This book comes from the abstracts of 6 of the oldest newspapers that existed in Missouri from 1808-1822. These newspapers are: The Missouri Gazette, St. Louis 1808-1822; The Enquirer, St. Louis 1819-1822; The Missouri Intelligencer, Franklin 1819-1822; The Missouri Herald, Jackson 1819-1820; The Independent Patriot, Jackson 1820-1822; and The St. Charles Missourian, St. Charles 1820-1822. The index mentions over 4,000 persons, of which lived and died before the First Census. These newspaper records may be the ONLY mention of their lives. Whether they were prosperous or poor, they left names in newspapers - an absorbing account of the lives and times, fortunes and misfortunes, of our earliest Missouri ancestors.