
Christian County Courthouse – Arsonists destroyed the building and all court records on August 20, 1865.The brick courthouse, painted white in 1969, was destroyed by fire August 27, 1973, during a renovation project. Chariton County Courthouse – A fire in the clerk’s office, apart from the courthouse, destroyed all County Court records November 11, 1861, and fires set by Confederates on September 20, 1864, destroyed the courthouse.Crawford County Courthouse – Courthouse burned February 15, 1873, and again on January 5, 1884.Cape Girardeau County Courthouse – Courthouse was destroyed by fire July 18, 1870.On November 28, 1896, fire once again consumed the Caldwell County courthouse. Caldwell County Courthouse – Fire consumed most county records when suspected arsonists set the courthouse ablaze April 19, 1860.Camden County Courthouse – Courthouse burned 1902.Barton County Courthouse – Courthouse burned in November 1862.Bollinger County Courthouse – The courthouse burned in 18.Bates County Courthouse – Courthouse burned in 1861, some records destroyed.Barry County Courthouse – Courthouse burned in 1861, some records destroyed.A number of Missouri counties have experienced a loss of records due to courthouse fires, floods, and theft. However, not all the records were damaged or lost. The most tragic aspect of this is the reason why virtually all of our courthouses are destroyed from arsonist. Although they have been put on mircofilm, computers and film burn as well. Not only are these historic buildings ripped from each of our lifetimes, so are the archives they kept: marriage, wills, probate, land records, as well as others. The damage to Missouri courthouses tremendously has a bearing on family historians in each and every way. Van Buren County, Missouri: Formed as Van Buren, renamed to Cass County in 1849.Seneca County, Missouri: Formed in 1847 from Newton County renamed to McDonald County in 1849.Niangua County, Missouri: Formed in1841 from Polk County, renamed in 1844 to Dallas County.Kinderhook County, Missouri: Formed in1841 from Benton, Pulaski and Morgan Counties, renamed in 1843 to Camden County.Abolished in 1819 became part of the Arkansas Territory Lawrence County, Missouri: Formed in 1815 from New Madrid County.Lillard County, Missouri: Formed in 1821 from Cooper County Abolished in 1825 divided into Jackson and LaFayette Counties.Hempstead County, Missouri: Formed in 1818 from New Madrid County.Dodge County, Missouri: Formed in 1849.Decatur County, Missouri: Formed in 1841 as Ozark, renamed in 1843 to Decatur, renamed back to Ozark in 1845.Clark County, Missouri: Renamed Cleveland County in 1885.Pay attention where the courthouse records went to if the county was abolished or merged with another county. These counties need to be considered when doing ancestry and genealogy research. A lot of these counties were created and disbanded within the 19th century county boundaries have evolved very little since Nineteen hundred in the vast most of states. They were set up by the state, provincial, or territorial governing administration. Missouri has counties that no longer exist. See also a list of links to county and county seat government run websites.

The Missouri State Archives Birth and Death Records Database contains various pre-1909 records of stillbirths, births, and deaths. The clerk of the county court holds death and marriage records from before recording became mandatory in 1909.

Official recording of those records was not required until 1881, but earlier records do exist. The recorder of deeds in each county is responsible for keeping the records pertaining to marriages. The state archives website holds a searchable database of those compiled records. Local records are constantly being compiled according to county by the Missouri Local Records Preservation Program. Missouri Counties – Each county has retained its own county records. For Definitions of all court terms see the Genealogy Encyclopedia For genealogists doing research in Missouri there is no valuable substitute for an on-site research of county court house records. Many Missouri records have simply disappeared.

Some happen to have been carefully conserved and some have been substantially misused and overlooked. Missouri Counties records differ extensively from county to county in either quality not to mention quantity.
