USA > Missouri > A history of Missouri from the earliest explorations and settlements until the admission of the state into the union, Volume I > Part 41
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43
367
AUSTIN
embraces all the principal residents of the dependency of Nouvelle Bourbon.60
After the discovery of the rich lead mine near the present Potosi, by Francois Azor dit Breton, a settlement sprang up in that locality, which became known as "Mine à Breton." Of this mine Austin said in 1797, that "without doubt, Mine à Breton is richer than any in the known world," showing how impressed he was with the mineral wealth there at that time. From the time of the discovery of lead, in about 1775, a continuous settlement existed here.61 Basil Vallé, in 1792, here built a cabin on the creek, as a business house fronting on the road leading to Old Mine at La Fontaine de la Prairie. The produce of the mines was hauled to the river at Ste. Genevieve, and many of the early residents of this village were also interested in the
60 This list, showing the amount contributed and occupation of the several residents of the village and the district or dependency, has been preserved in the Archives of the Indies - among the papers from Cuba - and is highly interest- ing. In addition to the amount contributed by De Luziere, the following other persons made contributions :
Antoine Lachance, carpenter, 3 piastres; Paul De Guire, armorer, 2 piastres; Joseph Tisserot, planter; Jerome Matis, planter, each one piastre; Louis Tonnelier, planter, Pierre Chevalier, planter, and Gabriel Lachance, planter, each 3 piastres; Joseph Lachance, carpenter, 2 piastres; Louis De Guire, planter, and Joseph Cuture, planter, each I piastre; Alexis Griffard, saltmaker, 4 piastres; Guillaume Vanburken (Vanburhelon), planter, 2 piastres, and Israel Dodge, planter, 20 piastres; - all these at the time being residents of Nouvelle Bourbon. In addition the follow- ing residents on the Saline made contributions, namely: Hypolite Bolon, interpreter among the savages Aux Saline, 2 piastres; Samuel Bridge, cooper, 10 piastres; Noel Hornbeck, saltmaker, 10 piastres; Jean Duval, saltmaker, 15 piastres; Jean Callefan, another saltmaker, 5 piastres; Guil- laume Kelly, a cooper, ro piastres; Benjamin Cox, planter, 5 piastres; Jean Donahue, planter, ro piastres; Guillaume Strother, planter, 15 piastres; Jean Hankins (John Hawkins), saltmaker, 15 piastres; Jean Hartlor, a saltmaker, 5 piastres: Jacque Farrell, a saltmaker, 5 piastres; Jacque McLean, planter, 5 piastres; Joseph Eustin, planter, 5 piastres; Jeremiah Perrelle, another salt- maker. 10 piastres. In the Bois Brule bottom the following settlers, all planters, contributed to this fund: Joseph Donahue, ro piastres; Jean Robert Mclaughlin, 10 piastres; Michael Burns, ro piastres; Jonas Nussam, 10 piastres; Francois Clark, 10 piastres; Louis Coyteaux, ro piastres; Ben Walker, Jacque Burnes and Jacque Dobson, each 5 piastres; Joseph Boyce, 7 piastres; David Clark, 5 piastres; Jacque Thompson, I piastre; David Strickland, 7 piastres; Guillaume Moore, 5 piastres; Henry Turner, 4 piastres; Guillaume Burney, 5 piastres; Guillaume Roberts, Ben Burnes, Jacque Davis and Silas Coen, each 5 piastres; Jean Greenville, I peastre; Thomas Donahue, 5 piastres; Andres Cox, 10 piastres. In addition, likely at the village Aux Salines, we find the following contributors: James Sanborn, merchant, 15 piastres; Thomas Fenwick, mer- chant, 15 piastres; Isaac Packard, merchant, ro piastres; Israel Denton, saltmaker, ro piastres; Thomas Hart, cooper, 10 piastres; Ben Spencer, saltmaker, 23 piastres; Guillaume Curry, salt- maker, 15 piastres; Jean Paul Baker, ro piastres; Augustin Heen, saltmaker, 10 piastres; David Roher, saltmaker, ro piastres; Jesse Healey, a planter of Nouvelle Bourbon, 5 piastres; Jos. Grimes, a planter on the Riviere aux Vasse, 10 piastres. So, also, Guillaume Grimes, 15 piastres; Guillaume Murphy, on the St. François, 5 piastres, and Guillaume, Jr., the same amount, and Hiram Gearan also 5 piastres; Solomon George and Guillaume Reed, each contributed 5 piastres; Thomas Madden, a planter on the "Grand Marais," but afterward deputy surveyor, contributed 20 piastres; and I. Flower, on the Riviere aux Vasse, 10 piastres. And, says the report, all these habitants were emigrants from Germany, England, Ireland, and the United States, and had recently settled in this colony.
61 Among the names of settlers now traceable in addition to Francis Azor dit Breton (1782), who assigned his grant in 1806 to Walter Fenwick and Andrew Henry we note Peter Boyer (1780), who says he was employed by Breton to assist him in hunting, and when out on a hunt in 1780 took him to Mine à Breton, which he said he had discovered, and that immediately afterward the place began to be settled, and that he was one of the first settlers and one of those who suffered from the Osage Indians, that he afterward moved away and in 1797 mined on the Terre Blue, and on Old Mine creek in 1802; Charles Boyer (1788) here and at Ste. Genevieve; Joseph Boyer (1788), moved to Old Mine in 1800; St. Jame Beauvais (1788). Thomas Russ, this Russ in 1786 was regularly admitted a subject of the king of Spain by John Fithial, commandant of Washita; Mathew Mullins (1797), came with Moses Austin, afterward in Bellevue valley; Lewis Ron-
368
HISTORY OF MISSOURI
mining operations. Among others, Parfait Dufour (a native of Detroit), an early resident of Ste. Genevieve, seems to have resided for a time near Mine à Breton, and afterward at Fourche à Duclos. So, also, Francois Thibeault (or Thibeau) in 1797,and Peter Martin, from Cahokia, in 1798, residents in these years of Ste. Genevieve, lived at Mine à Breton, but perhaps were only temporary residents there. Thibeault also owned property at La Fontaine de la Prairie, near Old Mine, and Peter Martin was in the St. Louis district in 1800, where he received a grant. In 1797, a league square near the dis- covery of Azor was granted to Moses Austin, and this grant to this enterprising American immigrant gave great impetus to the mining industry in this place. Moses Austin was a native of Durham, Connecticut, born there in 1764. When still young he removed to Phila- delphia, where he engaged in the mercantile business, and from Philadelphia he went to Richmond, Virginia,. where he founded a pewter-button factory on Cary street. In Richmond he built a private residence which attracted much attention at the time, out of Philadelphia brick and marble, an elaborate and imposing structure.62 Here he also be- MOSES AUSTIN came acquainted with Dr. Morse, while engaged in collecting material for the first edition of his American Geography. In Richmond, perhaps owing to the pewter manufac- turing business in which he was engaged, he became interested in mineralogy, and especially in lead mining. Accordingly, from Rich- mond he changed his residence to Wythe county, where he operated the lead mines known during the Revolutionary War as the "Chisel
core (1797), had a crop of wheat on his place in 1800, but in May ran away and his property was sold to pay his debts. John Andrews testified Roncore was commandant at that time at Mine à Breton (I Hunt's Minutes, p. 173); Charles McDermit, one of Moses Austin's followers, had a grant on a spring; John Paul, came to the country in 1799, was a tenant for John T. McNeal at Mine a Breton, and in 1803 had a grant in Bellevue valley; Jacob Wise (1799); Peter Chabot (1800); Dupont & Gratiard (1800), had an ash furnace on a lot in Mine à Breton; William Perry, probably William M. Perry, who lived here in 1800 and was shot at Lambert's Diggings in 1825 by William Hill, on account of some difficulty over mineral; John Stuart (or Stewart) (1801), deputy surveyor under Soulard, and commissioned by Wilkinson in 1805; in 1802 seems to have had property at a place called New Foundland, thirty poles northeast of a large spring near Stewart's branch; Charles Bequette (1802); Madame Baldwin, probably Mary Bald- win, had a grant here in 1802; Louis Grenier (1802); James Hawkins (1802), near Mine à Breton on Mill creek; Peter Hebert (1802); Madame Leclaire (1802), very likely the same as Madame Leclerc (or Leclercq); James Scott (1802), after his death Constance Scott, his widow, continued to live there. Abraham Brinker; Thomas Blakeley; Joseph Brown, probably the Brown who was a physician here; Joseph Chadbourn; John Boyer; Demun (Demers) & Depyster; Madame Descloux; Jean Lemoine; Louis Gringa, laboring man, also at Fourche à Courtois.
62 Richmond in By-gone Days, p. 267.
36g
AUSTIN IN ST. LOUIS
mines," conducting a country store in connection with his mining operations. He first brought English miners to the United States to work these mines. A considerable settlement soon gathered around his store, which became known as "Austinville." He was a man of restless activity and boundless enterprise. Many stories of the min- eral wealth of upper Louisiana were then current in the Atlantic states, and accidentally meeting some one from Ste. Genevieve who had been in the mining region west of the Mississippi, he deter- mined to visit that district. He obtained a passport from the Spanish minister, Gardoqui, and received encouragement from him to emi- grate to upper Louisiana, to develop the mineral wealth of that sec- tion. At any rate, in the fall of 1796, we find him riding on horseback with a servant and pack-mule, from his home, across the country to upper Louisiana. He was then thirty-three years of age, and it was an arduous and hazardous journey, and an "extraordinary effort of hardihood," this trip through the wilderness to the settlements on the west bank of the Mississippi. Not a solitary house or farm was then opened from the Falls of the Ohio to St. Louis, except in the neigh- borhood of Vincennes. From there a dim path or trail led to Kaskas- kia, Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis. Austin safely reached and crossed the Mississippi at St. Louis, and, as he afterward told Schoolcraft, thinking it necessary to enter the trading post with as much ceremony as possible, he clothed himself in a long blue mantle, lined with scar- let, and embroidered with lace, rode on his best horse, followed by his servant and guides through what was dignified by the name of a street, and where the lieutenant-governor of upper Louisiana then resided. Such a cavalcade was an extraordinary event in the little fur-trading Spanish post, with its few houses scattered up and down the river, and attracted the attention of the commandant, who with- out delay sent his servant to inquire as to the character and rank of the foreign visitor who thus entered the town. The servant being advised of the name of the visitor, and that he carried letters to the lieutenant-governor from the Spanish minister, Gardoqui, at once returned with an invitation from the governor to take up his residence at his house, observing at the same time, in the most polite manner and with characteristic deference to the rank of his guest, that there was no other house in town that could afford him suitable accommoda- tions. It was thus that Austin, according to his own version, entered upper Louisiana.63
€3 Schoolcraft's Travels, p. 243.
370
HISTORY OF MISSOURI
After remaining in St. Louis for some time, he went from there to Ste. Genevieve, and from Ste. Genevieve with an escort of Spanish soldiers visited the mining country of southeast Missouri, finally concluding to establish himself at Mine à Breton, if his petition for a grant there should be favorably entertained. The petition for the grant was prepared by the greffier at Ste. Genevieve, and so impressed was he with the importance of Austin, that without consulting him as to the extent of the grant he desired, he made a request for Austin of a grant twelve leagues square. Actually, Austin received a grant one league square from the Intendant,
DURHAM HALL
Don Juan Ventura Morales, in 1802, the same having been recom- mended by Baron de Carondelet, the governor of Louisiana, in a letter addressed to Don Zenon Trudeau, the lieutenant-governor, dated March 15, 1797. But this grant was made on condition that he should introduce certain improvements in mining, and manufac- ture some of the lead for commercial purposes. After he had re- ceived his grant, he returned to Virginia,64 and in 1798 brought his
64 On this trip Austin took a Frenchman by the name of Dufure from Ste. Genevieve to guide him to Ft. Massac, where he arrived safely, and, taking another French guide, he arrived at Nashville on the 17th of February, 1797, reached home March 4th, having made a journey of upward of two thousand
37I
DURHAM HALL
family, and a number of others in his employ to upper Louisiana, and taking up his residence at Mine à Breton, sank the first shaft according to European practices in upper Louisiana, erected a rever- beratory furnace for smelting lead ores, began the manufacture of sheet lead and shot, and in a short time became one of the most con- spicuous and important subjects of Spain in upper Louisiana. With him, among others, came Elias Bates, his nephew, who was the first American settler at Mine à Breton, and together with Kendall took actual possession of the grant. Austin with his family arrived at Mine à Breton in September, 1798, and in 1799 he had sufficient force at Mine à Breton to withstand an attack of the Osage Indians, who in that year had confined the French to Ste. Genevieve by their warlike conduct. He erected a saw-mill and a grist-mill in 1799, his furnaces being then in full blast ; also a shot factory. In the same year he began the erection of his dwelling house. In 1802 he was again attacked by the Indians at Mine à Breton, but defeated them, having a three-pound cannon to assist him in the battle. Aus- tin's house, "Durham Hall,"was the nucleus of the American settle- ment in the country west of Ste. Genevieve at this period. He built a bridge over Mine à Breton creek adjacent to his lot and kept it in repair, also built an abutment or wharf extending from his lot to Breton creek,65 and opened a road from Mine à Breton to Mine à
miles, nine hundred of which in the wilderness. (See Austin's Memorandum of Journey, 5 American Historical Review, pp. 518 et seq.)
65 Austin's family consisted of three children, Stephen Fuller Austin, born at Austinville, Virginia; Emily M., who married James Bryan and after- ward James F. Perry, and James, the youngest, born at Mine à Breton. The failure of the bank at St. Louis in 1818 ruined Austin financially. In 1819 he conceived the idea to form a colony in Texas, and the subject was discussed with his son Stephen at Durham Hall; Stephen started for Texas and opened a farm on Red river, located a New Madrid claim where Little Rock now stands; was appointed circuit judge of Arkansas by Judge Miller. In 1820 Moses Austin came from Missouri to San Antonio de Bexar; he made this trip of eight hundred miles on horseback, and when he arrived at San Antonio he received a discouraging reception by the governor, who would not listen to him, and was ordered by him to leave Texas immediately. As he was about to leave, he accidentally met Baron de Bastrop, with whom he was acquainted; they had traveled together in the States; Bastrop was poor, but a man of edu- cation and influence; Bastrop invited him to his place and reported to the governor that Austin was too sick to return home; and in a week the governor and the ayuntamiento of Bexar united in recommending Austin at Monterey to settle three hundred families from the United States. He returned, and east of the Sabine met his nephew, Elias Bates, who had started out in search of him. Moses Austin never recovered from the exposure of this trip, and died at the house of his son-in-law, James Bryan, June 10, 1821, fifty-seven years old, just after he had received the news that his plan of colonization had been
372
HISTORY OF MISSOURI
Renault. He had a force of 40 to 50 men constantly employed.66 William Montgomery was another who came in his service, but erected a flour-mill on Grand river in 1800, and in 1802 petitioned for an additional grant where the Terre Blue empties into the Plattin, on which to build a saw-mill. John, Samuel, and Jacob Neal were also with Austin, and in 1799 lived on Breton creek. In 1800 Joseph De Selle (or Decelle) Duclos was syndic at Mine à Breton.67 Nic- olas Lachance in July, 1801, was designated as "Commissaire de police à la Mine à Breton" in some official documents of that time.
Not far from Mine à Breton, in Bellevue valley, an American set- tlement was begun in 1798. William Reed was the first settler here ; he was a slave owner, and received permission from De Luziere, com- mandant of Nouvelle Bourbon, to make a settlement in this district for himself, family and connections.68 He afterward lived on the Mississippi. Joseph Reed, his nephew, from Vincennes, came to Bellevue valley about the same time, but seems to have lived in other sections in the district since 1793. Solomon George arrived in 1798 with twelve slaves, and located on a fork of the St. Francois. Elisha Baker, who in 1798 cultivated land in Bois Brule bottom, removed from there to Bellevue valley, and his son, Elijah, in 1803 settled in the " Pineries," four miles from his father, on Clear Water creek, and in his application prays for a concession "in a retired situation." 69
approved by the Spanish government of Mexico. He is buried in the Presby- terian cemetery at Potosi.
66 Commissioner's Reports, vol. iii., pp. 288-290.
67 Deselle, at one time an ensign in the French service, was a descendant of Alexander Deselle Duclos, of Fort de Chartres, and who in 1745 received a grant of an island in the Mississippi river opposite the fort. - American State Papers, 2 Public Lands, p. 214. This island was granted him by Chevalier de Bertel (or Berthel), commandant of the fort, De la Loire Flancour, commissary, and Barrios being notary.
68 American State Papers, 2 Public Lands, pp. 515 and 685.
69 Other early settlers in Bellevue valley were John Lewis (1797), in this valley on Big river; Gabriel Nicolle (1798), a French-Canadian and one of the first settlers of St. Michael in 1800. In 1811 he claimed that he purchased land on the Saline from Wapcha, chief of the Peourias (Peorias), likely chief of the small Indian village near Ste. Genevieve. Evidently a made-up claim. William Humphreys (1798); Aquilla Low (1800), in this valley on Big river; Reuben Baker (1801), and later at Bois Brule bottom; David Gallagher (1802); John James (1802); Ananias McCoy (1802); Joseph Reed, Junior (1802); Solomon Ruggles (1802), afterward on Flat river, built a saw-mili there, was a friend of Moses Austin and may have come with him; William Ashbrook (1803); Thomas Baker (1803), had a so-called Tomahawk claim in this valley; he also had a claim in 1800 on Grand (Big) river, but in 1811 Benjamin Hardin was in possession of the tract, who being alarmed by the Indians left the country, his nephew, John Hardin, taking pos- session, but, while he was away on a campaign against the Indians, Baker returned, broke in the house and held the claim until he sold it; William Bates (1803), one of the followers of Austin; Thomas Bear (1803), on the waters of Big river; William Boydston (1803), on the waters of Big river, but in 1804 left; James Brown (1803); John Bear (1803), and on Bon Homme; Benjamin Crow (1803), in this valley on Big river; Walter Crow, settled under the authority of Decelle; John Cooper (1803); John Corder (1803); William Davis (1803) here on Big river; Miles
373
AN INDIAN OUTRAGE
Another distinctly American settlement in the Ste. Genevieve district was made on and near the waters of Big river, in what is now St. Francois county. Abraham Baker and Thomas Alley, who in 1797 discovered the mines known as " Alley's mines" in that neigh- borhood, were among the first settlers. In the year following they brought their families to upper Louisiana, and about the same time John Andrews, of Mine à Breton, made a settlement on the "Rio Grande," as Big river was then called by the Spanish officials. Other families followed them, and soon a large settlement grew up. Among others, Henry Fry, an American, became engaged to marry a Miss Baker, but at that time, and in that section, there were no officers authorized to perform the marriage ceremony. Marriage in upper Louisiana then was not considered a civil contract, although the commandants of the several posts would perform the marriage ceremony for American settlers, "who had not as yet become members of the Catholic church. So Mr. Fry, accompanied by his bride, her two sisters, her brother Aaron Baker, and their friends, started for Ste. Genevieve, but when they arrived in the open prairie near Terre Blue creek, some nine miles north of the present town of Farmington, they encountered a roving band of Osage Indians, who followed them and robbed them of their horses, guns, and furs belonging to Mr. Fry worth about $1,500. They then attacked and took from Fry his clothes, ordered him to run, and when he refused an Indian struck him with his ramrod violently on the bare hips. The whole party were then stripped of their clothing and ornaments, only Baker escaping owing to blotches on his face, which caused the Indians to think he had the small-pox. One of the Misses Baker resisting, she was dragged over the ground and much injured. One of the young ladies afterward married John McRay, and the other Alexander McCoy, and their descendants still reside in St. Francois county. On account of this occurrence the marriage of Fry and his fiancée was postponed for a year. According to Rozier, Fry attained "the wonderful age of one hundred and fifteen
Goforth (1803), a Revolutionary soldier; Jacob Job (1803), and on Big river; Curtis Morris (1803), made his home with William Ashbrook, but had a cabin on a grant and cultivated the land, mar- ried Polly Crow, daughter of Benjamin Crow; Joseph McMurty (1803), in this valley on Big river; Thomas Reed (1803); Abraham Rickman (1803) settled by permission of Joseph Decelle; John Rickman (1803); Martin Ruggles (1803), a friend of Moses Austin, was also at Mine à Breton, and on the Saline; John Sinclair alias Sinkler (1803), in this valley and also on the St. Francois; John Autrey, or Ottery; Thomas and James McLaughlin; Robert Reed; William Reed, Junior. In 1804, Uriah Hull; James Hewitt; Bernard Rogan; Robert Sloan; Samuel Wakely; John Little; Edward Johnson, lived here, but came to the country prior to that time ; William Jones, or Janes, Senior (1805) in this valley, at crossing Big river.
374
HISTORY OF MISSOURI
years." 70 But incidents like this show the fear of offending the govern- ment which prevailed among the American settlers in upper Louisiana. On the east side of the Mississippi, in the United States, at that time, such an occurrence would have aroused the settlers to immediate and aggressive action. The Indians would have been pursued, killed or driven out of the neighborhood; but under the Spanish government, the fear of the existing authorities was such that, insignificent as was the Spanish military force, none of the set- tlers dared to attack or pursue the Indians without express sanction of the legal authorities.71
70 Rozier's History of the Mississippi Valley, p. 120.
71 In this settlement on Big river we find claims of Joseph Pratte, a resi- dent of Ste. Genevieve, but who claimed land in various places, had three arpens in the common field of Ste. Genevieve, was interested in mining at Old Mine, and had a grant including the Iron Mountain of 20,000 arpens, on the St. Fran- cois river. Charles McLane dit English testified that in 1799 he was sent with Lewis Carron and Stephen Deline to ascertain the quality of the iron ore on this tract, included in the fork of a creek called by the French "La Fourche du Porc," a branch of the St. Francois. Afterward Pratte, Robert T. Brown, Francois Vallé and Walter Wilkinson, with hands, went on said land to build a furnace, forge, or bloomery to wash the ore, build cabins, etc. It also was claimed that Pratte was influential with the Indians and gave much assistance in keeping peace and maintaining relations of friendship between them and the whites, and that he was considered as rendering both people and government great service; William Alley (1797): Abraham Baker (1797), a native of Ken- tucky married Elizabeth Maybray in 1801; William Patterson (1798), and on the Mississippi in 1800; Pierre August Pratte, Junior (1798); John Strickland (1798), evidently a relative of Titus Strickland, on Plattin; was also interested in mines at Mine à Breton; Sallie Adams (1799); John Alley (1799); John Baker (1798), was one of the militiamen who went to New Madrid when Indian was executed, and claimed a tract of land on this river as a reward for his services, said that he was informed that the lieutenant-governor ! promised land to those who joined the expedition. A John Baker and two sons, John, Junior, and Jesse, were given grants on the Pemiscon in 1801, in New Madrid district. Jesse came in 1803 and John, Junior, in 1802; Andrew and Aaron Baker (1798); Antoine Pratte (1799); Henry Pratte (1799), his son lived in lower Louisiana in this year, was sent to Canada to complete his education as a priest, returned to upper Louisiana and discharged clerical duties until his death; Abraham Eads (1799), was engaged in the lead mines at Mine à Breton for a time; his son William Eads in 1801 married Anne Eastes, all natives of Virginia. David Bohrer (or Rohrer) (1797), a German, sold one half of his land to Claibourne Rhodes, seems also to have been in the St. Charles district, on Mississippi Bluff; John Hague (1800), on this river and on Bois Brule; Henry Pagget (1800); Samuel Harrington (1801); Priscilla Estep (1801), was abandoned by her husband in 1804 of 1805; John Stewart says she came to this country with her father, James Rogers, and that he took her cotton to spin; John Eads (or Ears) sold in 1802 to Jacob Doggett; James Rogers (1799), says he settled two or three miles above Wideman's mill, but on account of the Indians, spent the next summer in Illinois, but returned to this river; Jean Comparios, may be the soldier who came with St. Ange from Fort de Chartres or one of his descendants (1801); James Cunningham (1802), on the St. Francois river prior to 1803; Ezekiel Estes dit Eastrige (1802); John Starnater (1802) on
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.