The Missouri State Archives has expanded its free death certificate database: Including the already-indexed pre-1910 records, it now catalogs 2 million deaths through 1955. Even better, your search results for deaths between 1910 and 1926 link to digitized PDF images of the original certificates.

Visit <www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/deathcertificates> and search on a first name and last name, county or year. If you're unsure of the name, click Advanced Search to choose the Starts With, Ends With or Contains option. You can order copies of post-1926 records by clicking to generate a form you fill out and mail with $1 per request (you're limited to five requests at once).