Missouri Public Records

By Ben Kingsley


The state of Missouri is only one of the many states that have implemented the Freedom of Information Act. This means that the residents can request for any of the public records Missouri issues to its people. The records that the government keeps include the birth, death, marriage, divorce and criminal records.

Genealogy research is the primary use of birth, death, marriage and divorce certificates. It is also used as proof of one's identity especially when doing transactions with the government. The documents are also used in specific purposes. Death certificates are used by the family of the deceased when they process or claim the insurance. Some transactions in the government would call for a copy of a marriage or divorce certificate to verify one's marital status. The criminal records of an individual are used by employers to check on the criminal history of an individual.

All of the public documents of Missouri contain the personal information of the involved individual. The information that can be found would depend on the type of document it is. A marriage license would not contain information about the death of an individual since such information can only be found on a death certificate. Likewise, marriage records would not have details about the divorce of a couple because it only contains information about the marriage itself. Criminal records on the other hand, have details about the crimes and offenses that an individual has committed.

The documents may have been opened to the public but access to it is allowed if the one who requested it is the person on the record or their immediate families. A public document also has the basics of the incident. There is information that remains private only to the person involved. An example would be the reason why the couple decided to separate. This particular information is not displayed on the public divorce record to protect the privacy of the divorcees. Another would be the witnesses of a crime is not indicated on the public document to protect them from potential harm.

The retrieval of each document would follow certain guidelines. Fees have to be paid but it depends on the type of document being requested. Family related files are only released if the date it was registered is not earlier than 1909. The Vital Records Section of Missouri and the county clerk office are offices where family related files can be requested. The office of the Department of Public safety is the one responsible for managing the criminal records of the state. Application forms have to be filled out by the requesting individual and it can help if the basic information about the record being requested is provided. Mail requests can ales be made in order to get a copy of any of the public document that Missouri provides.

Online retrieval of government public records in the state of Missouri is now allowed. This made the retrieval process easier and fast. A lot of websites now offer to search for the records for you. One has the option to do the search for free or to pay for the search. The cost would be higher than doing the search at the office but people prefer this because of convenience.




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