This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/WMB.2ACE/4646.1 Message Board Post: Dear Alexander, The St. Louis Public Library has the death registers and will make copies at $0.25 per page. I don't know if they will mail to Germany but you could ask. Their website: http://www.slpl.lib.mo.us/libsrc/geneinfo.htm Item #5 has what is available for vital records and item # 13 lets you email your request. I have a copy of the 1874 register and it shows the following: Record #, date of death and date of certificate, name, marital status (single, married, widowed), age (year/months/days), nativity, place of death, disease, white female or male and colored female or male, attending physician, name of undertaker and cemetery. I have a copy from 1881 and it shows the same information with the addition of the ward number (don't know if this applies to residence or place of death) and the occupation of the deceased. Some St. Louis websites: Dave Lossos' http://genealogyinstlouis.accessgenealogy.com/ St. Louis County Library http://www.slcl.lib.mo.us/slcl/sc/sc-genpg.htm The Ancestry. com death record shows that Adolph Schaffer was buried at Rock Spring Cemetery which according to information on Dave Lossos' website was a Catholic Cemetery. Possibly there is a church record with information on his parents. The St. Louis Genealogical Society does lookups and has a list of people who do reseach for a fee if you are interested in that. http://www.stlgs.org/index.shtml The 1880 census shows a Frank Sieferer married to a Minnie with three children. The oldest is 15 and born in Missouri. You might want to try and find a marriage record. I don't know if the civil records show the parents' names but a church record might. Catholic church records were microfilmed by the Mormon church but I don't know if they would be available in Germany at one of the Mormons' family history centers. If the family were Lutheran, you might want to follow up there. I would try the Concordia Institute to see if they have any suggestions. http://chi.lcms.org/ The St. Louis PUblic Library has city directories for St. Louis. You might want to request copies of that but email your request for city directories separate from any vital records request as well as a separate request for obits. Having an address might help with locating a church. I live in Michigan not Missouri so I cannot help with your lookups. I have gotten a lot of help through the St. Louis Public Library as well as information Dave Lossos' website. Hope this helps and good luck. Georgia