Lookup · official state notary registers
Notary lookup: verify a notary public’s commission
Before you sign, check that the notary holds a current commission. Searches the official notary registers that Texas, New York, Colorado, Oregon and Delaware publish, and shows the commission number, dates and type.
| Name | Commission | Commissioned | Expires | Status |
|---|
The registers this notary search reads
| State | Register | What it includes | Official search |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | data.texas.gov · updated quarterly | current and expired commissions | Texas Secretary of State notary search |
| New York | data.ny.gov · updated daily | commissioned notaries, county and traditional/electronic | NY Department of State: search commissioned notaries (Open Data NY) |
| Colorado | data.colorado.gov · updated weekly | current notaries, with eNotary/remote flags | Colorado Secretary of State: verify a notary |
| Oregon | data.oregon.gov · updated daily | active notaries | Oregon Secretary of State: Active Notaries (Oregon Open Data) |
| Delaware | data.delaware.gov · updated weekly | commissioned notaries, with remote/electronic flags | Delaware notary portal |
In the Socrata catalog (where many states publish open data), dedicated notary registers exist only for these five states. In every other state, use the Secretary of State’s (or commissioning office’s) notary search.
Texas notary search and New York notary search: what to know
Texas publishes the full commission file — over half a million commissions, including expired ones — but refreshes it quarterly. A missing name is common for recent commissions, so the result always links the Secretary of State’s own search, which is current. New York’s Department of State points the public to the Open Data NY register of commissioned notaries, refreshed daily, which shows the county of commission and whether the notary is registered for electronic notarization.
Checking the fee too? Notary fees by state calculates the legal maximum for your signing, and the notary & witness checker tells you whether your document needs a notary at all.
Frequently asked questions
How do I verify a notary’s commission?
Search by last name (and first name) or by commission number. The tool asks the state’s own open-data notary register and shows the commission number, start and expiration dates, county or city and whether the notary is commissioned for electronic or remote notarization, and marks the commission current or expired against today’s date. For other states, use the Secretary of State’s notary search.
The notary is not in the results. Does that mean they are not commissioned?
Not necessarily. Texas publishes its register quarterly, so notaries commissioned in recent months can be missing — check the Texas Secretary of State’s search. New York, Oregon and Colorado publish current notaries only and update daily or weekly. Names can also be registered with a middle name or a different spelling: try the commission number printed on the notary’s stamp.
What information is shown?
Only what identifies the commission: name, commission number, dates, county (New York) or city (Oregon, Delaware) and the commission type. The Texas register also contains notaries’ e-mail and street addresses; the search never requests those fields.
Is my search saved?
No. The search goes through SealForms to the state’s register without being logged or stored; repeated searches are served from a short-lived cache keyed by a one-way hash of the query, not by the name.
SealForms is not affiliated with any Secretary of State; results come from each state’s open-data register on the date shown. Not legal advice.