Boy Kelli...I know what you mean.  I was weaned on geographical indexes years and years ago in Oklahoma.  I love it.  Moving to Missouri was a real shocker for me.  Every time I ran a search in the public records - I would go back over it again for fear that something was missed.  Never did feel comfortable with it - names change (especially for females) and clouds from other stuff.  I ended up doing like the next poster said - pay for access to a geographical index.  In the meantime, took the local county records and had a program written that allows us to run legal description, grantor/grantee, book/page reference, and parcel identification number.  It provides a tremendous back chain (to 1974) and backup to the title plant.  As time progresses, my inhouse data is becoming more and more valuable to me.

Good luck kiddo.  It can be frustrating...and time consuming - hence the reason some searches are more expensive than others.  That's exactly why pricing for searchwork is subjective.  Different locales have different access abilities. Sometimes I can do a current owner search in five minutes - sometimes two days - depending on the location.  

imho.....
Ellen