Just about a month ago, our friends at Reclaim the Records announced the release of birth and marriage indexes from Connecticut (which we told you about in a post on 6 September; if you missed it, you can read it here.) This week, they announced another exciting victory, one which may be much closer to home for many of us. Although this hardworking group had already obtained indexes for some births and deaths in Missouri, they have now been able to add about a million new names to what had previously been published. But it was not without an expensive fight! Here are all the exciting details.
The back story on these indexes is rather incredible. The state of Missouri passed a law effective 28 August 2004 explicitly stating that lists “of persons who are born or who died on a particular date may be disclosed upon request” as long as no other information from the record other than name and date is disclosed. That is the same law that made it legal to release information in vital records for “legitimate research purposes” and to release copies of death records more than fifty years old. (Missouri State Statute Title XII, Public Health and Welfare, Chapter 193, no. 245)
When Reclaim the Records originally asked for the perfectly legal indexes in 2016, the state attempted to charge them $1.5 million, claiming it would take almost 35,000 hours to transfer the files. This resulted in a long, expensive court battle that ended in “the second-highest assessment of fines against a state agency in a Sunshine Law case in state history for knowingly breaking the law.” In 2020, after winning soundly, Reclaim the Records placed Missouri’s birth and death indexes online and now, with no further saber-rattling from the state, they have been able to update each index as follows:
- They have added 588,542 new records from 1910–1919 and from 2016–2022 to the birth index. They do note two things, though. As many researchers in Missouri know, the state did not start keeping birth and death records until 1910, and many areas did not comply immediately. So that first batch of names and dates is likely incomplete. Also, the final tally of 2022 data is incomplete and will likely not be finalized until next year.
- The death index has been updated with 482,900 new names/dates from 2016–2022.
Where are these indexes?
- Both sets of indexes are on the Reclaim the Records website and are absolutely free. You can find the Missouri Birth Index here.
- You can find the Missouri Death Index here.
On both pages, you can search by name or date, and once you find your results, if you scroll down the search page, you will find information about how you can obtain copies of the actual certificates. (Remember that death certificates more than fifty years old are available for free from the Secretary of State’s website.)
Scroll further down each page, and you can read the whole unbelievable story of how these indexes were finally obtained. You can also sign up for the group’s free newsletter and, of course, make a donation so they can keep bringing us more free genealogy goodies.
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