Baraga County Clerk of Court Office

About the Baraga County Clerk

Wendy J. Goodreau serves as the Baraga County Clerk and Register of Deeds. She also holds the county's Freedom of Information Act Coordinator role, which means most formal records requests eventually land on her desk. Deputy Clerk Carrie Forcia backs up the office day to day, helping residents move through vital record orders, marriage paperwork, and recording questions without a long wait.

The office sits at 2 South Main Street in L'Anse, separate from the courthouse a few blocks away, and it functions as the county's records hub rather than a single-purpose desk. Beyond issuing certified copies, the clerk manages Baraga County elections, keeps the county's vital records, and processes and maintains every circuit court file generated in the county. State practice also names the clerk as Register of Deeds and as clerk of the county Board of Commissioners, so the same office signs off on real estate recordings and keeps the commissioners' official minutes.

Three Functions of the Baraga County Clerk

The clerk's page on the county website breaks the office into three headline duties, and each one touches a different part of daily life in Baraga County. Election management keeps ballots, filings, and results moving in every township and precinct. Vital records work keeps birth, death, and marriage certificates on file and available to the people who need them. Circuit court file processing keeps every pleading, order, and judgment from the county's felony and family cases organized and retrievable.

• Manage county elections, including candidate filings, ballot preparation, and canvassing support.
• Maintain vital county records such as birth, death, and marriage certificates.
• Process and maintain every circuit court file opened in Baraga County.
• Serve as Register of Deeds and as clerk of the Board of Commissioners.

Note: because the same office holds circuit court files and vital records, one visit to the L'Anse office can often resolve both a case-copy need and a certificate request.

Ordering Vital Records in Baraga County

Birth, death, and marriage certificates all move through the same request process at the Baraga County Clerk's office. A certified copy of any of the three costs $10 for the first copy, with each additional copy of the same certificate on the same order priced at $5. Fees are nonrefundable once a request is processed, even if a copy turns out not to be needed.

Requests can be handled three ways. Applicants can walk into the office at 2 South Main Street, submit a request through the county's online Apex Vitals portal, or mail a completed form with payment. Online orders carry an added technology fee on top of the standard certificate price, a cost that in-person and mail requests do not add.

Marriage certificate requests use a slightly different form than birth and death requests, though the same three channels and the same $10 and $5 pricing carry over.

How to Request a Certified Copy

Ordering a certified copy is the most common reason people contact the Baraga County Clerk's office, whether the certificate covers a birth, a death, or a marriage. The same basic sequence applies across all three record types.

1. Decide which record is needed, birth, death, or marriage, and confirm the event happened in or was recorded in Baraga County.
2. Complete the matching request form, either the county's paper form or the online application on the Apex Vitals Web Portal.
3. Pay the $10 first-copy fee, plus $5 for each extra copy of the same certificate, or the added technology fee for an online order.
4. Choose a delivery method: pick up the certified copy in person, complete the order fully online, or mail the signed form with payment to the L'Anse office.

Note: in-person applicants need a valid driver's license or other government-issued photo ID before staff will release a certified copy at the counter.

Marriage Records From the Baraga County Clerk

Marriage licenses begin at the clerk's counter, not the courthouse. Applicants pay $20 if both are Michigan residents or $30 if either party lives out of state, due at pickup by cash, money order, Visa, or MasterCard. Each applicant needs a certified birth certificate, a government-issued photo ID, and a Social Security number, though the physical card itself is not required.

Age matters too. Anyone 18 or older can apply without extra paperwork, but 16 and 17 year olds need notarized parental or guardian consent before the clerk will issue a license. Witnesses signing at the ceremony must also be at least 18. Once issued, a license stays valid for 30 days, and couples cannot apply more than 33 days ahead of the wedding date. A standard three-day waiting period applies between application and pickup, though the clerk can waive it with approval.

Certified copies of an existing marriage record follow the same $10 and $5 pricing as birth and death certificates, using a dedicated marriage certificate request form and the Apex Vitals Web Portal for online applications. Couples planning a wedding, or looking for a completed marriage record, can find fuller license and copy details on the county's marriage and divorce records page.

Baraga County Register of Deeds Services

As Register of Deeds, the same clerk's office records deeds, mortgages, land contracts, liens, death certificates, plats, and surveys tied to Baraga County property. Staff record what is submitted, but they do not draft deeds or give legal advice on how to prepare one.

Recorded documents can be searched two ways. Laredo works best for frequent, single-county research and runs on a subscription. Tapestry suits someone who only needs an occasional look or wants to search across several Michigan counties at once. Either way, the office also offers a free property fraud alert service that emails a notice whenever a document is recorded under a matching personal or business name, a useful guard against deed fraud.

Recording a deed in Baraga County triggers a real estate transfer tax of $8.60 per $1,000 of value, rounded up to the nearest $500. Of that amount, $7.50 goes to the state and $1.10 stays with the county, under MCL 207.505 and MCL 207.526. The total consideration paid for the property must appear on the face of the transfer instrument, or a separate transfer valuation affidavit has to be attached instead. Documents submitted for recording also have to follow formatting rules: original signatures with the signer's name typed or printed underneath, notary acknowledgments that match the signature lines exactly, legible black ink, type no smaller than 10 point, white paper of at least 20 pound weight, and proper margins. Any Social Security number on a document must be obscured the way state law requires before it can be recorded.

Filing a FOIA Request With the Clerk

Records that are not available through a standard certificate or copy request move through Michigan's Freedom of Information Act instead. Wendy Goodreau doubles as the county's FOIA Coordinator, so a written request eventually reaches the same office that handles vital records and deeds.

A FOIA request has to be in writing, though no specific format is required beyond that. The county provides its own form, and a request can be delivered in person, by mail, by fax, or by email. Michigan's FOIA forms packet covers the request itself, a fee itemization, an excess-fee appeal, and a denial appeal, alongside a plain-language summary of procedures. A standalone FOIA request form is also posted on the county's documents page.

The county has five business days to respond in writing once a request arrives, with a possible ten-business-day extension if the request is large or complex. If it grants the request, or part of it, the office can require payment before releasing records.

Notary Applications Through the Baraga County Clerk

Baraga County residents can also apply to become a notary through the clerk's office, though the commission itself comes from the state. Applicants need a valid state-issued ID, must be at least 18, and must live in Baraga County, or for out-of-state applicants, have their principal place of business here.

The application asks for identifying details such as a driver's license or state ID number, date of birth, residential and business addresses, phone numbers, any prior notary commissions, and whether the applicant has a felony or misdemeanor conviction within the past ten years. A $10,000 surety bond is required before the county will finalize the paperwork.

The clerk charges a $10 finalization fee, payable by cash, check, or credit card, on top of the state's own $10 filing fee. The completed notary application then goes to the Office of the Great Seal in Lansing, and processing typically takes four to six weeks before the commission becomes active. The notary is not valid until the certificate of commission arrives, so new applicants should hold off on notarizing anything until then.

Ways to Reach the Baraga County Clerk

No single channel covers every clerk service, so it helps to know which one fits the task at hand. In-person visits, the county's online portal, mail requests, and formal FOIA filings each work best for a different situation.

Phone calls to 906-524-6100 can answer quick questions about any of these channels, though most requests still need a signed form or an online submission to move forward.

Note: the office fax line, 906-524-6432, is a fast way to submit signed forms without a trip to L'Anse or a mail delay.

Court Record Rules at the Clerk's Office

Because the clerk processes every circuit court file in Baraga County, the same public-access rules that govern courthouse records apply at this office too. MCR 1.109 defines what counts as a court record, a definition broad enough to include pleadings, orders, judgments, and warrants the circuit court issues.

MCR 8.119 sets the access rule itself: a record stays open for inspection unless a specific statute or court rule makes it nonpublic. Protected identifiers such as a Social Security number, date of birth, or financial account number generally have to be redacted before a public copy goes out, though the clerk is not required to scrub every document on the way out the door.

Vital records and recorded land documents follow a separate set of state rules, but the same instinct applies. What the office holds is not automatically public just because it sits in a county file, and what looks private is not automatically withheld either. A closer look at how these rules play out across district, circuit, and probate cases is available on the county's court records page.

Where Baraga County Clerk Services Connect

The clerk's office rarely operates in isolation from the rest of county government. A circuit court case that needs a certified pleading copy, a property sale that needs a recorded deed search, and a couple that needs both a marriage license and a certified copy afterward all pass through the same counter in L'Anse.

Knowing that the clerk wears several hats, election official, vital records keeper, circuit court custodian, register of deeds, and FOIA Coordinator, makes it easier to guess which form or fee applies before making the trip.