Daviess County, Missouri Genealogy

United States Missouri  Daviess County

Guide to Daviess County Missouri ancestry, family history, and genealogy research page. Birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, family history, and military records.

County Courthouse
County Library has birth and death record on microfilm 188301893 and local census 1876; Recorder of Deeds has land records; Probate Court has probate records

History
The History of Daviess County, Missouri (1882) is available online free from Google Books.

Parent County
1836--Daviess County was created 29 December 1836 from Ray County. County seat: Gallatin

Boundary Changes
For animated maps illustrating Missouri county boundary changes, "Rotating Formation Missouri County Boundary Maps" (1804-1889) may be viewed for free at the MapofUS.org website.

Record Loss
For a list of record loss in Missouri counties see: Missouri Counties with Burned Courthouses

Places/Localities
Town/city records in the FamilySearch Catalog


 * Arthur Paul Moser has short descriptions of towns in Daviess county, many of them no longer exist.


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

Neighboring Counties
Caldwell • Dekalb • Gentry • Grundy • Harrison • Livingston

Cemeteries
Steve Reid's page has about 70 transcriptions of Daviess county cemeteries. Many of these transcriptions are current only to the 1970s. The page also includes a historical description of all known Daviess county cemeteries and directions to their location.

Lanita Sconce Smith's page and the Daviess County Historical Society sort Daviess county burials by name.

Find A Grave has many Daviess county cemetery transcriptions.

Here is another page of Daviess county cemeteries for Clear Creek, Creekmore, Enyart, Everly, Foley, Frazier, Guthrie, Hays, Hemry/Payne, Hill, Lick Fork, Lock Springs, McCrary, Muddy, Old Union, Pell, Pilot Grove 1, Reid (partial), Trosper, Trotten, and Weldon.

Here are transcriptions of the Winston and Muddy cemeteries. Other transcriptions of Muddy cemetery are here and here.

The Missouri Tombstone Transcription project has links to McCrary, Lick Fork, Creekmore, and Old Scotland cemeteries.

Brenda Abplanalp and Virgil Givens abstracted the Wooderson cemetery.


 * Daviess County, Missouri, Cemetery Records, Vol. 2 at Ancestry.com ($)

Census
The 1876 State Census for Daviess county is available at Ancestry.com or on microfilm ($15) from the Missouri State Archives.

Church
Trails.com has a partial list of historic and current churches in Daviess county. A slightly different list is given by the USGS database.

Baptist
Primitive Baptist Library in Carthage, IL maintains a Daviess county, Missouri page on their website.

Grand River Baptist Church in Jameson - History and list of early members. Missouri Genealogy and History.

Grand River Baptist Church in Jameson - History. (Daviess County Historical Society). Photos &amp; Tours (William Jewell College) Note also that he William Jewell College is a major repository for Missouri Baptist records.

Catholic
Gallatin


 * 1871-1875 - Catholic Church, Gallatin, Baptism Index 1871-1875. Batch at FamilySearch - free.
 * 1871 - Catholic Church, Gallatin, Marriage Index 1871. Batch at FamilySearch - free.

Jamesport


 * 1872-1876 - Catholic Church, Jamesport, Baptism Index 1872-1876. Batch at FamilySearch - free.
 * 1873 - Catholic Church, Jamesport, Marriage Index 1873. Batch at FamilySearch - free.

St. Joannis, Bancroft


 * 1870-1876 - St. Joannis, Bancroft, Baptism Index 1870-1876. Batch at FamilySearch - free.
 * 1871, 1883-1885 - St. Joannis, Bancroft, Marriage Index 1871, 1883-1885. Batch at FamilySearch - free.

Land
There are two types of patents. Those issued by the state and those by the Federal Government.

The Missouri Secretary of State sponsors a site with land patents for Daviess county 1831-1969.

For patents issued by the Federal Government for land in Daviess county click here. Enter Missouri and your ancestors surname. If you find a record for your ancestor you will be able to download a PDF of the patent. You should also consider ordering the associated case file.

Local Histories
The Daviess County Historical Society lists a variety of county and family histories and other resources.


 * Leopard, John C. History of Daviess and Gentry counties, Missouri. Tucson, Arizona : W.C. Cox, 1974.
 * Online at FamilySearch (Free)
 * The History of Daviess County, Missouri : an encyclopedia of useful information, and a compendium of actual facts .... Kansas City, Missouri : Birdsall & Dean, 1882.
 * Online at FamilySearch (Free)
 * Jordin, John F. Memories : being a story of early times in Daviess County, Missouri, and character sketches of some of the men who helped to develop its latent resources. Gallatin, Mo. : North Missourian Press, [1904?].
 * Online at FamilySearch (Free)

Maps

 * Maps of Missouri (1804-1889)
 * Family Maps of (land patent maps) at HistoryGeo.com ($). Free surname search.


 * This map shows Daviess County townships and known cemeteries within each.


 * Interactive map of Daviess County townships (Histopolis)


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

Military
Names of soldiers are engraved in the pavement bricks of the war memorial near the courthouse.

Civil War

 * - 23rd Regiment, Missouri Infantry (Union), Company H
 * - 2nd Battalion, Enrolled Missouri Millitia, 6 months (Union), Company C
 * - 1st Regiment, Missouri State Militia Cavalry (Union), Company A
 * - 1st Regiment, Missouri State Militia Cavalry (Union), Company B
 * - 1st Regiment, Missouri State Militia Cavalry (Union), Company D
 * - 1st Regiment, Missouri State Militia Cavalry (Union), Company E
 * - 1st Regiment, Missouri State Militia Cavalry (Union), Company I
 * - 3rd Provisional Regiment, Enrolled Missouri Militia (Union), Company F
 * - 4th Provisional Regiment, Enrolled Missouri Militia (Union), Company M
 * - 6th Regiment, Missouri State Militia Cavalry (Union), Company G
 * - 4th Provisional Regiment, Enrolled Missouri Militia (Union), Company B
 * - 4th Provisional Regiment, Enrolled Missouri Militia (Union), Company A
 * - 57th Regiment, Enrolled Missouri Militia (Union), Company A
 * - 57th Regiment, Enrolled Missouri Militia (Union), Company B
 * - 57th Regiment, Enrolled Missouri Militia (Union), Company C
 * - 2nd Battalion, Enrolled Missouri Millitia, 6 months (Union), Company A

Newspapers

 * The Genealogy Department of the Daviess County Library, given a specific date, will do lookups in the newspapers listed on their website for a small fee.


 * The Archives of The Chillicothe Constitution Tribune (1889-2009) provides free access to their newspapers online. Their newspapers covered local news that included residents from Daviess County communities.

Taxation
As of Mar 2013 neither the Missouri State Archives, nor the FHL appear to have early tax lists in their microfilm collections for Daviess County. So if they exist, they are probably held by the county clerks office at the courthouse.

Births

 * 1883-1891 - Daviess County Birth Index 1883-1891. Batch at FamilySearch - free.

Marriages

 * 1837-1899 - Daviess County Marriages 1837 - 1899
 * 1838-1881 - Daviess County Marriage Books A, C and D Index 1838-1881. Batch at FamilySearch - free.
 * 1878-1885 - Daviess County Marriage Books E thru G Index 1878-1885. Batch at FamilySearch - free.
 * Daviess County, Missouri Marriages, 1836-55 at Ancestry.com ($)

Deaths

 * The Missouri Secretary of State has Missouri Death Certificates more than 50 yrs old starting in 1910, a few earlier. Some certificates were never completed or filed, others have creative spellings. The information is only as good as the informant could recall at the time.
 * 1883-1891 - Daviess County Death Index 1883-1891. Batch at FamilySearch - free.

Genealogy Societies, Archives and Libraries
There is a Daviess county Genealogical Societyand a Daviess County Historical Society. The Daviess County Library in Gallatin also has genealogical records. Other Missouri libraries with Daviess county records include the Midwest Genealogy Center in Independence, the Missouri State Historical Library in Columbia and the State Archives in Jefferson City.
 * List of Missouri Archives, Libraries, Publications, Historical & Genealogical Societies

Family History Centers



 * Gallatin Missouri Family History Center 211 Ash St, Gallatin, MO 64640 United States Location Map