St. Louis County Library

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Contact Information
E-mail: [mailto:genealogy@slcl.org genealogy@slcl.org]

Address:


 * St. Louis County Library Headquarters Tier 5 (top floor) 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd. St. Louis, MO 63131

Telephone: 314-994-3300

Hours and holidays: Monday-Thursday 9-9 ; Friday-Saturday 9-5 ; Sunday 1-5; closed on legal holidays--see Holiday closings

Map, parking, and public transportation:


 * Google map:  St. Louis County Library
 * Parking:  The library has a large, free, well-lit parking lot.
 * Public transportation:  Metro Transit-St. Louis bus route 48 South Lindbergh stops next to the St. Louis County Library. Route 58 Clayton Ballas stops about 600 feet to the north on Clayton Rd.

Internet sites and databases:


 * St. Louis County Library History and Genealogy--information about holdings, planning a visit, security policies, indexes and finding aids, library databases, PastPorts e-newsletter, forms, look-ups and other services.
 * St. Louis County Library Catalog online. Search by keyword, author, title, subject, call number, periodical, or ISBN.

Collection Description
History & Genealogy at St. Louis County Library (H&G) offers researchers a collection of more than 100,000 print items--including 13,000 family histories--valuable microfilm resources, and electronic databases. Geographic coverage includes states east of the Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana, with emphasis on migration trails leading into Missouri. Military history, African American, and other ethnic sources are well represented.

St. Louis sources include online databases, federal censuses, births, marriages, deaths, cemeteries, church records, military records, naturalization records, newspapers, wills, and yearbooks.

H&G holdings include materials from the National Genealogical Society Book Loan Collection, the St. Louis Genealogical Society Collection, the Julius K. Hunter and Friends African American Research Collection and the Jewish Genealogical Society of St. Louis Collection.

Church records include records of parishes in the Archdiocese of St. Louis and the Catholic Diocese of Belleville, IL,, and many German Protestant churches originating in the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod and the Evangelical Synod of North America (now United Church of Christ).

Collections includes difficult-to-find sources for German, Swiss, French, and British Isles research, including


 * One of the largest collections of Ortssippenbücher / Ortsfamilienbücher in the U.S. Volumes cover villages and towns in Germany, Alsace-Lorraine, and Banat.
 * A complete set of parish records for Canton Bern, Switzerland on 850 microfilm rolls.
 * More than 800 books of memorial inscriptions for Scottish cemeteries.
 * Materials for research in England and Ireland.

History & Genealogy at St. Louis County Library is a FamilySearch affiliate Library.

Tips

 * Tours. Public tours of the department are given on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 10:30 a.m.
 * Computer access. There is a 30-minute time limit on the public computers if others are waiting. Free wireless access, which includes access to library databases, is available for personal wireless devices.
 * Microfilm readers. 12 microfilm readers are available for use. All readers are attached to a printer and able to scan and save images electronically. Use is limited to one hour if others are waiting.
 * Book copying and scanning. A coin-operated photocopier is available to make paper copies and can be used as a flat-bed scanner. An overhead book scanner allows scanning to an electronic file.

Guides

 * Online guide to St. Louis sources in the History and Genealogy Department Highlights sources in the collection pertaining to St. Louis-area research.
 * Indexes, Finding Aids and Guides Links to finding aids, indexes, and guides to library holdings arranged by topic.
 * Subject Guides to the History & Genealogy Department Downloadable PDFs featuring introductions to various topics that can be researched in the collection.

Planning a research visit
The St. Louis County Library History & Genealogy website offers helpful information about using the collection and planning a research visit.

Alternate Repositories
If you cannot visit or find a source via the , a similar source may be available at one of the following.

Overlapping Collections


 * Mid-Continent Public Library Midwest Genealogy Center, Independence, a great American genealogy collection: censuses, MO federal land sales, penitentiary, St. Louis fur trade, Civil War, passenger lists, plantations, American Indians, city directories, newspapers, Draper Manuscripts, and KY taxes.
 * National Archives I, Washington DC, census, pre-WWI military service &amp; pensions, passenger lists, naturalizations, passports, federal bounty land, homesteads, bankruptcy, ethnic sources, prisons, and federal employees.
 * National Archives at Kansas City federal censuses 1790–1930; selected military service indexes, pension indexes, passenger lists, naturalizations, photos, adoptions, vital records, land, and Indian records.

Similar Collections


 * State Historical Society of Missouri, Columbia, census, maps, newspapers, online tools, oral history, photos, historical manuscripts, and reference materials.

Neighboring Collections

 St. Louis CITY offices :  In 1876 St. Louis City separated from St. Louis County, but retained all of the original St. Louis County records prior to 1876.


 * St. Louis City Recorder of Deeds and Vital Records Registrar has births 1825-1909, and 1920-present; marriages 1766-1931; deaths 1825-1960, and 1965-present; land 1877-present; adoptions, cemetery records, French and Spanish colonial records, orphanages, licenses and trademarks, veterans discharges, and will indexes, including county records before 1876.
 * St. Louis City Assessor has real estate and property tax records.
 * St. Louis City 22nd Circuit Court probate records 1804-2000; civil, criminal, and family court.
 * U.S. Customs House, St. Louis, has immigration and naturalization records.

 St. Louis COUNTY offices :


 * St. Louis County Office of Vital Records, Berkeley, has all Missouri births since 1920, St. Louis County only births 1883-1910; all MO deaths since 1980, and St. Louis County only deaths 1883-1910.
 * St. Louis County Clerk, Clayton, has births 1877-1910.
 * St. Louis County Recorder of Deeds, Clayton, has marriages and land records since 1876, and military discharges. Marriage, court, and land records of St. Louis County prior to 1876 are only available via the St. Louis City Recorder of Deeds and Vital Records Registrar.
 * St. Louis County Circuit Court Clerk, Clayton, has court records since 1876, and divorces.
 * St. Louis County Probate Court, Clayton, has probate records and an online index.
 * St. Louis County Office of the Medical Examiner, St. Louis, has selected death records.

 Mixed City and County of St. Louis repositories :


 * Clayton Historical Society, Clayton, collects artifacts and documents.
 * Concordia Historical Institute, St. Louis, Department of Archives and History of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.
 * Episcopal Diocese of Missouri Archives, St. Louis, a library, extensive document and photograph collections, and parish registers.
 * German American Heritage Society of St. Louis exploring and preserving heritage.
 * Missouri History Museum Library, St. Louis, has regional history sources, St. Louis, Missouri, the Mississippi and Missouri Valleys, the Louisiana Purchase, American West: indexes, guides, catalogs, photos, genealogy workshops. Many records of Missouri settlers from Illinois.
 * National Personnel Records Center (NPRC), St. Louis, federal government employee and military personnel records starting 1917.
 * Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis Office of Archives and Records parish christenings, confirmations, marriages, and deaths.
 * St. Louis African American History and Genealogy Society collects, preserves, and publishes genealogical and historical records.
 * St. Louis Genealogical Society has a collection of 20,000 books, journals, maps, and CDs at the St. Louis County Library.
 * St. Louis Mercantile Library, early newspapers, railroads, inland waterways, county records, biographies, and genealogies. A premier library for Missouri research.
 * St. Louis Missouri Family History Center has premium online services for free and can offer research guidance.
 * St. Louis Public Library has an Obituary Index for the years 1880–1927; 1942–1945; 1992–2006, family histories, passenger lists, Heritage Quest, and Gateway Family Historian publication.
 * Saul Brodsky Jewish Community Library, St. Louis, comprehensive source for Judaica. 23,000 books.
 * U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Missouri, St. Louis, civil/criminal/bankruptcy court records.

 Outside of St. Louis :


 * Repositories in surrounding counties in Missouri:  Franklin, Jefferson, St. Charles, St. Louis County, Independent City:  St. Louis City, counties in Illinois: Madison, Monroe, and St. Clair
 * Community of Christ Library and Archives, Independence, books, periodicals, letters, and diaries of the of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints/Community of Christ.
 * Kansas City Public Library Missouri Valley Special Collections, The Missouri Valley Room has a great genealogy collection for Missouri and Kansas with biographies, periodicals, genealogies, diaries, photos, scrapbooks, and newspapers of the Kansas City area.
 * Missouri Bureau of Vital Records, Jefferson City, central registry of Missouri births and deaths since 1910; marriages and divorces since 1948.
 * Missouri State Archives, Jefferson City, has court, land, military, death records, federal censuses, county and municipal records, photos, penitentiary, and manuscript records. Birth and death record index since 1883 is online; birth records 1883-1895; marriages 1827-1937.
 * Missouri United Methodist Archives, Fayette, historical materials on Methodism in Missouri emphasizing ministers.
 * Ozarks Genealogical Society Library, Springfield, has Missouri and other states, a large periodical collection, and special southern Missouri family records.
 * Springfield-Greene County Library Center, for southern Missouri: censuses, church histories, directories, Civil War, online deaths 1910-1958, births, marriages, land, probate, cemeteries.
 * Wilson's Creek National Battlefield Library, Republic, find ancestors who served in the U.S. Civil War.

 Outside of Missouri :


 * Repositories in surrounding states: Arkansas, Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.
 * Harrison County Historical Museum, Marshall TX, a key repository for Missouri  and Texas settlers. A major center for MO Confederates. Family folders, books, letters, diaries, journals, surname lists.
 * Newberry Library, Chicago, genealogies, local histories, censuses, military, land, indexes, vital records, court, and tax records mostly from the Mississippi Valley, eastern seaboard, Canada, and Britain.