About the Genealogy Quick Look

Genealogy Quick Look provides an index of resources available through the Midwest Genealogy Center (MGC), as well as inactive pension claims from the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board. Search the index by name and/or date. If you locate a resource, you will have an opportunity to request it from the source organization.

The Midwest Genealogy Center, part of the Mid-Continent Public Library system, is located in Independence, Missouri. Indexes of obituaries, birth records, marriage records, and other documents have been created by MGC staff and volunteers for more than 20 years.

Mid-Continent Public Library's genealogy collection has been consistently recognized by genealogists as one of the best in the nation, and you have the opportunity to help ensure the continued success of this genealogy collection. Donations mean future generations will have the same opportunity to research their ancestors as you have today.

Make a Donation

U.S. Railroad Retirement Board inactive pension claims are held by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration at Atlanta. The Genealogy Quick Look provides an index to the inactive pension claims. Directions to request copies of claims are provided with index results.

Tips to Help Your Search:

Genealogy Quick Look will look for exact matches for names that you use.
The system will also recommend last names that begin with or contain the last name in your search. A search for Appleb will provide links to searches for Applebee, Applebey, and Appleby, all of which have listings in the system. A search for Meyer will also show all of the last names that end in -meyer.
Some first names are listed only by first initial, so all searches with a first name also search for the first initial of that name. A search for Robert Smith will find results for Robert Smith and R Smith. This does not guarantee that the results are for a Robert Smith and not a Roger Smith.
Some last names are truncated to five characters, and the system will show or provide a link to matches with the first five characters of any last name search.
Obituary listings reference the person searched anywhere in the record. It may not be that person’s obituary.
Searching with a year or year and month without an event type specified will find all records with that date.
Searches for a month and year will also bring up records that only have a year specified. This is no guarantee of a match.