Genealogy News from Missouri and Illinois

Many of us are homebound as the winter of 2025 continues to surprise us with unexpected watery and icy bounty. What better time is there to learn about more genealogy resources as well as some upcoming projects and meetings?  You won't have to shovel a drop or get out of your comfy pjs to learn about the wonderful work the Missouri State Archives has accomplished this past year or to attend a virtual meeting on researching in Illinois. So, settle in and read on for more!

Kudos to the eVolunteer Program at the Missouri State Archives!

Genealogy volunteers across the state had a banner year as eVolunteers for the Missouri State Archives! It's amazing to see what they achieved, and we couldn't wait to share this information with you.

Liana Twente, Missouri State Archives eVolunteer Coordinator, released this update about what the volunteer group accomplished in 2024:

1973 Death Certificates Indexing

• This project went live on 5 January and was completed 3-1/2 weeks later on 31 January—one of the quickest death certificate indexing projects on record, adding 53,068 records to the Missouri Death Certificates database: https://s1.sos.mo.gov/records/archives/archivesmvc/deathcertificates#searchDB

Missouri State Penitentiary (MSP) Registers

• After twenty-five years of indexing, the volunteer group finally indexed the last of the MSP registers in September 2024. "This is a huge accomplishment with hundreds of volunteers over the years."
• This year the group completed Volumes 49 through 105, for a total of 26,763 pages indexed and more than 26,000 names added to the Missouri State Penitentiary index. 
• This includes inmates received in MSP between 1975–1986. These will be added to the Missouri State Penitentiary database in the future, but for now, researchers can access these indexed records onsite in Jefferson City.
• View the Missouri State Penitentiary Database, 1836–1931, at https://s1.sos.mo.gov/records/archives/archivesdb/msp/

St. Louis Criminal Court Index

• From 1 to 3 January 2024, volunteers indexed 1,124 pages and added more than 1,100 names to the St. Louis Criminal Court Index, which, says Liana, "is currently used by Archives staff to access the paper records from the St. Louis Criminal Court until they are processed and added to the Judicial Database."
• This index is not yet ready to be posted to the Archives' website, but if you’d like to search for a name, please email your research request to the reference staff at archref@sos.mo.gov.

County Tax Lists

• This project went live in October 2021 and is still in progress. In 2024, volunteers indexed thirty volumes, with more than 1,700 pages completed.
• These will be added to the Census and Tax Lists database at https://s1.sos.mo.gov/records/archives/archivesdb/census/Default.aspx
• If you are interested in helping to index the tax lists, you can get involved in the project here: https://fromthepage.com/missouristatearchives/county-tax-lists

St. Louis Death Registers

• This project went live in September 2023 and is still in progress. Volunteers have completed indexing sixteen volumes, for a total of 4,488 pages reviewed and nearly 112,000 names added to the index.
• Once they are ready, they will be added to the Pre-1910 Birth & Death Records database, which you can view at https://s1.sos.mo.gov/records/archives/archivesdb/birthdeath/

Algoa Inmate Registers

• Algoa is a minimum-security prison located in Jefferson City. It currently houses about 1,600 inmates.
• This new indexing project went live on 5 November 2024 and already the group has indexed 180 pages and added 1,440 names to this index.

According to Liana, "In total, the eVolunteer group at the Missouri State Archives have [sic] indexed 87,358 pages of records across all projects, which is an astronomical achievement!"

Huge thanks go out to the genealogists across the state who volunteer to index for the Missouri State Archives, including quite a few of our own St. Louis Genealogical Society members. And a special thanks to StLGS tech volunteer, Bob Cejka, for sharing this information with us so we can spread the word to all of you!

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Researching in Illinois?

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois is hosting a hybrid meeting on Sunday, 26 January 2025, at 2:00 p.m. (Central) on "Illinois Digital Resources."

Genealogist and librarian Tina Beaird will discuss how to access maps, newspapers, phone books, company magazines, yearbooks, and more using online resources from CARLI (Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois) to IDA (Illinois Digital Archives). 

If you live in or near Northbrook, Illinois, you are invited to attend Tina's talk in-person at Temple Beth-El, 3610 Dundee Road. For those in other areas, the meeting will be livestreamed, and you can register to attend via Zoom at https://jgsi.org/event-5651641.