HOW TO OBTAIN A WISCONSIN Birth or Death CERTIFICATE
Certificates may be purchased in one of the following ways:
You can take advantage of our mail or credit card services. You can FAX or email your application to us using our credit card service (click on the line above). Our turnaround time is 24-48 hours.
Do you need a birth certificate from another state?
Try one of the following websites:
About Milwaukee's Vital Statistics Office
We have access to birth records for ALL births in Wisconsin. We have death certificates for anyone who died at a City of Milwaukee hospital, institution, or residence before 9/2013 and we have death records for anyone who died in Wisconsin from September 2013 to the present. Our office has birth records dating back to 1893 and deaths back to 1869.
This office does NOT have marriage or divorce records for Milwaukee County events. These are only available at the Milwaukee County Register of Deeds office on 9th and State.
Vital Statistics operations are governed by Chapter 69 of the Wisconsin state statute.
This office also has forms and instructions for adding the husband's name if the parents marry after the birth or for adding the father's name to a birth certificate.
A packet is available for those immediate family members who wish to act as funeral directors in handling the final disposition of a loved one. Help is available for those persons attempting to file a delayed birth certificate.
Our NOTARY services are temporarily unavailable.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Regarding 3rd party vendors selling vital records:
We have received increasing calls about private companies (3rd party vendors) selling birth and death certificates. These companies charge customers VERY high fees (up to $250) to ‘process’ or ‘help you apply’ for birth and death certificates. To avoid high fees when ordering online, we highly encourage customers to double-check the URL of the site they are on. You should only order certificates from a state government website or call us at 414-286-3503 for assistance.
Penalties: Any person who willfully and knowingly makes a false application for a birth certificate is guilty of a Class I felony [a fine of not more than $10,000 or imprisonment of not more than three years and six months, or both, per s.69.24(1). Wis. Stats.].