Source Information

Ancestry.com. Ray County, Missouri, Marriage and Will Index, 1820-1850 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2001.
Original data: Ellsberry, Elizabeth Prather, comp. Ray County, Missouri Marriage and Will Records. Chillicothe, MO, USA: Elizabeth Prather Ellsberry, c1965.

About Ray County, Missouri, Marriage and Will Index, 1820-1850

This database is a collection of Missouri marriages and wills compiled by long-time genealogical researcher Elizabeth Prather Ellsberry. It includes various marriage and will records from Ray County, Missouri. The marriage records date from 1820 to 1850 and contain the names of both bride and groom and the wedding date. The will records date from 1824 to 1849 and contain (usually) the name of the testator, the probate date, and names of heirs and witnesses.

Ms. Ellsberry began genealogical publication in 1958, when she published her own family history, The Warrens and You. In researching her own family, she found that libraries needed additional information from cemetery records, wills, land records, probate records, census records, etc., to help people with their family history. Ellsberry decided that she wanted to help by publishing books that contained solid genealogical data. She taught school for 34 years, but on weekends and summer vacation, she would travel around to different courthouses and cemeteries, recording the information she found. She also corresponded with several researchers and helped them in their research. Ellsberry self-published more than 300 books, and most of them are available for sale.

Most of the compilation of these books took place between 1958 and into the 1970s, so the recorded information should include the cemetery and/or courthouse records of that time period.

Address:

Ms. Elizabeth Prather Ellsberry
P.O. Box 206
Chillicothe, MO 64601