Anyone researching Missouri ancestors will quickly find himself tangled in the history of the region, which changed hands between France, Spain, and the United States, and whose boundaries often included the neighboring territories of Orleans and Indiana. Straying ancestors also tended to spill over into Arkansas, Louisiana, Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee. The author has simplified the search by including many useful records from these areas. There is not a complete Federal census extant for Missouri until 1830, and many of the records included in this series were obtained from the Missouri State Archives' "Capitol Fire Documents," which were the only State Auditor's Office records to survive the devastating Capitol fire in 1911. The researcher will find here the usual birth, marriage, and death records as well as tax lists, wills, jury lists, and other information. Some of the specific county sections included: Jefferson County original land entries and deed taxes; Madison County Deed Books A and B; list of names from the Waverly Cemetery in Lafayette County; St. Louis County Military, 1780, Cuban Papers/Churchill Collection; Private Land Claims in the Arkansas District; and licenses, public monies, and mortality schedules from the fifty-two counties included here. All names appear as they were written on the records, including abbreviations of given names. French "dit" names (aliases) are included in the vast surname index. This volume covers the following counties: Adair, Andrew, Atchison, Audrain, Barry, Bates, Benton, Boone, Buchanan, Caldwell, Callaway, Cape Girardeau, Carroll, Carter, Chariton, Clay, Clinton, Cole, Cooper, Crawford, Gasconade, Henry and Rivers, Hickory, Howard, Jackson, Jefferson, Johnson, Lafayette, Lawrence, Lewis, Lincoln, Madison, Marion, Miller, Montgomery, Perry, Pettis, Pike, Polk, Ralls, Randolph, Ray, Ripley, Scott, Shelby, St. Charles, St. Louis, Ste. Genevieve, Taney, Warren, Washington, Webster.