Connecticut is unusual: county governments were abolished in 1960 and county sheriffs were abolished in 2000. Public records are maintained at the state level or by the 169 municipalities (cities and towns). The U.S. Census Bureau now treats the 9 Council-of-Governments planning regions as county-equivalents for federal statistical purposes, while the 8 historical counties (Fairfield, Hartford, Litchfield, Middlesex, New Haven, New London, Tolland, Windham) remain as geographic-only labels with no government function.
- Courts: The Connecticut Judicial Branch runs a unified statewide system; trial-court business is handled by the Superior Court (13 judicial districts).
- Law enforcement: There are no county sheriffs in Connecticut. Statewide policing is handled by the Connecticut State Police; municipal records sit with local police departments.
- Property & recorded documents: Recorded by the town clerk in each of the 169 towns (no county recorders). Many towns publish indexes through uslandrecords.com/ctlr/.
- Assessing: Each town has its own elected/appointed assessor. There are no county assessors.
- Vital records: Issued by the Connecticut DPH Vital Records office and by the town vital-records registrar in each of the 169 towns.
- Business filings: Operated by the Connecticut Secretary of the State at portal.ct.gov/sots.
Connecticut Public Records at a Glance
Connecticut abolished county government in 1960, so the town — all 169 of them — is where local records actually live. The eight counties remain as map lines, and our county pages group the town offices geographically. Courts are fully state-run: civil, family, criminal, and housing case lookups all sit on the Judicial Branch site, indexed on the Connecticut court records page. The State Police handle official background checks, and convictions are public records here — see the criminal records page for the request process. Land records never left the towns: each town clerk records its own deeds, which is why Connecticut's database count below runs into the thousands.
Figures reflect sources indexed in this directory and the latest official reports. Content reviewed July 30, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Connecticut Guides
Step-by-step pages for the searches people actually run:
Statewide Databases
3818 official Connecticut government databases. Click a tab to filter by record type.