header ads

Friday, April 4, 2014

Missouri Public Records Search

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.

Retrieval of each document would follow certain guidelines. A processing fee has to be paid in order to get a copy of any document. Only birth, death, marriage and divorce which have been registered since the year 1909 are available in Missouri. One can go to the office of the Vital Records Section or the county clerk office in order to get family related documents while criminal records has to be obtained at the state's Department of Public Safety. One has to fill out the application form with the necessary information to help in the retrieval process. A mail request can also be sent to get copies of any document needed.

Government public records in Missouri can now be obtained online. There are several websites now that offer to do the search for you. Some offer it for free while other would charge certain fees. Fees may be higher than the usual but the convenience and the speed in the search process is priceless.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment