Missouri Free Public Records Directory

Located in mid-west United States, Missouri consists of 114 counties and is 69,704 sq. miles in size, ranking it the 21st U.S. state in size. Missouri is bordered by eight states consisting of Iowa on the north, by Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee across the Mississippi River on the east, Arkansas on the south, and by Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska on the west. The northern and southern boundaries are straight lines. The Missouri Bootheel, a short panhandle, protrudes southerly into Arkansas. The Mississippi River and the Missouri River are the two largest rivers in Missouri.

Lying north of the Missouri River are the Northern Plains stretching into Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas. There are many large river bluffs along the Mississippi, Missouri and Meramec Rivers. The southeastern part of the state is the lowest, flattest, warmest and wettest part of the state.

The climate in Missouri has cold snowy winters and hot, humid and wet summers. Missouri often experiences extreme temperatures since there are no high mountains or oceans nearby to moderate temperatures. Missouri’s extreme weather includes severe thunderstorms and tornadoes. It is located in an area of the U.S. known as “Tornado Alley,” where a number of states experience frequent tornadoes.

Missouri was inhabited by indigenous people for thousands of years before European exploration. Their cities included thousands of individual residences including massive earthwork mounds in platforms, ridgetop and conical shapes. At one time, St. Louis was known as Mound City by the European Americans. The first settlement by European settlers in Missouri was created at present day Ste. Genevieve. Ste. Genevieve became a thriving agricultural center producing surplus wheat, corn and tobacco, which was shipped downriver to Lower Louisiana. St. Louis was soon founded by French fur traders and became the center of a regional fur trade for decades. It expanded greatly after the invention of the steamboat and increased river trade. After the Civil War, both St. Louis and Kansas City became centers of industrialization and business.

Missouri became the 24th state in the U.S. on August 10, 1821. It played a central role in the westward expansion of the U.S. The Pony Express, Oregon Trail, Santa Fe Trail, and California Trail all began in Missouri. Kansas City was transformed into a major transportation hub with the expansion of the railroads into the west. With the growth of the Texas cattle industry, increased rail lines and the refrigerated boxcar, Kansas City became a major meat packing center.

The capital of Missouri is Jefferson City. The largest urban areas are Kansas City, St. Louis, Springfield and Columbia. Over half of Missouri’s estimated population of 6,000,000 live within the metropolitan areas of St. Louis and Kansas City.

Missouri ranks in the top 5 states in the nation for production of soybeans and 4th in the nation for the production of rice. As of 2001, Missouri had the second largest number of farms in the U.S. after Texas with 108,000. Other resources include lead, coal and limestone. It produces the most lead of all states. It also ranks 1st or 2nd in the production of lime, a key ingredient in cement. There is also a growing industry of science, agricultural technology and biotechnology. One of the country’s largest biotech companies, Monsanto, is located in St. Louis.^[1]

The below list of available Missouri public records can be searched by record type. The records are sorted by the following categories: property records, vital records, community health and safety records, jobs and employment records, licensing records, criminal and court records, and code and regulation records.

Abbreviation	MO
Capital	Jefferson City
Population	6,093,000 (2016 est.)
Area size	69,704 sq. mi.
Demonym	Missourian
Primary languages spoken	English
Governor	Eric Greitens
Lieutenant Governor	Mike Parsons
U.S. Senators	Claire McCaskill, Roy Blunt
U.S. House Delegation	6 Republicans, 2 Democrats
Time Zone	Central: UTC -6/-5

*The map and data in the table are from Wikipedia.

Browse by Public Record Category

There are two types of public records; 1) personal public records that document major life milestones such as birth certificates, death certificates, divorce records, and marriage records, etc.; and 2) government records that are made public such as property tax records, recorded land records, voter records, crime data, jail inmate records, and court records. The Freedom of Information Act is a national law that releases government agency public records and makes it possible to view most public records.^[2] Missouri’s Freedom of Information Act, Missouri Code 610, expressly states that meetings, records, votes, actions, and deliberations of public governmental bodies are to be open to the public. Records are defined by Missouri law as "any record, whether written or electronically stored, retained by or of any public governmental body including any report, survey, memorandum, or other document or study prepared for the public governmental body by a consultant or other professional service paid for in whole or in part by public funds, including records created or maintained by private contractors under an agreement with a public governmental body or on behalf of a public governmental body.”^[3]

Since there are a multitude of records available, it can be difficult to know how or where to access them. When you are ready to start your search, you’ll find our Public Records Directory website easy to use since all of the records can be searched by federal, state, county, city, town or type of record. The links provided will connect you to the best website for the record search, provide details about the record, or provide contact information for those records without search capabilities.