MISSOURI

When requesting information from any facility or organization, you need to be as brief as possible, yet give as much information as you can in order to have the best chance of finding (and receiving) your requested records.

The example request letter below presumes a limit of five people or one grave plot for a cemetery request (other types of facility requests would follow the same general principal):

Again, the key is to be as brief, but as informative as possible and, of course, to be polite and courteous.  Allow plenty of time for the reply because they do have their daily work to take care of in addition to your genealogy requests.

Please note that it is not reasonable to ask any facility, most of them normally not staffed for a large volume of genealogy requests, to look up all SMITHs in their records; please be sure to limit your requests in order to not wear out the genealogists' welcome!  :^ )

Below you will find addresses for obtaining certificates. The fee in Missouri is $10.00 for each certificate. The fee is non-refundable even if no record is found. For more details, the web site for the State of Missouri's Department of Health is:
http://www.health.state.mo.us/BirthAndDeathRecords/BirthAndDeathRecords.html

• Birth - (Jan 1, 1910-Present)
  Missouri Department of Health
  Bureau of Vital Records
  P.O. Box 507
  Jefferson City, MO 65102-0570
  (573) 751-6400
  
  
• Death - (Jan 1, 1910-Present)
  Missouri Department of Health
  Bureau of Vital Records
  P.O. Box 507
  Jefferson City, MO 65102-0570
  (573) 751-6400
  
  
• Marriage Index Search (NO FEE) - (after Jul 1, 1948 only)
  All other requests must go through the Recorder of Deeds of individual county (see the county page for that address)
  Missouri Department of Health
  Bureau of Vital Records
  P.O. Box 750
  Jefferson City, MO 65102-750
  
  
• Divorce Index Search (NO FEE) - (after Jul 1, 1948 only)
  All other requests must go through the Clerk of the Circuit Court of individual county (see the county page for that address)
  Missouri Department of Health
  Bureau of Vital Records
  P.O. Box 750
  Jefferson City, MO 65102-750
  

Please click on the link to the left for the type of facility from which you are interested in making a request under the correct city and state of your choice and send your request.  It's that simple!

We hope you have found the Genealogy Request Guide helpful in requesting records from facilities.  If you have any comments or suggestions as to how we can make the site better, or any additional tips we can provide, please send them to: pfrazer@flash.net.

Thank you to all of the all genealogists who have an interest in helping to make these searches easier and to the many facilities out there that are "genealogy-friendly!" Once the site has been up and running for a while and we get some feedback, we will be giving facilities a "Genealogist-Friendly" rating of between one and five. Send any feedback about your experience with a facility to pfrazer@flash.net.

©2000, Patricia A. Frazer. All Rights Reserved.

This information is provided free of charge as a service to the genealogy and family research public, and may not be copied, reproduced, or transmitted in any format for monetary gain or for any other purpose than personal use. All content, text and graphics are the property of Patricia A. Frazer and the Genealogy Request Guide of Saint Louis, Missouri.