“Why waste your money looking up your family tree? Just go into politics and your opponents will do it for you.” — Mark Twain

If you aren’t looking to go into politics and your family tree made it’s way to Southeast Missouri at some point in the last few centuries, Cape Girardeau is just the spot to learn about your family’s history! There are several quality resources here in the Cape Girardeau area that can help you uncover information on your great-great-great family members.

Inside the Kirby Genealogy Room at the Cape Girardeau Public Library, you can discover your family’s history using Cape Girardeau County Census records, cemetery records, county histories, family histories and more. They also have numerous local papers such as the Southeast Missourian, the Western Eagle, the Weekly Democrat, the Daily Republican and Weekly Republican newspapers on microfilm that go back more than a century.

The Genealogy Room is free and open to the public, and library card holders have access to library additions of Ancestry.com and Heritage Quest. The Cape Girardeau Public Library is open Monday-Thursday from 9 a.m. – 9 p.m, Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m and Sundays from
1 – 5 p.m.

The Cape Girardeau County Archive Center is just a few miles north of Cape Girardeau in Jackson, Missouri. Here you’ll have access to over 4500 cubic feet of records that include tax, school and church records, probate, circuit and Common Pleas court records, marriage records, some birth and death records and limited military records as well as county maps, area newspapers and photographs of tombstones.

The collection includes records in English, German, French and more and some of the oldest records in the State of Missouri dating back to the late 1790s when Louis Lorimier was the Commandant of the Cape Girardeau District of Louisiana during the Spanish Regime.

The inventory is computerized to help you locate information and both original documents and microfilm are on hand. Guidance is available to help you research. The County Archive Center is open Tuesday – Friday from 8:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. and on Saturdays by appointment only from
8:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Uncover family history and get a fun vacation out of it while you’re at it in Cape Girardeau!