Lafayette County, Missouri Genealogy

United States Missouri  Lafayette County

County Courthouse
County Recorder has marriage, divorce, probate, court and land records from 1821

Parent County
1820--Lafayette County was created 16 November 1820 from Cooper County. County seat: Lexington. The county was originally named Lillard County. Its name was changed in 1825 to Lafayette County.

Boundary Changes
See an interactive map of Lafayette County boundary changes.

Places/Localities

 * The State Historical Society of Missouri has information on historical Missouri place names for all Missouri Counties.

Neighboring Counties

 * Carroll
 * Jackson
 * Johnson
 * Pettis
 * Ray
 * Saline

Cemeteries

 * The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has burial records for the Missouri Veterans Cemetery at Higginsville, Mo and other veterans cemeteries around the country. The Confederate Home Cemetery in Higginsville, Mo is not available at this site, but records submitted by the general public are available on Find A Grave.com.

BillionGraves:


 * Missouri Veterans Cemetery, Dover
 * St. John's Cemetery, Concordia
 * St. Paul's Lutheran Cemetery, Freedom

Local Histories
A Portrait and biographical record of Lafayette and Saline counties, Missouri ... (1893) is available online free from Google Books. The first part of the book contains biographies of the U.S. presidents. The second part, starting on p.111, contains biographies Lafayette and Saline county residents.

Maps

 * Map of Lafayette County townships (Histopolis)


 * The University of Missouri Digital Library has digital copies of Missouri county plat books (ca. 1930) for all Missouri counties including Lafayette County. The city of St. Louis is not included in this collection.

Civil War

 * Records of the for the Missouri Confederate Home in Higginsville are available online from FamilySearch.

Civil War Battles
The following Civil War Battles was fought in Lafayette County


 * September 13-20, 1861 = Lexington I also known as Battle of the Hemp Bales


 * October 19, 1864 = Lexington II

Map showing Civil War battles in Missouri

Newspapers

 * Newspaperarchive.com ($) has historical newspapers available on-line. Their database has Sedalia newspapers from the late 1800's and early 1900's that sometimes included Lafayette County residents.

Deaths

 * Missouri State Archives provides on-line access to Missouri Death Certificates more than 50 yrs old starting in 1910.

Family History Centers

 * Introduction to LDS Family History Centers

Web Sites

 * USGenWeb project. May have maps, name indexes, history or other information for this county. Select the state, then the county.