Genealogy

Focusing predominantly on Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, New York, and towns and cities in North Carolina this resource presents multiple aspects of the African American community through pamphlets, newspapers and periodicals, correspondence, official records, reports and in-depth oral histories, revealing the prevalent challenges of racism, discrimination and integration, and a unique African American culture and identity.

Unlock your family’s story with sources like censuses, vital records, immigration records, family histories, military records, court and legal documents, directories, photos, and maps.

Travel back in time with this historical collection of fire insurance maps. You'll find more than 1,400 detailed Sanborn insurance maps of 376 Missouri towns and cities. Covers the years 1867-1970.

FamilySearch maintains a collection of records, resources, and services designed to help people learn more about their family history. FamilySearch gathers, preserves, and shares genealogical records worldwide. Using the website in the Library allows access to many digital images that cannot be viewed at home.

Fire Insurance Maps Online (FIMo) provides access to digitized fire insurance maps, including publications by Sanborn, Perris, Hexamer, Whipple, Baist, Bromley, Hopkins, and others. These maps offer detailed historical representations of urban areas, originally created for fire insurance purposes. They document building footprints, construction materials, and street layouts. FIMo is a valuable resource for researchers, historians, genealogists, and property owners seeking to explore the past development and infrastructure of cities. Discover the evolution of St. Louis neighborhoods and buildings through these meticulously detailed maps from a variety of historical mapmakers.

Fold3 provides convenient access to U.S. military records, including the stories, photos, and personal documents of the men and women who served. Original records at Fold3 help you discover and share stories about these everyday heroes, forgotten soldiers, and the families that supported them.  Includes special archives collections: African American, American Revolution, Native American, U.S. Bureau of Investigation Case File, and World War II. Fold3’s social networking aspect allows you to combine original historical documents and records found on the site with what you have in your own albums and shoeboxes to create an online memorial for someone who served.

Search thousands of family and local history books and the complete US Federal Census from 1790 to 1930. Census records can be searched by name, place of birth, age, ethnicity, and more. HeritageQuest Online also includes Revolutionary War records and the Freedman's Bank.

Access to issues of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (1874-2003).

JSTOR includes archives of over one thousand leading academic journals across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, as well as select monographs and other materials valuable for academic work.

The St. Louis Public Library presents "Maps of Missouri" illustrating the many ways maps convey times, places, and events. Approximately 100 maps of Missouri cities, towns, counties and the state are included in the exhibit.

This database compiled by the Missouri State Archives offers access to over 2.5 million digitized death certificates of persons who died in Missouri. Currently, the database covers images of certificates issued from 1910 to 1970. This span reflects the time period from 1910 when the keeping of death records in Missouri became mandatory by law, to the most recent year opened to public access. The Index is updated annually to include another year's worth of records. A smaller database of pre-1910 birth and death records from areas of Missouri where such records were kept is also included.

Newspaper articles from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Kansas City Star, and the full-text from more than 1,000 newspapers in the US and around the world. This product is protected by copyright. For use by individual cardholders only.

Explore this extensive online database of historical newspapers from the early 1700s into the early 2000s. It contains a diverse blend of well-known regional and local newspapers in the US and other countries, including the St. Louis Globe Democrat. Date ranges vary by publication.

Search for St. Louis obituaries.
Currently this index contains names from the St. Louis Post Dispatch for the years 1880-1930, 1942-1945, 1960-1969, and 1992-2011.

Reference Solutions, formerly ReferenceUSA, is a collection of helpful business databases. Use U.S. Businesses to search millions of businesses, small and large. U.S. Historical Businesses allows you to search for businesses from 2003 to 2013 to help visualize changes and trends over time. Research lifestyle statistics with U.S. Consumers/Lifestyles. Looking for a phone number? Use the Standard White Pages database to simultaneously search residential phone books.

Explore research guides created by SLPL staff on topics ranging from St. Louis Obituaries and the World's Fair to our Zine collection.

St. Louis Public Library's Digital Collections contain photographs, maps, stereograph cards, illustrations, and other documents from the Library's holdings. Items are being scanned and added on a routine basis. The current digital collection is only a small fraction of the total available materials, and is growing all the time.

Access issues of The St. Louis American newspaper from 1949 to 2010. As a leading voice of the St. Louis African American community, The St. Louis American has been in continuous publication since 1928. This valuable digital resource offers insight into the history, culture, and experiences of the African American community in St. Louis.

Search for books, videos, sound recordings, and more by searching library catalogs from around the world. If you find an item that SLPL does not own, you can use WorldCat to place a request for the item. Please note: SLPL can not guarantee that the owning libraries listed in WorldCat can fill your request. Requested items may not be loaned for a variety of reasons. You will be notified if your requested item cannot be obtained.