Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH)
P.O. Box 571, Jackson, MS 39205
www.mdah.state.ms.us/arlib_index.html

The MDAH collection includes 29,000 cubic feet of records of various types: government documents, bound volumes, maps, photographs, oral histories, manuscripts, and video and audio tapes. A Mississippiana Collection contains 60,000 bound volumes covering the pre-history and history of Mississippi. A Finding Aids Online Section provides holdings lists of newspapers, films, and manuscripts, plus biographical and cemetery indexes. The Newspaper Collection includes 1,664 titles covering 212 different Mississippi towns (the Newspapers Finding Aid can be searched by title, town, or county). The Biographical Index consists of information abstracted from a card index compiled by MDAH archivists during 1935-1955. The Cemetery Index includes indices from published cemetery inventories that have been put in machine-readable form by MDAH staffers. MDAH also has much Civil War material, including the following:

1. Roll of Mississippi Confederate Soldiers, 1861-1865.

2. Indigent and Disabled Soldiers and Dependents, 1861-1865.

3. Paroles of Honor: Mississippi Prisoners of War.

4. Deceased Soldiers’ Claims.

5. Proceedings of Court-martials of Mississippi Soldiers.

6. Petitions for Exemptions from Military Duty and Furloughs.

7. Mississippi Military Service Discharges, 1862-1864.

8. Register of Commissions in the Army of Mississippi, 1861-1865.

9. Mississippi Confederate Pension Files.

10. Mississippi Confederate Burials (incomplete).

11. Mississippi Confederate Soldiers’ Home, 1907-1957.

12. WPA Indexes –

Mississippi County Service Rosters. Mississippi Census of Veterans, 1907. Mississippi Headstone Applications. Out-of-state Mississippi Confederate Burials.

They can do limited research for patrons in indexed materials. One request per inquiry. Reference requests from non-residents must include non-refundable $15 fee.

University of Southern Mississippi Special Collections (USMSC) Virtual Reading Room www.lib.usm.edu/~spcol/collections.php

The department has a Genealogy Collection consisting of 5,600 books and bound periodicals. The collection concentrates on Mississippi and other Southern states. The department also maintains a surname card file that currently includes listings on 4,800 different families and houses the Walen Civil War Collection that consists of more than 5,000 volumes, including many Confederates imprints. This collection also includes pamphlets, maps, journals, and regimental histories.

Public Libraries.com – Mississippi Public Libraries on the Internet
www.publiclibraries.com/mississippi.htm

Provides links to Mississippi public libraries that maintain web pages. Many of these libraries have genealogy collections. One example is the Meridian-Lauderdale County Public Library. Its collection includes all census microfilm for Mississippi and Alabama, plus all census microfilm 1800-1850 for North and South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. The collection also includes The Roster of Confederate Soldiers and other Civil War materials.