City directories, especially when you can find them in print, have information not only on individuals but on city government, social clubs, churches, and other groups operating in the city.
Ancestry.com - Look up an ancestor here, and see the census page, to learn of the ancestor's occupation, birthplace, etc., and also their neighbors'.
Slave inventories and "slave census" - see the Library Guide on this census for a decade-by-decade look.
Contains some 40+ different guides to primary sources on Missouri history that focus on various aspects of social and cultural history (groups of people as well as broad subjects, i.e., "religion"). Guides link to records for articles in Missouri Historical Review (secondary) as well as manuscripts, newspapers and other primary sources.
Offers full-text searchable letters and diaries of soldiers and noncombatants on both sides of the U.S. Civil War. The database can be searched by U.S. state, topics described, year of writers death, as well as by Union or Confederate loyalty and many other ways.
Provides access to full-text letters & diaries by North American women from colonial times to 1950. This collection includes the immediate experiences of 1,325 women and 150,000 pages of diaries and letters.
