Jackson County, Missouri Genealogy

United States Missouri  Jackson County

History


The county is named after War of 1812 hero Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) who became the Seventh President of the United States in 1829.

Parent County
1826--Jackson County was created 15 December 1826 from Lafayette County. County seat: Kansas City

Boundary Changes
See an interactive map of Jackson County border changes at N2Genealogy.

Places/Localities

 * The State Historical Society of Missouri has information on historical Missouri place names for all 114 Missouri Counties.

Neighboring Counties

 * Cass
 * Clay
 * Johnson
 * Johnson County, Kansas
 * Lafayette
 * Ray
 * Wyandotte County, Kansas

Cemeteries

 * Jackson County cemeteries on Find a Grave


 * Blue Springs Cemetery (Find a Grave) 2800 Southwest Walnut Street Blue Springs, MO 64015-3321

BillionGraves:


 * Blue Ridge Lawn Cemetery, Kansas City
 * Memorial Park Cemetery, Kansas City
 * River Ridge Lawn Cemetery, Kansas City
 * Union Cemetery, Kansas City

Church
LDS Ward and Branch Records


 * Independence Dist
 * Centropolis
 * Independence
 * Kansas City

City Directories

 * Fold3.com ($) has Kansas City Directories 1865-1923 (only 4 yrs. missing) available online.

Local Histories
The History of Jackson county, Missouri containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc., biographical sketches of its citizens, Jackson county in the late war... history of Missouri, map of Jackson county ... (1881) 1006 pages, is available online free from Google Books.

Google Books has several books on Kansas City and its residents including:


 * Kansas City, Missouri its history and its people 1808-1908, Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3 (1908) by Carrie Westlake Whitney.
 * Men who are making Kansas City a biographical directory (1902) by G. Creel and J. Slavens.

Maps

 * Map of Jackson County townships (Histopolis)


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

Migration
Early migration routes to and from for European and African American settlers included:


 * Missouri River
 * Oregon Trail 1830s to 1890s from western Missouri to Oregon City, Oregon
 * California Trail 1846 to 1869 from western Missouri to northern California

Military

 * Fold3.com ($) has Civil War and other military records available online.

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


 * August 11, 1862 = Independence I


 * August 15-16, 1862 = Lone Jack


 * October 21, 1864 = Little Blue River also known as Westport


 * October 22-23, 1864 = Byram’s Ford also known as Big Blue River


 * October 22, 1864 = Independence II


 * October 23, 1864 = Westport

Map showing Civil War battles in Missouri

Marriages

 * Marriage licenses dating back to 1826 are available to be searched and viewed at http://records.jacksongov.org/search.asp?cabinet=marriage.

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
 * Blue Springs Missouri Family History Center
 * Kansas City Missouri Family History Center
 * Riverview Missouri Family History Center

Websites

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

A wiki article describing an online collection is found at:

Missouri, Jackson, Voter Registration (FamilySearch Historical Records)