The State of Missouri Bureau of Vital Records can provide certificates of Missouri births and deaths in Missouri from 1910 to the present with some delayed filings prior to this date. Please note, in the State of Missouri, birth and death records are not public records and verifications by telephone are not provided. Marriages and Divorces are available from the state for dates July 1, 1948 to present.

Before these dates the state recommends that you contact the county to see if they have the records available. Since there was no manditory requirement before 1910 to collect those records, Boone county, like most Missouri counties, does not have a cache of records available to it. So, Boone county does not have a central repository of birth or death records that can assist you in your search.

Important : False application for a certified copy of a vital record is a felony punishable by a fine up to $5,000, five years in prison, or both (RSMo 193.315).

The State of Missouri
First I suggest you visit the Missouri Department of Healths' information page on obtaining certified copies of birth or death certificates. At this time we don't know of an online form, but we are working on one. You could use the Boone County form (see the section below) -- the information provided and requested is almost identical. They will accept a request not "filled out on a form", just make sure you include all of the required information.

You can call them if you have questions at 573.751.6400 where you will travel their phone information network and perhaps pickup the information you need. If you need to talk to a person, you will eventually get transferred to another line, for birth records that number is 573.751.6387 (in case you want to bypass the recorded messages).

When I talked with them about the various requirements I picked up a few tidbits of information that might help you if you are not too familiar with this process.

• Fill the request form as completely as possible. This makes a big difference in their ability to find the correct or many times any record at all.
• Be sure to sign and date the request.
• On their form they state "if request is not completely processed, the fee is retained and valid for one year from date received." This could have been worded better, for the base search fee is always retained, but they mean that if you have not provided sufficent information for them to locate the appropriate record, that if you follow up with additional or corrected information within that year, the original payment will cover the initial and follow-up searches. They don't say how many times they might accept a follow-up search request, I suspect it depends on how often and badly the feature is abused. Again, fill out your request as completely as possible.
• They will not accept phone requests for a search (no signature) but will accept faxed requests at 573.751.6010 if you provide payment information via credit card or if this is a follow-up search. No Email requests allowed and remember Email is NOT secure for credit card information!)
• Computer copy vs Photostat. The state can provide you two different types of certified copies. The "Computer copy" is just that, a printed copy of their computer records, certified to be correct. A "Photostat" copy is a duplicate image of the original record - the one most useful for genealogical purposes as additional information might be present on the original that was not entered into the computer database. Please note that the base/search fee covers only one computer copy OR photostat, not both and you must specify which one you want. Multiple copies are available with a charge for each copy requested.
• If you are paying with a credit card (either because of a faxed request or just because you thought it was easier), you will have an additional processing fee to pay. As of 16 March 2001, that fee was $5.25 per process, which of course is subject to change at any time. There is no additional fee for personal or cashier cheques.
• If you use one of their forms, don't worry about the "Legal Amendment Fee" information -- you are not doing that process.

The County of Boone
Boone county does not have a repository of birth and death records of a historical nature. What records of births and deaths are in the local newspapers' birth announcements and obits, cemetery records, family bibles and such.

So, you are unable to request a local agency to search for birth or death records. It remains the researchers task to comb the historical documents in the Missouri Historical library and sources such as this for the information.

You can read the general information on the Columbia health department web pages here. Boone County has an on-line form that you can print off and complete. Note, it is not a form you can fill out on the computer and electronically forward to them, you must print it out on your printer and then complete it.

They have the following comment on their main page : "For information to be used for genealogical purposes or death records other than natural cause, please contact the Missouri Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Records at (573)751-6381."

National/International information
If you are looking for information on counties other than Boone, or states other than Missouri, I suggest visiting the United States Vital Records Information webpage. or their sister site Foreign Vital Records Links.

Another recommended site, although I find it hard to use, National Center for Health Statistics.