Record Atlas
6 eras · 1717–2026 · 122 places

Missouri

St. Louis, Ste. Genevieve, St. Charles, Kansas City, New Madrid. Which empire held this ground in which years — and, the part that matters, which archive that means.

Whose archive this ground was

YearsWho held itWhose archive that means
1717–1763 French Louisiana: Illinois Country (Upper Louisiana) no registers survive

The Illinois Country was attached to the province of Louisiana by royal order in 1717. Ste. Genevieve was founded around 1750 and St. Louis in 1764.
1763–1804 Spanish Upper Louisiana (District of Illinois) no registers survive

France ceded the land west of the Mississippi to Spain in 1763; Spain took control in 1763 or 1767 depending on the source, and the transfer to the United States was marked at St. Louis in March 1804. The civil records of the St. Louis area under French and Spanish rule are known as the St. Louis Archives, held at the Missouri Historical Society; French and Spanish land grant papers are at the Missouri State Archives.
1804–1821 District of Louisiana (1804), Louisiana Territory (1805), Missouri Territory (June 4, 1812) FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA)

The Louisiana Territory was renamed Missouri Territory on June 4, 1812; the first five counties were organised on October 1, 1812. In 1819 the land south of 36 30 N, except the Bootheel, became Arkansas Territory; the 1820 census reported 15 counties.
1821–1861 State of Missouri (statehood August 10, 1821) FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA) · Chronicling America

Missouri entered the Union on August 10, 1821, and the capital moved to Jefferson City in 1826. The Platte Purchase of 1836-1837 added the northwest corner to the state.
1861–1865 Missouri (Union state; Confederate government in exile) FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA) · Chronicling America

Missouri did not secede. The Confederacy admitted it on November 28, 1861, but the exiled Confederate government controlled no part of the state. General Order No. 11 of 1863 cleared residents from rural Jackson, Cass, Bates and Vernon counties.
1865–2026 State of Missouri FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA) · Chronicling America

A voluntary birth registration law of 1863 let county recorders record births, and county clerks registered births and deaths from 1883 to 1893, after which registration lapsed until 1910; the Missouri State Archives hold the 1883-1893 microfilm. Statewide registration is dated 1910 or 1911 depending on the source.

The rings are approximate — deliberately. They exist to shade which filing system a place fell under, not to adjudicate a border. A place near a ring's edge should be checked against both neighbours.

See the whole span, 1717–2026, on the map →

The map takes a range, and a range that crosses one of the rows above is where records get lost: the family never moved, and the archive on the far side of the handover will tell you it holds nothing.

122 places on this ground

1742 FamilySearch collections reach this ground

Ranked with the regional ones first — a collection for a province is usually a better lead than a national index, though the national index is often where a name is actually written down. A free account opens the images.

…and 1682 more.

All record regions · The map