If you are in a relationship and alarm bells are going off, are you asking the question, "How can I find out if someone is legally married?" Divorce, especially complicated ones, can take a long time, so many people might not want to reveal that they are in the process of severing ties but are still legally tied to someone else. 

To find out if someone is legally married, you need to know the person's legal name and the state in which she was married. You will probably also need another piece of identifying information, such as the date of birth or a driver's license number. You can then check public records, often known as vital Records, to see if there is a valid marriage on file.

But there's a problem: for a complete search, you would need to repeat this process for all 50 states. Further adding to the complications is the possibility that your boyfriend used a false name when he married—or that he's using one now.

If the person in question has family and friends who have been in the picture for years, they may be the best resource to find out if someone is legally married. Although families may not always know every detail about someone's life, they will know if there has been a habitual problem of hiding the truth, which should be a huge red flag.

If you have the money, you can hire a private detective to find out someone's background, including previous marriages. However, this can become quite expensive, especially if the person has moved a lot or taken measures to hide information.

Unfortunately, if you are in a relationship that puts you in the position of having to investigate something as important as whether or not a person is married, you most likely are involved with someone who is setting off other red flags as well. More often than not, when red flags start popping up, there is good reason for it and the best tactic is to walk away and find someone you can develop a trusting relationship with instead.