Record Atlas
5 eras · 1500–2026 · 10 places

The lower Ohio and Mississippi shore - the Jackson Purchase, Cape Girardeau and Metropolis

Paducah, Cape Girardeau, Metropolis, Caruthersville, Charleston. 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
1500–1793 Before registers no registers survive

Before registers.
1793–1803 Louisiana - Lorimier's Cape Girardeau post under Spanish grant PARES · FamilySearch

In 1793 the Spanish government granted Louis Lorimier, a French-Canadian, a trading post and a large tract at Cape Girardeau, and he became commandant of the district. Baron Carondelet also granted land near Cape Girardeau to the Black Bob Band of the Hathawekela Shawnee.
1803–1818 Louisiana Territory, then Missouri Territory - and Chickasaw country to the east National Archives Catalog (NARA) · FamilySearch

The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 passed the west bank to the United States; Louisiana Territory dates from 1804 and Missouri Territory from 4 June 1812, and Cape Girardeau was incorporated in 1808. Across the Mississippi, the land claimed by Kentucky since its 1792 statehood was not under US control until 1818.
1818–1821 The Jackson Purchase - Kentucky and Tennessee National Archives Catalog (NARA) · FamilySearch

The Treaty of Tuscaloosa of 19 October 1818, signed by Andrew Jackson and Isaac Shelby, bought the Chickasaw land for $300,000 paid over 15 years; the region was annexed to Kentucky and Tennessee in 1819.
1821–2026 State of Missouri; Commonwealth of Kentucky - the Purchase counties National Archives Catalog (NARA) · FamilySearch · Chronicling America

Missouri became a state on 10 August 1821. In the Purchase, Paducah was incorporated in 1838, Hickman in 1841, Murray in 1844 and Mayfield in 1846; Cape Girardeau was reincorporated as a city in 1843.

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, 1500–2026, 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.

10 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