Ray County, Missouri Genealogy

United States Missouri  Ray County

Parent County
1820--Ray County was created 16 November 1820 from Howard County. County seat: Richmond

Boundary Changes

 * See an interactive map of Ray County border changes at N2Genealogy.

Places/Localities

 * The State Historical Society of Missouri has information on historical Missouri place names for all Missouri Counties.

Neighboring Counties

 * Caldwell
 * Carroll
 * Clay
 * Clinton
 * Jackson
 * Lafayette

Cemeteries

 * Shotwell Cemetery, Richmond BillionGraves
 * Sunny Slope Cemetery, Richmond
 * Woodland Cemetery, Richmond

Three of the cemeteries in this county, Shotwell, Sunny Slope, and Richmond, are on the north side of Highway 10 (Main Street) and are all together almost as if they were all one cemetery.

Circuit Court
The Missouri State Archives has the index (1821-1872) to the circuit court records, and Vols A-O (1821-1882) in microfilm.

Local Histories

 * Google has scanned the book "History of Ray County, Mo." as the book is now in the public domain. It was written in 1881 and can be found at books.google.com/books.


 * Also Google has the book "A History of Northwest Missouri" written in 1915, also in the public domain. This book has history on Ray county and neigboring counties.  It can be found at books.google.com/books.

Maps

 * Map of Ray County townships (Histopolis)


 * The University of Missouri Digital Library has digital copies of Missouri county plat books (ca. 1930) for all Missouri counties including Ray County. The city of St. Louis is not included in this collection.

Newspapers

 * Newspaperarchive.com ($) has historical newspapers available on-line. Their database has Chillicothe newspapers from the late 1800's and early 1900's that covered local news on residents from Ray County communities.

Deaths

 * Missouri State Archives provides on-line access to Missouri Death Certificates more than 50 yrs old starting in 1910.

Family History Centers

 * Introduction to LDS Family History Centers
 * Wood Heights Missouri Family History Center

Web Sites

 * USGenWeb project. May have maps, name indexes, history or other information for this county. Select the state, then the county.