Missouri State Archives

The Missouri State Archives in Jefferson City offers something I haven't seen before, though my experience is limited.

They have over 55,000 reels of microfilm from various counties in Missouri containing "deeds, marriages, circuit court and probate court materials. as well as census film and some state agency publications."

The link above contains a listing, by county, and anyone can order a copy of an entire roll for $15, and it will be theirs to keep.

There's not much in the St. Louis City/County holdings that I would be interested in which isn't available for me to browse through at the local library. However, if I wasn't likely to be going to Jefferson City for work in the near future, and I couldn't find someone who lived there to look it up for me, I might order a roll of film from their Jackson County collection, in particular the one that is likely to contain the will of my mother's Uncle, Samuel Van Every, if he had one. He died relatively young, without any dependents. Anything he had left he would have probably left to one of his sisters.