Source Information

Ancestry.com. Missouri, U.S., Death Records, 1850-1931 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2008.
Original data: Missouri Death Records. Jefferson City, MO, USA: Missouri State Archives. Microfilm.

About Missouri, U.S., Death Records, 1850-1931

This database contains death registers from Missouri covering the years 1834 to 1910. Information contained in this database includes the following:

  • Name of deceased
  • Gender
  • Race
  • Birth date or age at time of death
  • Death place
  • Death date
  • Father’s name
  • Mother’s name
  • Spouse’s name
  • Spouse’s birth date or age

Note: Not all entries will contain all of this information. There may also be additional information listed in the actual death registers and can be found by viewing the register images.

Where to Go From Here:

With the information provided in this database, you may be able to obtain a copy of a death certificate. If possible, it is important that you do this as there may be additional information recorded on the certificate. For information on how to order death certificates see the below sections.

More About Death Records in Missouri:

No vital records were kept on the state level before 16 August 1909. The Bureau of Vital Statistics (Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, Bureau of Vital Records, P.O. Box 570, Jefferson City, MO 65102) maintains certificates of Missouri deaths less than fifty years old. A $10 search fee includes one certified copy of the death record, if found. The application for copies of birth or death certificates can be downloaded from the Missouri Vital Records website.

In 1883 Missouri passed a state law requiring the recording of births and deaths at the county level. Ten years later this law was inadvertently repealed. At any rate, compliance was poor. Most counties do have these registers, but there is enormous variation as to how complete and/or comprehensive they are.

St. Louis and Kansas City Deaths:

In the city of St. Louis, deaths were recorded from 1850-1910. It is estimated that only about 60 percent of the deaths that occurred during this period were recorded. These St. Louis City death registers have been microfilmed and are available through Missouri State Archives. Certified death certificates from 1870 to the present in the City of St. Louis can be requested by writing to St. Louis City Vital Records/Recorder of Deeds, City Hall, Room 126, 1200 Market St., St. Louis, MO 63103. Request forms are available for download from the St Louis Municipal Government. The fee in 2004 was $10. Kansas City also has intermittent early death records (1874-1910). The 2004 fee was $3 per search and $3 per copy, and the address for inquiry is Kansas City Vital Records, 2400 Troost Ave., Ste. 1200, Kansas City, MO 64108.

Taken from Marsha Hoffman Rising and Pamela Boyer Porter, “Missouri,” in Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources, 3d ed., ed. Alice Eichholz. (Provo, Utah: Ancestry, 2004).