Occupations and Societies

Veterans often joined a military organization based on their service. Some veterans of the War of 1812 belonged to a group called the St. Louis Pioneer Chapter, National Society Daughters of 1812.

Civil War Union veterans may have joined the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) in the location where they lived after the war. Information on the St. Louis posts of the GAR will be found here.

• Grand Army of the Republic in St. Louis

Benevolent organizations were coming into their own at the turn of the century. They were usually formed as a way to ensure that members and their families had proper burials and sometimes included a death benefit for their heirs. Records from these groups may be found anywhere, and their contents will vary.

• Beer Bottlers’ Benevolent Society
• Fratellanza Society Burial Records
• Modern Woodmen of America
• Badischer Benevolent Society
• Eastern Star Directory, St. Louis, 1944–1945

Business and occupational groups often maintained and published membership lists. Many of these organizations also produced histories that explained the purpose and mission of the group. StLGS has acquired a small number of business and occupational records, which you can access here.

• Merchants Exchange Members (Deaths from 1875 to 1910)
• Amateur Baseball Hall of Fame
• Local Undertakers’ Association
• Steamboat-Related Workers in the 1860 St. Louis Census
• Steamboat Men on the Mississippi
• The Library and Research Center of the Missouri Historical Society Collection
• The City of St. Louis and Its Resources, 1893 (CD for purchase containing biographies and advertisements from the St. Louis Star-Sayings)
• Who’s Who in North St. Louis, 1895–1925 (CD for purchase, originally published by the North St. Louis Business Men’s Association, 1925)

Some communities within St. Louis County maintain genealogical and/or historical societies.

• Historical Societies in St. Louis County