Genealogical Field Trip: St. Louis - Planning Ahead

Field Trip to St. Louis
PLANNING AHEAD

Your research trip begins well before you leave home.   Evaluating the information you have already collected will help suggest where you might look next.   Compiling a series of questions you hope to answer during your visit will help focus your time and energy.

If you know of relatives in the St. Louis area consider contacting them by mail three or four weeks before your trip.   Let them know you will be in town and will be forwarding the exact dates and hotel information once you have it.   Let them know you would enjoy getting together with them if it is convenient for them.   Follow up with the specific trip info including the telephone number of the hotel you will be staying at.  Give them very opportunity to make contact with you, then leave it up to them.   Some will. Some won't. It's worth the effort to try and make contact with fellow descendants.

Don't know if there are any descendants in St. Louis?  If you are searching a less than common surname you might try searching the Internet phone directories.   Both AT&T and Switchboard offer this service with national databases of telephone directories, which usually include the person's mailing address.   I prefer a mail contact to a unsolicited telephone call, but go with what is comfortable for you.

There are numerous other ways to take advantage of your Internet access.   From mapping your route and determining the location and hours of operation for various libraries and city/county offices, to contacting other researchers and accessing online databases, cyberspace is a good place to begin your research trip.

For those who will be visiting from out of town and would like information regarding accommodations in the greater St. Louis area be sure to visit the Accommodations link below. If you have suggestions you would like to share with others regarding hotels/motels, please email me. Your input is appreciated.



St. Louis Web Sites

Mail Lists

Major Library Collections
Including a separate indepth look at the
St. Louis County Library

Requesting Newspaper Notices

Utilizing Free Look Ups

Accommodations





WEB SITES & OTHER LINKS  -  The number of web sites devoted to research in St. Louis continues to grow, covering a vast array of topics, including institutional sites as well as personal.

One of the first pages to visit is Genealogy in St. Louis. Dave Lossos has done a fine job compiling a number of databases and links that are helpful in planning your research. Take time and browse through the site. Dave regularly updates Useful Genealogical Addresses/Telephones in St. Louis. A particularly useful source that Dave created is the Index to "Pictorial St. Louis 1875" . During my visit in 1998 I purchased a copy of "Pictorial St. Louis 1875" from the St. Louis Genealogical Society and it is one of the best genealogy investments I've made. Dave's Index is very helpful as the original book does not really have a thorough one. Just a few of the links you may wish to visit include St. Louis Volunteer Databases and Look-ups, Scott William's Time Portals to St. Louis, and Paulette Morris' St. Louis - Old and New. Be sure to scroll your way down to the very end of the page as there are many excellent links listed here. It is well worth the scroll :)

Although it covers more than St. Louis, another good source for locating sites is Cyndi's List - U.S. - Missouri. Recently browsing there I located a link to Fred Veregge's The Frisco Papers, one which I will want to pursue later as my grandfather, William H. Keehne was a telegrapher for the St. Louis San Francisco Railroad.

Another useful site with helpful links is the US GenWeb City and County of St. Louis Missouri. You never know what might turn up online as a search of the St. Louis County Government web site revealed. You can now research specific pieces of property by entering the county address. The search provided the year in which the house was built, as well as the Assessor book and page numbers and the parcel number. This information could be very helpful in tracking the history of a property.

Stop by the St. Louis Genealogical Society home page as well. Volunteers at the society will do limited genealogical and family history research. Their web site details their research policy. It was a phone call to the society in 1998 that introduced me to their fine staff of volunteers. Although the bulk of the STLGS genealogical collection is at the County Library, you will also find microfilm records, computer programs and books at the society office. While on the subject of societies...keep in mind the role you can play in helping maintain these historical and/or genealogical organizations by becoming a member. :)

Don't forget to visit RootsWeb, the oldest free Internet genealogical service. You will find links for Search Engines and Databases listed on the main entry page. Some additional St. Louis and Missouri links are listed on the "Family Ties" Genealogical Links Page.

Be sure to take advantage of the various mapping sites online, such as Mapquest, to help you pinpoint current locations such as your hotel and places you plan to visit. In addition to maps you can opt for directions to and from specific addresses. The mapping tools are also helpful in locating addresses of ancestors. In 1879 my great-great-grandmother, Mary Murray, lived at 309 So. 7th Street. Entering that address yielded "no result". Entering 400 So. 7th Street provided a map that very quickly showed me that portions of So. 7th, including the 300 block were no longer there, having been acquired to make room for Busch Stadium.

In searching St. Louis streets a good tip to remember is one that Marty Walsh shared with the St. Louis mail list. Streets in St. Louis are numbered as follows: streets running North-South, such as 7th Street, are numbered odd on the west side of the street, and even on the east side;   streets running East-West, such as Walnut, are numbered odd on the north side of the street, and even on the south side. Also remember that there have been a lot of name changes in St. Louis streets over the years. An excellent source of information for this is the book "Streets of St. Louis" by William B. and Marcella C. Magnan.

Robert Dempsey alerted me to an excellent site, St. Louis Streets Index. It is part of the St. Louis Public Library web site. Robert states that the "material is not only an index, but also contains brief comments about the streets themselves and their name changes." Thank you to Robert for passing along this fine resource.


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MAIL LISTS  -  A mail list is a collection of individuals, corresponding by email about a common subject. Two fine lists which focus on St. Louis are the StLouis-MO and STLOUIS-METRO lists.

The lists cover any number of topics, and are designed to help individuals at all levels of experience. A list is only as strong as its subscribers and fortunately both St. Louis lists have members who are very much interested and knowledgeable in the history of the St. Louis area.

Visit the STLOUIS-METRO Home Page for information on subscribing, protocol, ways to search the mail list archives, etc. You will find information for the St.Louis-MO list at on RootsWeb's St. Louis County, Missouri Mailing Lists page.


Ready to sign up for either of the mail lists?
Send an email to:


[email protected]
[email protected]

Leave the subject area blank, and type only the word "subscribe" (without the quotation marks) in the body of the message. You will receive a confirmation welcoming you to the list. Be sure to save the first message as it will contain important information about the list.



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MAJOR COLLECTIONS: St. Louis has a number of major library collections available for family research. Many offer online access to their catalogues which allows you to prepare in advance of your visit. These "cyber visits" to the library can be very helpful. Here are four institutions to consider:

St. Louis Central Library  -  Located near 13th Street on Olive Street in downtown St. Louis, the main city branch offers a number of genealogy gems. Visit the History and Genealogy Department web page which details the collection. The library offers an electronic publication entitled "Gateway Family Historian" to help researchers. Keith Zimmer has set up an index for searching for obituaries. This is explained in greater detail below. Parking is about the only drawback.

St. Louis County Library  -  The "Special Collections" is located on the fifth tier of the county library at 1640 So. Lindbergh Blvd., just south of Clayton Road. This is where you will find the major holdings of the St. Louis Genealogical Society. Because the bulk of my research during the 2001 visit was at the county library, I write in greater detail about the "Special Collections" in the summary for that visit as well as devoting a page to an indepth look at the facility.

St. Louis Mercantile Library  -  Located on the campus of the University of Missouri, St. Louis, the Mercantile Library was originally founded in 1846. In addition to its standard collection the Mercantile also includes The Herman T. Pott National Inland Waterways Library, specializing in the rivers, vessels, and navigation of the great waterways of the Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio; and The John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library", which deals with all aspects of railway transportation. The Mercantile Library has been suggested on the mail lists to people researching ancestors who worked for the steamships and/or railways. Visit the library's web site for A Guide To Researching St. Louis History.

The Missouri Historical Society Library Collections  -  The MHS was founded in 1866. The Library and Research Center is located at 225 S. Skinker, just west of Forest Park. The MHS History Museum is in the Jefferson Memorial Building in Forest Park. The Library and Research Center includes a wide array of media, from books and microfilm, to photographs and manuscripts.


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ST. LOUIS NEWSPAPER NOTICE REQUESTS - Check out the St. Louis Main City Library's Obituary Index for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Keith Zimmer has been instrumental in the planning and execution of this "project in progress" with over 45 years already indexed as of June 2001. The web site explains how to go about searching the years available and how to request copies. Use the search engine found on "Genealogy in St. Louis" to scan the indexes for the names you are searching.

If you need an obituary for a year which has not yet been indexed, you can still request a search by providing the name of the individual plus the date of death or burial. Staff members will search and copy the requested newspaper death notices for you. Keep in mind that the earliest years of publication provide a brief notification of death, rather than an obituary. You will find more information in notices published after 1900.

This service is very reasonable. You pay for the copying expenses plus a nominal postage and handling fee. Well worth the investment. Copies of the notices will be mailed to your postal mailing address along with an invoice for the amount of money you owe. Requests can be made by email or by postal mail. Be sure to include your full postal mailing address so that the copies and invoice can be sent to you.

After checking the indexes you may request copies by email at WebRef. Or if you prefer you may mail a request to:

Obituary Request
Central Library
1301 Olive Street
St. Louis, MO 63103

Keep in mind that the number of newspapers and years covered vary from library to library. What may not be available at one institution may be part of another library's collection. Check around. Visiting their web sites in advance can help you determine this. When in doubt you can always send an email to find out what newspapers they have and what years are available on microfilm. Also remember that collections are not static, most of the libraries are continuing to add to their collection.

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FREE LOOK UPS - You might say that Genealogical CDs - Specialized Free Lookups is a "match maker" site. It helps match your research needs to one of the many volunteers who have offered to do specific look ups on commercial CDs. Visit the site to see how it works. There are very specific guidelines.

How do you know what if any CDs may be of use to your research? Family Tree Maker offers a searchable database, also known as the On-line Family Finder Index. By searching the archives you see if a particular surname or full name appears on any of their CDs. In selecting the CDs that you want to check narrow your options by focusing on states or time periods that apply to your ancestors.

Remember: you MUST have checked the FTM database FIRST and determined that the name you are looking for is ON the CD. Do not expect a volunteer to do a blind search for you. They are generously offering their time; it is important that we do not waste it.

Mail list members can also help out in this area. If you do not see a particular CD listed on the volunteer lookup site, try posting a request to the mail list. I have been very impressed with the willingness of people to help one another.


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If you are visiting from out of town,
visit the Accommodations page,
for information about hotels
in the greater St. Louis area.



Links to "Family Ties" are welcome and appreciated, however, if you wish to reproduce any portion of this site, text or graphics, please contact me first. If you find errors or broken links, please let me know.


Field Trip to St. Louis

Planning Ahead

Field Trip - 1998

Field Trip - 2001

The Old Cathedral