Kudos to Reclaim the Records Once Again for the New York State Death Index!

Our friends at the amazing Reclaim the Records have chalked up another victory for genealogists who had ancestors who died in New York from 1880 to 2017. We have written about this small but mighty nonprofit several times before, alerting our readers to their ongoing battles for indexes and records that should be public but are being held out of sight by unending red tape. Now, the group has announced another victory which many of us will be very pleased to see. Here are the details . . .

Two Exciting Genealogy Announcements!

 Happy President's Day. We hope you are staying warm and dry during this winter of every kind of weather! This week, we have several items to share with you that we believe are of interest to our genealogy community. With luck, you will discover something new to help move your research forward.

First of Many Cemetery Maps Added to the StLGS Website AND StLGS Members: Please Vote on Amended Bylaws!

Although we have had data on many St. Louis-area cemeteries on our website for more than a decade, we have not had the ability to add maps to the pages until our resident map guru, Jim Bellenger, turned that task into his own pet project. For the past year, Jim has hunted down whatever maps exist for as many cemeteries as he could find and has used his talents to superimpose the old maps onto new Google maps and georeference them so that exact locations of even long-gone cemeteries are now visible. Jim has worked with dozens of people in St. Louis City and County and beyond to obtain the maps, get permission to use them, and link them in several ways to the cemetery pages on our site. Because this is so time-consuming, only the first batch of completed maps is now on the website, but lots more are coming!

Prepare for the 1950 Census Release with our New Interactive Map!

As most of us know by now, the 1950 federal census will be released on 1 April 2022, and many of us are chomping at the bit to see ourselves, maybe for the first time, on a federal census. We have been spoiled over the years, as all the previous censuses are now indexed, making our relatives easier to find. Of course, some of our family members are lost in mis-indexing confusion, but we can usually track them down with creative searching.

When the 1950 census is released in April, it will be posted immediately on the National Archives (NARA) website, and the big players in the genealogy world, like Ancestry and FamilySearch, should have the images up very quickly as well. What no one will have, however, is a completed index, which means that if you can’t wait to find your family, you will have to do some advance preparation before you get to the images. You will need to know:

• exactly where your family members were living
• the enumeration district (E.D.) in which that address was located. (For those new to genealogy, an enumeration district is an area assigned to a census taker [enumerator] that he/she is expected to complete within an allotted amount of time.) 

Once you have the address and the E.D., you should be able to browse the images, which will give you a head start while you are waiting for the indexing to be completed.

A New Interactive Map of 1950 St. Louis City and County E.D.s

St. Louis Genealogical Society tech volunteer, Jim Bellenger, has created another wonderful resource for those searching for family in St. Louis City and County. This new interactive map is now on the StLGS website and links to the National Archives where a series of maps will help you to identify the E.D.s you need. Our website page has complete instructions for using the NARA maps, so be sure to read carefully because there are no instructions on the NARA pages. 

So, how does this work? Let’s say we know that our family was living at 6741 Crest Avenue in University City in 1950. (And if we didn’t know that, we’d start by using a city or county directory to determine their address.) Next step is to go to the page on our website and look at the map of St. Louis County. We know that University City is just west of St. Louis City, so we will need to click on the number five in a circle. 

When the map on the NARA website opens, click on it to enlarge it. The enumeration district numbers are written in orange, so we will want to check those, and we find that University City is in an area that combines a large range of E.D.s, from 155 to 208. (You can ignore the 95 in front of each number.)

That’s a lot of possibilities, so here is a hint on how you can cut the number down. Use the website of noted genealogist Steve Morse. Scroll down to the census section and click on “Unified 1880 to 1950 Census ED Finder”; then choose the 1950 census (way up on the top). Enter the state, county, city, and street address and the site will narrow down the possibilities for you. Now, instead of dozens of E.D.s, there are only three, and you are ready to more easily find this family when the census debuts in April. 

We hope you have had some time to explore the 1883 Hopkins atlas and the Missouri immigration map we told you about two weeks ago, but if you haven’t, here’s the link to that blog post. Have fun!

An Overlooked Resource: St. Louis Branch of the Missouri State Archives

Did you know there was a branch of the Missouri State Archives in St. Louis? If you did know about it, do you know where it is located or what projects they are currently working on? We will fill you in on all of that information in this week's blog post.

First, the St. Louis branch of the Missouri State Archives is downtown in the Carnahan Courthouse, just a block east of City Hall, at 1114 Market Street, Room 245. Because this is a working government building, you do have to go through a security check to enter, but once you are in the lobby, visitors are welcome to visit the archives from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. You are encouraged to call ahead, though, to be sure staff is available to assist you. (Their phone number is included here at the end.) Parking is available in several lots nearby and the MetroLink station near the Enterprise Center is an easy walk in good weather.

What will you find at the MSA-St. Louis? Archivist Mike Everman and his capable staff are working diligently on St. Louis City Circuit Court records. The case files include all kinds of early court cases: petitions/complaints, summons, depositions, subpoenas, judgments, maps, and drawings. Record books have a daily accounting of actions that occurred for each case. There are indexes for plaintiff versus defendant and an inverted index of defendants against plaintiffs.

The job of the MSA-St. Louis staff is to conserve every record, to open, straighten, clean, and digitize more than four million pages of original documents! Work began in 1999 and the St. Louis Circuit Court Historical Records Project was designated an official project of the Save America's Treasures initiative a year later. Along with the state archives, the staff is also partnering with several universities in St. Louis and the National Park Service.
 
Archivists and interns have already processed and indexed Circuit Court records from 1804 through 1835 and from 1861 through 1868. They are currently indexing 1835 through 1840. Their goal is to "preserve and make available case files, indexes, and record books of the St. Louis Circuit Court, 1804–1875." Later records for the city are in the Civil Courts Building. (Remember that in 1876, St. Louis City and County split, so some later records will be in the county.)

Mike and his co-workers at the MSA-St. Louis are happy to help you locate individuals in the indexes and then look at the actual court cases. He says that "processed and unprocessed case files and record books" are available in the archives office. Although some of the records are currently online, much is not there yet. You can contact the MSA-St. Louis staff, if you have a particular request, and they will be happy to work with you to find what you need. They request that you be specific when you email. Include names and dates, the nature of the case you are pursuing, and, if possible, the location in the city where your people were living.

The Missouri State Archives has much more information on their website that can help you.

1. Missouri State Archives-St. Louis
2. St. Louis Circuit Court Project
3. Civil War Records from the St. Louis Circuit Court

If you had Civil War ancestors in St. Louis, you might also want to check out the St. Louis Freedom Suits project, a joint effort between Washington University Libraries and the Missouri History Museum based on work done by the Missouri State Archives. You can read more here.

St. Louis Circuit Court Records, Prior to 1875
Address above
Phone: 314-588-17476
Email: archrefstl@sos.mo.gov

(To the right is the MSA-St. Louis office and Mike Everman, the archivist. It's a small office, but, as you can see, filled with treasures!
Photos by Ilene Murray)


St. Louis Circuit Court Records, Post 1875
St. Louis City Circuit Court
10 North Tucker Street (63101)
Phone: 314-641-8309
Email Kathy Grillo, Records Manager: kathy.grillo@courts.mo.gov