San Mateo County, California Public Records

To begin, add a county public record or view a list of county record locations and resources for San Mateo county records and the state of California.

Many people remark about how the areas of California have strange names. This is most likely because most of the area was settled by the Spaniards before Europeans ever set foot on the land, and it was more prudent to keep the names that everyone had become accustomed to rather than to change the names all around and to confuse people. In the case of San Mateo County, however, there is a very good reason why the name was kept: the county was named after a Saint known as Saint Matthew. Saint Matthew was one of the apostles of Jesus and is the very one who is supposed to have written the Gospel of Matthew.

In fact, until around the mid 1800’s, the name on the map was San Matheo, which definitely pointed back to the area’s Spanish connection. Those who are looking for relatives who lived in the area may be most likely to find the San Mateo County public records that they’re looking for at the San Mateo County Clerk-Recorder, which can be found, in person at 555 County Center, 1st Floor, located in the fairly large, and popular city of Redwood City, CA.