1967 MO Death Certificates Now Available

It's a new year and Spring has arrived.  Genealogists will soon be out in force scouring overgrown cemeteries, dusting off old courthouse records, and crisscrossing the country for family reunions.

Another rite of Spring in Missouri for genealogists the last several years is the annual release of 50-year-old death certificates.  Naturally, this year is the release of 1967.  Click here to visit the State Archives database.

A bonus awaits those who haven't visited the database recently.  Additional indexing work has been accomplished on the years 1959-1967 making spouse, father, and mother searchable fields!  The wonderful development of these additional access data points will be beneficial to anyone unsure of name spelling (or spelling errors to start with!) or individuals entered with initials.

Happy searching!!

Missouri State Veterinarian Ledger, 1889-1893

Example page from the Missouri State
Veterinarian Ledger, 1889-1893.

The Missouri State Veterinarian Ledger, 1889-1893 contains information on the early practice of veterinary medicine. Occupational details and travel expenses for doctors Paquin, Turner and their associates comprise the ledger. The volume also contains log entries detailing owner, location of visits, animals, nature of diseases, characteristic symptoms, and treatments; quarantine regulations pertaining to the Texas cattle fever outbreaks of 1890, 1892, and 1893; and financial reports submitted by deputy state veterinarians and livestock inspectors.

Learn more about these interesting tidbits of history by visiting the Missouri Digital Heritage website.  The database can be browsed page by page or searched by keyword. 

Contained in the ledger include the following counties:

Audrain County (Mo.)
Buchanan County (Mo.)
Grundy County (Mo.)
Jackson County (Mo.)
Marion County (Mo.)
Oregon County (Mo.)
Pettis County (Mo.)
Saint Louis (Mo.)

Missouri State Penitentiary Database

Looking to add a little excitement to your family history?  Tired of finding farmers, store clerks, and housewives?  There's a database that might just provide you with a dash of spice to add some variety to your family tree!

The Missouri State Penitentiary database, contributed by the Missouri State Archives, is now available on the Missouri Digital Heritage website. The site offers access to 62,758 records of inmates who served in the prison from 1836 to 1931, including the names and ages of the prisoners, their crimes and sentences, as well as the years they entered and were released from the prison. A limited number of inmate photographs is available because mug shots of incoming inmates were not required until 1928.

Crimes committed cover a large ranges of incidents, from commonly thought of crimes such as murder and rape to the unexpected "larceny of fowl at night" and at least on instance of "Conveying into Butler County jail certain package with intent to aid and facilitate escape of prisoners".  (Apparently there was quite the crime wave of chicken theft over a century ago across the state.)

The Missouri State Penitentiary was the first state penal institution west of the Mississippi River. It opened its doors in 1836 and operated continuously until 2004.  If you would like additional information on the penitentiary and its history, look for "The Missouri State Penitentiary : 170 years inside the walls" by Jamie Pamela Rasmussen on your next visit.

Missouri Digital Heritage - Missouri Governors Records, 1837-1897

Sketch of the Governor’s Mansion, Jefferson City,
Missouri from the History of Jasper County, Missouri.

Have you taken a look at the Missouri Digital Heritage website fromt the Missouri State Archives lately?  If not, they've added great historical resources for 19th century Missouri providing insights into the governing of the state.  The latest is:  Missouri Governors Records, 1837-1897.  The following details show just what you'll find!

  The collection includes official records of 19th century Missouri governors. Missouri’s sixth governor, Lilburn Williams Boggs is the first for which the Missouri State Archives holds gubernatorial records.

  Missouri governors from the 19th century coped with tensions surrounding the expulsion of Mormons, slavery, violence along the Kansas border, guerilla bands, vigilantes and the outbreak of the Civil War. Other topics in the collection include emancipation, the ousting of elected officials, voter disenfranchisement, civil unrest, outlaws, veterans’ issues, inflation, economic worries, labor unrest, railroad construction and massive debts.

  Records of governors currently on-line include those for the years 1837-1893. Forthcoming additions to the collection include the years 1893-1897. The Missouri State Archives does not hold records for governors in office from 1821-1836.

  The records include correspondence, court records, advertisements, letters of recommendation, resignations, arrest warrants, extradition requisitions, pardons, rewards for capture, bills, invoices, receipts, oaths of loyalty and supporting materials, election notices, writs of election, and legal opinions by the Missouri Attorney General and the Supreme Court of Missouri. The collection also contains maps, memoranda, meeting minutes, newspaper clippings, petitions, proclamations, reports, resolutions, statistics and telegrams.

1962 Death Certificates Now Available Online At The State Archives

In less than 72 hours, volunteers of the Missouri State Archives have managed to index all Missouri death certificates for 1962!  Yep, it's that time again, over 42,000 new documents just became available and are waiting to be researched.  While not receiving the fanfare of last year's release of the 1940 Census, the latest batch of death certificates are now available to the public for research.

To the non-genealogist, the idea of using death certificates in research may seem morbid, but this is (usually) the last record created documenting the life of a relative, aside from an obituary and possibly probate records.

Personally, I've found choosing just a county and a year (in this case, 1962) one of the best ways to search for information.  Using this method, I can browse the index and discover surnames of interest for individuals I might not have been aware of previously and is a great work around for spelling errors on the original document or a mistake in the trascription process.

These single sheets of paper can be a treasure trove of information.  The majority contain the date, place and cause of death, along with date and location of birth.  If the "informant" providing the information was close to the deceased, parent's names (including the ever-elusive mother's maiden name!!), spouse's name, address of usual residence, occupation, and social security number might be available.  Other information included is the funeral home taking care of the arrangements along with the date and place of funeral and burial.

The Missouri State Archives website explains:

"The Missouri Death Certificate Database, containing death records created after 1910 and over 50 years old, makes that information available online through a searchable index that links to a digitized image of the original death certificate. The index can be searched by first name and last name, county, and by year and month.  Once a name is selected, a digitized image of the original certificate can be retrieved."

Once retrieved, the image may be printed and/or saved to your own computer in PDF format.  The best part? It's FREE!!  To begin your search, go to: Missouri Death Certificates Database.

If you have questions or comments about these records, please contact the Missouri State Archives at archref@sos.mo.gov.  For death certificates less than 50 years old, contact the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services through their website here.

Until the 1963 death certificates are released and indexed next year, happy hunting and good luck with your research!

1930 Butler County, Missouri Plat Book

Genealogists are well aware that just because something is old, it's still useful, even if it's an old Plat Book. The Missouri Digital Heritage Collection, part of the Missouri State Archives and Missouri State Library online databases under the Missouri Secretary of State's Office, has many digitized publications ready to reveal secrets and insights into the lives of past Missourians and their communities.

Today I want to draw attention to the 1930 Butler County, Missouri Plat Book available online.  This is a great resource to see who owned land and where at.  If you have land descriptions from deed records of relatives, this will be a great help in visualizing where that they were located.  The library owns various copies of Plat Maps from the 1970's through the present day.  These could be useful in determining how land was divided up or what areas have stayed in the same family for generations.  Using features on an old Plat Map, such as waterways or railroads, could be helpful in finding a location on a more familiar county road map to visit an old homestead.

Being aware of how items are described in one online library catalog, can translate into successful searching of the catalogs of other libraries. (Caveat: This is dependent on the library using standardized cataloging techniques though! Akin to genealogists properly citing their sources.)  This item has the following subject headings:

• Butler County (Mo.) - Maps
• Real Property - Missouri - Butler County - Maps
• Landowners - Missouri - Butler County - Maps

Using these terms, along with changing the state and county names as needed, will help you quickly locate potentially useful items in other libraries for various locations.

Missouri Death Certificates Now Available Through 1961 Online!

To the non-genealogist, the idea of using death certificates in research may seem morbid.  This (usually) is the last record created documenting the life of a relative, aside from an obituary and possibly probate records.

But these single sheets of paper can be a treasure trove of information.  The majority contain the date, place and cause of death, along with date and location of birth.  If the "informant" providing the information was close to the deceased, parents names (including the ever-elusive mother's maiden name!!), spouse's name, address of usual residence, occupation, and social security number.  Other information included is the funeral home taking care of the arrangements with the date and place of funeral and burial.

"The Missouri Death Certificate Database, containing death records created after 1910 and over 50 years old, makes that information available online through a searchable index that links to a digitized image of the original death certificate. The index can be searched by first name and last name, county, and by year and month.  Once a name is selected, a digitized image of the original certificate can be retrieved." (Source: Missouri State Archives website).  Once retrieved, the image may be printed and/or saved to your own computer in PDF format.  The best part? It's FREE!!  To begin your search, go to: Missouri Death Certificates Database.

If you have questions or comments about these records, please contact the Missouri State Archives at archref@sos.mo.gov.  For death certificates less than 50 years old, contact the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services through their website here. 

Happy hunting and good luck with your research!!

-Shon