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E-Mail Policy and Procedures

The Missouri State Archives is pleased to offer electronic mail (e-mail) as part of its genealogical and historical research services. In order to offer the best and most equitable services to all patrons, the following procedures have been adopted for the receipt of and response to queries by electronic mail. These procedures are identical to those followed by patrons using regular postal mail:

  1. Each e-mail request should include the full name of the patron, e-mail address, and regular postal mail address.
  2. Submit only one request and allow us to complete your research before submitting others. If multiple requests are received, the first request appearing in the IN box will be answered; all other requests will be deleted after notifying the requester by return e-mail. If a letter for "any information" is received, Archives staff will research only the first discernible question; the letter stating this will be sent by return e-mail with any research available to answer the first question.
  3. Each genealogical request should contain the following information:
    • Name of one person (or family, in cases of census search). Ex: Doe, John or John Doe household
    • Name of one Missouri county to be searched
    • Type of record to be searched (marriage, deed, probate, etc.)
    • Ten-year time span to be searched (five-year span for deed and post-1910 death record searches).
  4. Each historical research question or request for Missouri information should be clearly written with a specific question.
  5. Electronic mail is retrieved daily. A paper copy is printed and date-stamped. All electronic mail requests are combined with regular postal mail requests and routed to the appropriate staff researcher. It generally takes up to eight weeks to receive a reply. Electronic mail requests are not given priority or answered before regular postal mail requests.
  6. Once the request has been researched, a response will be electronically mailed back to the patron, with information regarding copy fees.

MISSOURI STATE ARCHIVES
600 WEST MAIN
PO BOX 1747
JEFFERSON CITY, MO 65102-1747

Submit your Research Request to archref@sos.mo.gov

The genealogical request form and instructions are also available in PDF format: