Mississippi Archives, Societies & Publications

It is a good idea to familiarize personally with just about any repository in Mississippi that you simply might travel to by communicating with to the best suited archive or library in advance.

Most, if not all, Mississippi repositories have written and published content that present its collections as well as research policy.

Mississippi archives and historical organizations usually have On-line sites that provide equivalent details. Several also contain down loadable data for some or parts of their collections.

Table of Contents hide
List of Mississippi Archives
List of Mississippi Libraries & Museums
List of Mississippi Historical & Genealogical Societies
Regional and State Societies
County, Township and City Societies
Religious and Ethnic Societies
Mississippi Newspapers & Publications
Newspapers
Periodicals
Books

List of Mississippi Archives

List of Mississippi Libraries & Museums

List of Mississippi Historical & Genealogical Societies

For almost every state there is a state genealogical society, a state genealogical council, or both.

In addition to their own work, Mississippi groups many times help coordinate the efforts of local societies throughout the Mississippi.

Their unique publications, newsletters and quarterlies, supplement those created through the area societies.

Regional and State Societies

County, Township and City Societies

Religious and Ethnic Societies

Mississippi Newspapers & Publications

Mississippi Genealogical publications (magazines, newsletters, periodicals, books, etc.) contain all types of invaluable information about specific ancestors, whole lineages and families, places in time, and about all sorts of genealogical records and repositories.

Mississippi’s first newspaper was the Mississippi Gazette. Since it was published in 1799 at Natchez, over 2,000 other newspapers have been published in the area. The Mississippi Newspaper Project was put into place to identify the titles and locations of those newspapers, as well as to place issues of them on microfilm to make research easier. The project involved compiling records from museums, libraries, courthouses, and other collections. A national database called the OCLC exists online and can provide that information. It can be accessed from many academic and public libraries. Researchers should explore newspaper holdings in order to locate marriage, birth, and death records, as well as other important date that may have been published, such as court case information. Certain newspapers are also the only surviving proof that certain towns or communities ever existed.

The Mississippi Department of Archives and History holds a private manuscript collection. That collection includes documentation from the 1700s to the present day, including private papers from individuals and families. Accessing information in the collection may be difficult, but there is an alphabetical finding aid. It is generally organized according to donor name and includes a description of the holdings from that donor. An online keyword search can also be used to locate information within the collection. Materials in those records include: Letters,
Business Papers, Plantation Journals, Diaries, Church and Minute Books and Records, School Reports, Bank Reports.

There is also a collection of more than 50,000 photographs. An alphabetical card file is available to help researchers locate information within the collections, including the WPA county collection, which is also housed there.

Newspapers

  • Mississippi Newspapers Directory Listings (onlinenewspapers.com)
  • George Lewis’s reference guide, Mississippiana: Union List of Newspapers (Jackson, Miss.: Mississippi Library Commission, 1971).
  • Betty Couch Wiltshire, Marriages and Deaths from Mississippi Newspapers, 1837–63, vol. 1 (Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, 1987); 1801–50, vol. 2 (ca. 1989); and 1813–50, vol. 3 (ca. 1989); vol. 4 (1850–61)
  • Mississippi Newspaper Obituaries, 1862– 75 (Carrolton, Miss.: Pioneer Publishing Co., 1994); vol..2 (1876–85)
  • Historical Newspapers from Mississippi (1818 – 1964) (genealogybank.com) Immediately find names and keywords and phrases in over 450 million publications, obituaries, marriage notices, birth notices along with other items written in over 2,800 historic U.S. newspapers. New content and articles added monthly!
  • Mississippi Newspaper List (usnpl.com)

Periodicals

Genealogical journals provide you with plenty of sources of information and facts, they are generally overlooked by genealogy and family history researchers and genealogist in looking around for family history.

Many regional and county genealogical and/or historical societies produce periodicals which have records relating to the region or vicinity they operate.

Frequently these publications have articles involving records that are not obtainable somewhere else.

  • The Journal of Mississippi History (1939–present) P.O. Box 571, Jackson, Mississippi 39205
  • Family Trails (1977-1990)
  • Mississippi Coast Historical and Genealogical Society Quarterly (1968-present) P.O. Box 513,  Biloxi, Mississippi 39533
  • Mississippi Genealogical Exchange (1955-87)P.O. Box 16609, Jackson, Mississippi 39211
  • Mississippi Genealogy and Local History (1969-70; 1974-79)
  • Pioneer Publishing Company

Books