ SUBSTANTIALLY AS FOLLOWS: "I AM REQUESTING AN EMERGENCY NONSTANDARD RECORDING FOR AN ADDITIONAL FEE AS PROVIDED IN RCW 36.18.010. I UNDERSTAND THAT THE RECORDING PROCESSING REQUIREMENTS MAY COVER UP OR OTHERWISE OBSCURE SOME PART OF THE TEXT OF THE ORIGINAL DOCUMENT." (RCW 65.04.048)

Birth and Death Records

The Kittitas County Auditor has birth and death records for Kittitas County only from 1891 to 1907.

You may obtain records for different years as follows:

• For births from July 1, 1907 to 1919 for those born in Washington State only: you can order through the Washington State Department of Health Center for Health Statistics in Olympia, WA.
• For births from 1919 to present for those born in Washington State only: you can order through Kittitas County Public Health Department c/o:
  
  Kittitas County Public Health Department
  507 N Nanum Street, STE 102
  Ellensburg, WA 98926
  (509) 962-7515
• You can order a death certificate through our Local Public Health Department for deaths that occurred after 2014, and occurred in Washington State. Visit the Kittitas Health Department Vital Records Page for details on who can order a death certificate, as well as accessing the order form.

Marriage License General Information

Marriages may be solemnized anywhere within the State of Washington by justices of the supreme court, judges of the court of appeals, superior court judges, district court judges (judges of courts of limited jurisdiction), any regularly licensed or ordained minister or priest, imam, rabbi, or similar official of any church or religious organization.

• No witnesses or blood test is required to obtain a marriage license.
• Marriage license is not valid for three (3) days from date of issue. For example, if the application is made on Monday, the first day it can be used is Thursday. The three (3)day waiting period cannot be waived under any circumstance including court order.
• Marriage license is void if not solemnized within 60 days of valid date.
• Both parties must sign the application before a deputy auditor or a notary public. The marriage license will be given to the parties upon application.

Obtaining a Marriage License in Kittitas County

You may obtain a marriage license from the Kittitas County Auditor, Monday through Friday, 9am to 4:30pm. Licenses will not be issued on Saturdays, Sundays, or Holidays.

Kittitas County Auditor
205 W 5th Suite 105
Ellensburg WA 98926
(509) 962- 7504

Applying by Mail

If you are unable to apply in person, you may apply by mail. Please contact our office early enough to be able to submit the application at least 30 days prior to the ceremony to ensure sufficient processing and return mail time. Please include a contact name, address and phone number where you may be reached if necessary. Use black ink to complete forms.

Age Requirements

• Legal age for both applicants is 18 years old.

Obtaining an Existing Marriage License

Genealogy Research

The Auditor’s office has marriage records starting from 1884 to the present. To obtain copies, you may come into the office or you may request, in writing, office personnel search the records for you. Please include an $8.00 search fee if you submit a search request. Copies may be purchased: $1.00 for a regular copy, $3.00 for a certified copy.

Visit the Washington Digital Archives to perform your own search.