Hallo Peter, Betty, and all List Members,
Missouri has several excellent web sites, all without cost to the public. Betty asks: "Wie hast Du einen kostenlosen Zugang bekommen?" Birth and death records are maintained by the several states. The policy may vary from state to state, but in Missouri the law is that a person's death certificate is a public record after 50 years have passed. Next year, the records of 1958 will become available, and so forth.
The present system began only in 1910, but an earlier system was in effect for some years in the 1880s, and some records may be available from a companion site of the Missouri Secretary of State's archives site URL that was posted earlier to OWP-L. Here, for example, is a summary a friend prepared for me concerning the death of my great-great-grandmother:
SEYFFERT, JOHANNA Died: 17 Dec 1886, in Moniteau County, Missouri . Age: 76 years, 2 months, 28 days. Widow. Female. White. German. Born: Drustädt. Resident in Missouri: 32 years. Died: [City of] California, Missouri. Cause: Chronic Bronchitis (ill for several years). Buried: 18 Dec 1886 at Salem Church. Undertaker: H. Twiehaus, of California, Mo. Name of reporting physician: Dr. H. Kluber, California, Mo. Reported 20 Jan 1887.
I should comment here that there may be errors or incomplete information in these older records. In the above case, the place of birth should have been recorded as "Vorwerk Dennstädt bei Thallwitz, Sachsen." Also please note that the records here do not provide the maiden name, as is customary in Germany. [Her birth name was Johanna Maria Magdalena Knauf.] Still, this is remarkable detail for a state record from 1886-7.
There are other records available that may be of interest for those of you who had family members emigrating to Missouri. Marriage and probate (settlement of the estate of the deceased) are two examples. However, only the larger cities may have these resources available on the internet. Here are the examples I recommend to you:
Jackson County marriage records (including all of Kansas City until more recent years):
http://records.co.jackson.mo.us/search.asp?cabinet=marriage
The web browser you use must be set to enable the use of "cookies." This is for the management of your computer session only. Netscape 4.7 Communicator or Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher are recommended, but I use other web browsers successfully. A full explanation of the site is available at: http://records.co.jackson.mo.us/
Enter a surname for either the groom or the bride, and click on the "Search" button. A list then appears, which may extend for several pages. From the names and dates given, choose an entry that is of interest to you. Click on the "image" icon, and you are given the choice of receiving the image of the document you have selected as either a .pdf or as a .tiff file. A second page appears. Continue to select. If one choice does not work for you, try the other one. Or try a different web browser. You should receive an image that you may then save to your computer, print out in paper copy, or send to someone else.
A companion site for Jackson County Official Public Records relating mostly to property (specifically: deeds, mortgage documents, easements, assumed names, powers of attorney, bills of sale, and liens) may be found at:
http://records.co.jackson.mo.us/search.asp?cabinet=opr
and it operates in a similar fashion.
Next, you may wish to experiment with probate records in the City of St. Louis before 1900. The Probate Court records that relate to the dead individual's "Last Will and Testament", the inventory of his possessions at his death, the identification of his heirs, and the names of persons who bought items from his estate that were sold at auction -- these and other documents may all be available. Every item in the "probate file" has been digitized, and thus there may be one hundred images or more in the case of individuals of some wealth. Again, this is now public information, and the cost of digitizing the records has been funded by the State of Missouri. Here is the entry site, which is again maintained by the Missouri Secretary of State:
The search engine is found at the bottom of the page. The surname is to be entered first, but it may be entered partially if there may be spelling differences (for example in the case of my surname, "Seyf" would include entries for Seyfert, Seyffert and Seyfarth, among others). As an alternative, there is a second search engine that allows one to search for all entries in a given year. When a listing is of interest, merely click on "-view images-" to see a list of batches of images which are called "collections." There are generally five images to each "collection," and the images are accessed in this manner to limit the size of the file being sent electronically.
Two more databases that may be of interest are those relating to naturalizations:
Missouri Digital Heritage : Naturalization Records, 1816 - 1955
and death notices in the St. Louis Westliche Post for 1880, 1881 and 1882:
http://www.slcl.org/branches/hq/sc/indexes/westliche/westliche-obit-index.htm
Note that the index for each year may be downloaded as a .pdf file, or they may be viewed on-line. The information given is limited to full name, age at death, and date of death. Photocopies of the actual death notices are available from this library, although I do not know how they might handle international inquiries. I suspect they would be willing to scan a death notice and send it as an email attachment.
These are but a few suggestions for making use of the liberal records policies and cost-free, on-line searching that is available here. I offer my help to any list member who has either a general question or a specific research request. My German is very limited, but I welcome emails in German as well as in English.
Warm greetings on a pleasant spring evening in Kansas City,
Gordon (Seyffert)