Missouri Genealogy Search

Missouri family history has one standout free resource: the Missouri State Archives' Missouri Death Certificates database, which posts free images of every death certificate from 1910 through the year that turns 50 years old, added annually. The Archives in Jefferson City also holds the county records of 114 counties and St. Louis on microfilm, the Missouri Birth and Death Records Database for the pre-1910 county registers, and the French and Spanish colonial records from the 1760s, with Missouri Digital Heritage putting much of it online free.

Statewide vital registration began in 1910, but St. Louis kept records from 1850 and counties tried from 1883 to 1893.

Official sources on this page were checked on September 25, 2026.

Missouri statewide genealogy links

• Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services Family History
• Missouri Secretary of State Digital HeritageState Archives Birth and Death Records
• Missouri Local Records Inventory DatabaseLocal Government Records
• Missouri Coroner's Inquest Database
• Missouri State Archives County Records on Microfilm
• Missouri State Archives Land Patents Databases
• Search Missouri's Judicial RecordsSearch Judicial Records
• Mid Continent Public LibraryLibrary Genealogical Resources

Missouri began statewide birth and death registration in 1910, with St. Louis and Kansas City keeping records earlier and counties keeping registers from 1883 to 1893, and the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services Bureau of Vital Records in Jefferson City holds the certificates. Death certificates become public 50 years after the death and are posted free by the State Archives, while birth certificates are restricted for 100 years. The Archives' Birth and Death Records Database indexes the 1883 to 1893 county registers. Marriage records were kept by each county's recorder from the county's founding, and divorce records sit with the circuit clerk.

• Missouri Death Certificates 1910 to present minus 50 yearsFree images of Missouri death certificates from the State Archives
• Missouri Bureau of Vital RecordsBirth, death, marriage and divorce certificates from 1910
• Missouri Vital Records guideHow to order certificates and what is public

The State Archives holds the 1876 state census, the Spanish and French colonial land grant records, Missouri's War of 1812, Mexican War and Civil War service records including the Provost Marshal papers and the Union and Confederate militia rolls, the Missouri State Penitentiary registers from 1836, county records on microfilm, naturalization records and the St. Louis Circuit Court's historical records including the freedom suits, all searchable through Missouri Digital Heritage. The State Historical Society of Missouri in Columbia holds newspapers and manuscripts, and the National Archives at Kansas City holds Missouri's federal court and naturalization records.

• Missouri Digital HeritageFree digitized Missouri records, censuses and military files
• State Historical Society of MissouriNewspapers, manuscripts and the Missouri Digital Newspaper Project
• National Archives at Kansas CityFederal court and naturalization records for Missouri

Missouri county recorders of deeds hold deeds, mortgages and marriage licenses from each county's founding, circuit clerks hold civil, divorce and naturalization files, and probate divisions of the circuit court hold wills and estates. The State Archives has microfilmed the older books of nearly every county through its Local Records program and holds the St. Louis City records, including the 1850 to 1910 city birth and death registers. Most recorders post deed indexes online. Courthouse fires took early records in Bollinger, Camden, Douglas, Hickory, Ozark and other counties, and the land patents and 1876 census are the substitutes.

• Missouri County Public RecordsRecorders of deeds and circuit clerks for all 114 counties and St. Louis City
• Missouri Court RecordsCase.net searches and probate records

• National Archives, genealogyCensus, military, immigration and land records
• Library of Congress, genealogy guidesResearch guides for family history