Mississippi Historical Societies

This directory lists 6 historical societies, museums, and archives in Mississippi, including Natchez National Historical Park, which interprets the oldest continuously settled town on the lower Mississippi and the plantation economy that built it. Mississippi is unusual among Southern states in that one agency, the Department of Archives and History, serves as state archives, state historic preservation office, and historical marker program at once, so much of this guide points back to Jackson.

Mississippi Territory was organized in 1798 and the state was admitted on December 10, 1817, with its capital moved to Jackson in 1822. The northern two-thirds of the state opened to settlement only after the Choctaw cession at Dancing Rabbit Creek (1830) and the Chickasaw cession at Pontotoc Creek (1832), which is why counties there date from the 1830s while Natchez-area records reach back into the Spanish period. A number of county courthouses burned in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, so the state-level copies described below often matter more than they would elsewhere.

Featured Historical Societies

Major repositories for Mississippi research

The Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) occupies the William F. Winter Archives and History Building in downtown Jackson, phone 601-576-6850. Its reading rooms hold the official records of the state, microfilm of county marriage, will, deed, and tax books, the state's largest newspaper collection (more than 13,000 microfilm rolls), a quarter-million photographs, and manuscripts. Two online tools do most of the heavy lifting from home: the MDAH Digital Archives, with scanned state censuses, educable children lists, Confederate pension applications, governors' correspondence, and maps, and the finding aids portal describing government record series. The genealogy overview at mdah.ms.gov/genealogy is the right first stop.

• Two Mississippi Museums (Museum of Mississippi History and Mississippi Civil Rights Museum) share the Jackson campus with the archives.
• University special collections: the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi State University in Starkville, and the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg each maintain archives of manuscripts and Mississippiana; Mississippi State also holds a significant run of the state's Sanborn fire insurance maps.
• Mississippi Historical Society, which works with MDAH and publishes the Journal of Mississippi History.

Birth, death, marriage, and divorce records in Mississippi

A state law effective November 1, 1912 required births and deaths to be reported to the state; compliance was general by about 1921. The Mississippi State Department of Health, Vital Records office at 222 Marketridge Drive in Ridgeland (phone 601-206-8200) holds birth and death records from November 1912 to the present and charges $17 per certified copy, with additional copies of the same record at $6. Birth certificates are restricted to qualified applicants for 100 years and death certificates for 50 years, so most genealogical requests for deaths before the mid-1970s are open.

• Marriages: the Circuit Clerk of each county has recorded marriage licenses since the county's creation, some from around 1800. State registration began January 1, 1926; the health department's index covers 1926 to July 1938 and January 1942 onward, so for the 1938 to 1942 gap only the county circuit clerk has a record. MDAH maintains a statewide index of pre-1926 marriages arranged by the groom's surname, plus Freedmen's Bureau marriage records.
• Divorces: heard in the county Chancery Court and filed by the Chancery Clerk, usually interfiled with other chancery cases. The health department can also search its divorce index for later decrees.
• Before 1912: use the Enumeration of Educable Children (below), church registers, cemetery surveys, and newspaper notices as birth and death substitutes.

Land, deed, and property records

Mississippi is a public-domain state; after the earliest British and Spanish grants in the Natchez District were confirmed, the United States sold land through General Land Office district offices beginning in 1807. Lands in the 1830 Choctaw and 1832 Chickasaw cessions were surveyed and sold in the 1830s, Federal patents and survey plats are free at the BLM's General Land Office Records site.

Every later deed, deed of trust, lien, and plat is recorded by the Chancery Clerk in the county where the land lies; the same officer is clerk of the Chancery Court (probate and equity) and clerk to the board of supervisors, so wills, estates, and deeds sit in one office. There is no statewide land-records database; each of the 82 chancery clerks keeps its own indexes, and online coverage varies widely. MDAH holds microfilm of many county deed books, which is the practical route when a courthouse burned or is far away. State-owned lands, including the Sixteenth Section school trust lands and tax-forfeited parcels, are administered by the Secretary of State's Public Lands Division.

Newspapers and city directories

The Mississippi Digital Newspaper Project, run by MDAH under the National Digital Newspaper Program, has placed more than 238,000 pages of out-of-copyright Mississippi papers on the Library of Congress's free Chronicling America site, with titles from 53 of the state's 82 counties and 23 titles carrying Civil War-era issues. Everything else is on microfilm at MDAH, whose newspaper holdings are the most extensive in the state; the catalog will tell you which titles and years survive for a given town. Read the project announcement at mdah.ms.gov.

City directories were published for Jackson, Vicksburg, Natchez, Meridian, and the other larger towns, mostly from the late 1800s onward; MDAH and the larger municipal libraries hold them. Because Mississippi's towns were small, many years were never published, so pair directories with the educable children lists and tax rolls to track a family between censuses. See using old city directories for technique.

Census, military, and statewide indexes

Mississippi has one of the best sets of census substitutes in the South, nearly all free on the MDAH Digital Archives:

• Territorial and state censuses, 1792 to 1866: head-of-household lists survive for scattered counties in 1792 (the Spanish Natchez District), 1805, 1808, 1810, 1813, 1816, 1818, 1820, 1822 to 1825, 1830, 1837, 1845, 1853, 1860, and 1866. The 1866 enumeration is especially valuable as the first to list freedpeople by name.
• Enumeration of Educable Children, 1850 to 1892 and 1908 to 1957: annual county lists of school-age children (5 to 18) with age and race, and from 1885 the parent or guardian's name. The 1950s lists are the closest thing to a post-1940 census you can see today.
• Confederate pension applications, 1889 to 1932: scanned applications from veterans and widows, the only pension files MDAH holds on site.
• Statewide pre-1926 marriage index and Freedmen's Bureau marriage records described above.

Federal censuses cover Mississippi from 1820 (as a state) onward; the 1890 schedules are lost nationwide.

Researching a house or building in Mississippi

MDAH's Historic Preservation Division is the State Historic Preservation Office. It administers National Register nominations, the federal and state rehabilitation tax credits, the Certified Local Government program, the State Historical Marker program, and the Abandoned Cemeteries program, and it maintains the Historic Resources Inventory Database of surveyed buildings. A property that is publicly owned and historically or architecturally significant may be designated a Mississippi Landmark, the state's highest form of recognition, which requires an MDAH permit before any alteration. Begin at mdah.ms.gov/historic-preservation.

For a private house, follow the Chancery Clerk's deed indexes back owner by owner (see tracing a property's deed history), then compare the lot against Sanborn fire insurance maps; pre-1923 sheets for Mississippi towns are free at the Library of Congress, and Mississippi State University holds a large physical set. Our articles on dating a house and researching an old building cover the rest.

Working with Mississippi historical societies

Local history in Mississippi is organized by county and by town, and many of the strongest collections sit in county libraries or small museums rather than in a society with its own building. Genealogical societies in the Delta, the Golden Triangle, and the Gulf Coast publish cemetery surveys and marriage abstracts that fill the gaps left by courthouse fires; Hours are short and volunteer-run, so write first with a surname, a county, and a date range. If you are looking for a grave, start with the county society's cemetery book and the MDAH abandoned cemeteries program, then use finding where someone is buried to extend the search.

Additional Mississippi History Resources

• Mississippi Department of Archives and History - State archives, SHPO, and marker program in the William F. Winter Building, Jackson
• MDAH Genealogy Resources - Overview of censuses, marriage index, county microfilm, and pension files
• MDAH Digital Archives - Scanned state censuses, educable children lists, Confederate pensions, maps
• MDAH Finding Aids - Descriptions of state government record series
• MDAH Historic Preservation Division - State Historic Preservation Office; National Register, Mississippi Landmarks, markers
• Mississippi State Department of Health Vital Records - Birth and death certificates from November 1912; marriage and divorce searches
• Chronicling America - Free digitized Mississippi newspapers from the Mississippi Digital Newspaper Project
• BLM General Land Office Records - Federal land patents for Mississippi public-domain lands
• FamilySearch Wiki: Mississippi Vital Records - Custodians, date ranges, and online indexes

Frequently Asked Questions

When did Mississippi begin statewide birth and death registration?

On November 1, 1912, when a new law required births and deaths to be filed with the state; coverage was reasonably complete by about 1921. Certificates from 1912 forward are issued by the Mississippi State Department of Health Vital Records office in Ridgeland for $17 per certified copy.

Who keeps deeds in a Mississippi county?

The Chancery Clerk. In Mississippi the Chancery Clerk records deeds, deeds of trust, and liens and also serves as clerk of the Chancery Court, which handles probate and divorce. Marriage licenses, by contrast, are issued by the Circuit Clerk.

What is the Enumeration of Educable Children and why does it matter?

Annual county lists of children aged 5 to 18 compiled for school funding, surviving for 1850 to 1892 and 1908 to 1957. They give each child's age and race and, from 1885, the parent or guardian's name, which makes them a substitute for missing birth records and for the lost 1890 census. They are scanned free on the MDAH Digital Archives.

Why is there a gap in Mississippi marriage records from 1938 to 1942?

State registration of marriages began in 1926, but the health department's files cover only January 1926 to July 1938 and January 1942 onward. Marriages in the gap were still recorded locally, so request them from the Circuit Clerk of the county that issued the license.