Missouri, independent city
Where the City of St. Louis keeps its records. St. Louis is an independent city and sits in no county, so its deeds, birth and death certificates, assessments, elections and court files are kept by the city's own Recorder of Deeds, Assessor, Board of Election Commissioners and the 22nd Judicial Circuit Court; the State of Missouri keeps the rest.
Start here
The cards below include the City of St. Louis's own courts and offices, along with State of Missouri offices. The city is not part of St. Louis County, whose offices are on our St. Louis County page instead. Use the category buttons to narrow the list.
Circuit court
Missouri's 22nd Judicial Circuit, the state trial court for the City of St. Louis, sits in the Carnahan Courthouse at 1114 Market Street and the Cahill Courts Building at 10 North Tucker Boulevard, with civil, criminal, family and juvenile divisions.
Open official site St. Louis City Circuit Court, 22nd Judicial CircuitCourt records
The Circuit Clerk's office at 10 North Tucker Boulevard, 314-622-4044, keeps about five million court files from 1804 to the present and is where lawsuits are filed, copies of court files obtained, fines paid and docket entries checked.
Open official site Circuit Clerk, 22nd Judicial CircuitCourt records
Public court pleadings of the 22nd Circuit are open remotely on Missouri Case.net or at the clerk's office on the third floor of the Civil Courts Building; certified and plain copies are requested by email from the certified copies clerk.
Open official site 22nd Circuit Court, Request Public RecordsProbate records
The Probate Division, tenth floor of the Civil Courts Building, 314-622-4238, administers decedents' estates, guardianships and conservatorships; case information is requested by mail or fax, and historical probate files are at the Missouri State Archives.
Open official site Probate Division, 22nd Judicial CircuitState courts
Missouri Case.net, run by the state judiciary, searches public court cases by litigant name, case number or filing date; choose City of St. Louis, 22nd Judicial Circuit, and read the entries as a service, not the official court record.
Open official site Missouri Case.netMunicipal court
The city's Municipal Court explains how to find an ordinance or traffic case on Case.net: choose City of St. Louis, 22nd Judicial Circuit, then search by the case number on the citation or by name.
Open official site St. Louis Municipal Court Case SearchProperty records
The Recorder of Deeds holds the city's birth, death, land and marriage records and its archives, with a free land record search, a free marriage search and a property fraud alert service; (314) 622-4610, City Hall, 1200 Market Street.
Open official site St. Louis City Recorder of Deeds and Vital Records RegistrarProperty records
Records deeds, mortgages, liens and subdivision plats for property in the city and sells copies online; City Hall, Room 126, 1200 Market Street, (314) 622-3260, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday to Friday.
Open official site Land Records Department, Recorder of DeedsProperty records
The Assessor assesses and records every property in the City of St. Louis, real and personal, with online personal property declarations, tax receipts, waivers and the address and property information search; (314) 622-4050.
Open official site St. Louis City AssessorProperty records
The city's property database by street address or parcel number: assessment, taxes, sales, land use, ward, neighborhood, zoning and services for each parcel; the city allows no name search of property records on its site.
Open official site Address and Property Information SearchProperty records
Collects the city's real estate and personal property taxes, earnings tax and water and refuse bills, with property tax search, payments and tax receipts online; City Hall, Room 110, 1200 Market Street, (314) 622-4101.
Open official site St. Louis City Collector of RevenueVital records
The city's Birth, Death and Veterans Records departments: certified copies of birth and death certificates recorded anywhere in Missouri and military discharge recording and copies; City Hall, Room 127, 1200 Market Street, (314) 613-3018.
Open official site Vital Records Department, Recorder of DeedsVital records
How to get a Missouri birth certificate from the city's Vital Records Department online, in person or by mail, with the registrant details and photo identification required; a long form copy comes only from the state Bureau of Vital Records.
Open official site Obtain a Birth Certificate, City of St. LouisVital records
Who may request a death certificate for a death in the city or of a city resident (immediate family, a legal representative or a genealogist), by mail with a notarized form or in person at City Hall, Room 127.
Open official site Obtain Death Records, City of St. LouisDeath investigations
Investigates unusual or suspicious deaths and those under its jurisdiction by Missouri law (RSMo 58.720 and 58.722), assigns each a case number and takes public record requests; (314) 622-4971, an investigator answers around the clock.
Open official site St. Louis City Medical ExaminerPolice & jail
The Records Service Center, open Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., gives involved parties copies of crash and incident reports and criminal background checks under the Missouri Sunshine Law, with online requests through the department's public records portal.
Open official site St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department Records Service CenterPolice & jail
The department's Sunshine Law Unit, 1915 Olive Street, Room 562, (314) 444-5388, handles public record requests through the online portal: crash reports, criminal incident reports, calls for service, background checks and other records.
Open official site SLMPD Sunshine Law and Public Record RequestsPolice & jail
The Sheriff, a law enforcement agency under Section 57.450, RSMo, provides courtroom security, jail services and prisoner transport, serves civil process and eviction notices, issues concealed carry permits and holds the land tax sales; (314) 622-4851.
Open official site St. Louis City Sheriff's OfficePolice & jail
The Division of Corrections' inmate locator for the City Justice Center: an exact first and last name returns the name, year of birth, race, sex and facility; people still in police custody are checked with Prisoner Processing at 314-241-8339.
Open official site Locate a St. Louis City InmateElections
The state mandated board that registers the city's voters, keeps the registration records and conducts every public election in the city, with polling places, absentee voting, results and candidate filing; (314) 622-4336.
Open official site St. Louis City Board of Election CommissionersCity records
The first stop for a business license in the City of St. Louis: applications and forms, the licensing procedure, online renewals and tax returns, and the short term rental business license; (314) 622-4528.
Open official site St. Louis City License CollectorState records
The Secretary of State's archives holds over 336 million pages of records, with online databases for births and deaths before 1910, death certificates from 1910 to 1975, naturalizations and soldiers' records.
Open official site Missouri State Archives ResearchVital records
Department of Health and Senior Services bureau issuing certified copies of Missouri births and deaths recorded since 1910, with a marriage and divorce registry since 1948 and 115 local offices that serve visitors in person.
Open official site Missouri Bureau of Vital RecordsPolice & jail
Missouri Department of Corrections search of active offenders it supervises, including probationers and parolees, by first and last name or alias. Discharged offenders are not shown.
Open official site Missouri DOC Offender SearchPolice & jail
The state clearinghouse for missing and unidentified persons, set up in 1985, posts photos and posters, supports DNA reference samples and offers public searches, maps and statistics; reports go to local police.
Open official site Missouri State Highway Patrol Missing Persons UnitPolice & jail
Missouri State Highway Patrol registry of registered sex offenders, searchable by name or by location; registrants report their own information, which can be out of date, and the law limits what the public listing shows.
Open official site Missouri Sex Offender RegistryState records
Missouri State Highway Patrol site for name based criminal history searches and fingerprint background check registration, covering records from the City of St. Louis and every other part of the state.
Open official site Missouri Automated Criminal History Site (MACHS)Federal court
The federal bankruptcy court for eastern Missouri, with the St. Louis division on the fourth floor of the Thomas F. Eagleton Courthouse, 111 South 10th Street; hearing dates and dockets are posted, and case records are on PACER.
Open official site United States Bankruptcy Court, Eastern District of MissouriFederal
U.S. Census Bureau fact table for St. Louis city, Missouri, which the Census counts as a county equivalent: 301,578 people in 2020, plus figures on households, home values, income, schooling and employers.
Open official site U.S. Census Bureau QuickFactsEverything else, organized
7 more St. Louis sources not listed above.
Local record guide
Local profile
St. Louis, a city of 301,578 people in the 2020 Census, separated from St. Louis County in 1876 under the Missouri constitution of 1875 and has been an independent city since. State law gives it the offices a county has: the Recorder of Deeds records its deeds and registers its births and deaths, the Assessor values its property, the Collector of Revenue sends the tax bills, the Board of Election Commissioners keeps the voter roll, the Sheriff serves court papers and holds the land tax sales, and the Medical Examiner investigates deaths.
The 22nd Judicial Circuit is the state trial court for the city, with its Circuit Clerk and Probate Division in the Civil Courts Building, and its public filings are on Missouri Case.net under City of St. Louis. The Metropolitan Police Department releases incident and crash reports under the Missouri Sunshine Law, and the city's Division of Corrections runs the City Justice Center, so the city has an inmate locator of its own.
St. Louis County is a separate jurisdiction to the north, west and south with its own courts, offices and page, and the Mississippi River is the Illinois state line to the east. The cards above are the city's own offices and the state offices that cover it; the More sources section lists the rest.
Abandoned mine records
Where the workings are, and the office that holds the mine maps.
From the old mine records
The mine records hold 96 mine sites inside the city or town limits: 90 past producers, now closed, 1 prospect or occurrence that was never worked, 2 sites producing when the record was made, 3 processing plants, which are not workings; the old survey maps add 10 holes drawn inside the city or town limits, 0 of them shafts or tunnels. The minerals the records name are crushed stone; Clay; Fire Clay (Refractory).
A point in either file is a location, not a property line: the sheet shows the opening on the surface, not the rooms under it. The record that shows what runs under a parcel is the mine map. The OSMRE National Mine Map Repository holds scanned underground mine maps and answers requests for a named mine or an area.
Missouri abandoned mine maps ranks every county and town in the state by the workings recorded inside it, names the office that holds the mine maps, and says what to do if the ground moves.
Disclaimer: The mine information here is for general information only. Old mine records can be incomplete, outdated or wrong, and finding nothing here does not mean there is nothing there. Check with the mine map office named here before you rely on it, and have a qualified engineer look at any ground you are worried about. PublicRecordCenter.com assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors, omissions, or consequences arising from the use of this information.
Straight answers
Open only the answer you need.
Voter registration in Missouri is run by the Missouri Secretary of State, Elections Division and the roll for the City of St. Louis is kept by the Board of Election Commissioners. You can register online as well as by mail or in person. You must be registered by 5:00 p.m. on the fourth Wednesday before the election (RSMo 115.135).
Certified birth and death certificates for events in Missouri come from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, Bureau of Vital Records and in the city from the Recorder of Deeds' Vital Records Department at City Hall, Room 127, which issues certificates for births and deaths recorded anywhere in Missouri. The state fee is $15 per birth record and $15 for each added copy, and $14 per death record and $11 for each added copy. A long form copy of the original record comes only from the state Bureau.
Deeds for property in St. Louis are recorded by the city's Recorder of Deeds, Land Records Department while the Assessor sets the assessed value and the Collector of Revenue sends the tax bill; all three are at City Hall, 1200 Market Street. There is no county office to ask: the city has been its own county for records since 1876.
Incident and crash reports for St. Louis come from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department Records Service Center, the office linked above, open Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., or through the department's online public records portal under the Missouri Sunshine Law. Crash reports are usually ready within five days; bring photo identification and payment in cash, money order or business check.
Businesses that operate in St. Louis register with the Missouri Secretary of State, Corporations Unit and its state business entity search, and take out a city business license from the License Collector's Office at (314) 622-4528, which posts the applications, forms and renewals.
Missouri criminal history checks are run by the Missouri State Highway Patrol, Criminal Justice Information Services Division through MACHS or by fingerprint. The fee is $16.00 per name based request, $20.00 per fingerprint based request for the state only, and $5.00 more for a notarized response. A name based search with name, date of birth and Social Security number runs through the Missouri Automated Criminal History Site (MACHS); a fingerprint search needs a completed FD 258 applicant fingerprint card.
No. The City of St. Louis separated from St. Louis County in 1876 and has been an independent city since. For records it is treated as its own county, with its own Recorder of Deeds, Assessor, Collector of Revenue, Sheriff, Board of Election Commissioners and circuit court. Our St. Louis County page covers the county to the west.
The city's Division of Corrections runs the City Justice Center, 200 South Tucker Boulevard, where people arrested in the city are held; the inmate locator returns the facility for an exact first and last name. People serving state sentences are found with the Missouri DOC Offender Search instead.
Around the city
St. Louis County surrounds the city to the north, west and south, and the Mississippi River is the Illinois line to the east; the pages below cover the county and the places on the city's edge.