Missouri Court Records

Online Resources

 * Missouri Digital Heritage Judicial Records Index and Images.
 * Missouri Digital Heritage Supreme Court Historical Database Abstracts.
 * at FamilySearch; index and images — How to Use this Collection

Introduction
Major Missouri courts that kept records of genealogical value include the following:


 * Circuit courts are county-wide courts with jurisdiction over criminal and civil matters.
 * Courts of common pleas were county-wide courts that existed in some counties before the 1880s. They had jurisdiction over minor civil and criminal matters.
 * Magistrate courts have citywide jurisdiction over minor criminal offenses and some small claims.

Records

 * National Archives—Central Plains Region (Kansas City, Missouri) has U.S. circuit and district court records dating from 1820.


 * The FamilySearch Library has a variety of statewide court records including those from the French and Spanish archives and also a digest of the decisions of the Supreme Court of Missouri. The may be accessed through the FamilySearch Catalog at


 * at FamilySearch; index and images — How to Use this Collection

The FamilySearch Library has microfilmed many Missouri court records in each county. To access these records use the Place-names search function in the FamilySearch Catalog for:


 * MISSOURI,[COUNTY] - COURT RECORDS


 * For more information about federal court records, see William D. White, Preliminary Inventory of the Records of the United States Courts for the Western District of Missouri, (Kansas City, Missouri: Federal Records Center, 1969)

Websites

 * FamilySearch.org
 * Missouri Digital Heritage Online: http://www.sos.mo.gov/mdh/
 * Missouri State Archives: http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/resources