What are Land Records?

Land records include a diverse collection of documents filed with this office and consequently made permanent, public record. The bulk of these documents affect real estate situated in St. Charles County, hence the general label "Land Records."
As permanent records, these documents must be "recorded" using an archival media approved by state statute. We currently archive these records on 16mm microfilm.
For improved accessibility and reprinting of the records we scan them to an optical imaging system as well. Over the years there have been various other methods of archival storage employed but all used paper or microfilm as the media. Once the document is processed through our office it is returned to the person who presented it for recordation.

The first document recorded in this office was hand written in French into a bound book, with the acknowledgement of the signatures in English, and certification by "P. Provenchere, Recorder" on November 16, 1804. This was the "District of St. Charles" at that time.

The rapid growth of St. Charles County is reflected in the number of documents recorded with this office. For example, in 1970 there were 10,497 documents recorded, in 1980 there were 19,661, in 1990 we recorded 43,395 and in 2003 we recorded 178,423 documents!

In 2004 we made a good portion of our land records available on this website. You may research our indexes back to 1972 free of charge by clicking “Research Recorders Records Online.” You may also view/print documents that have been imaged for a fee of one dollar per page.

For more information about recording documents with this office please call us at 636-949-7505 option 4.

View the Certificate of Value Form