Mississippi genealogy records

Births and deaths

The MSDH Vital Records office has records of births and deaths filed in Mississippi from November 1912 to the present. These are not open records. As of 2025, MSDH restricts access to birth certificates to qualified applicants for 100 years from the date of birth, and to death certificates for 50 years from the date of death, and applicants send a photocopy of a valid photo ID, or two other accepted forms of identification if they have none. You can ask for a record for genealogy, but you must state genealogy as the purpose and give your relationship to the person, and plain paper copies are issued for genealogy requests.

As of 2025, a birth, death or marriage certificate from MSDH costs $17, and extra copies of the same record ordered at the same time cost $6. The fee includes the search and is not refunded if no record is found. You can order by mail, in person at the office in Ridgeland, or online or by phone through a private vital records service.

For older deaths, start at MDAH instead. The archives has no copies of birth records, but it holds microfiche copies of the state's death records from November 1912 to 1943, with indexes. MDAH notes that these death records often give the names and birthplaces of the deceased person's parents, as well as information about the deceased.

Marriages and divorces

Marriages were recorded in each county, and MDAH has microfilm copies of most of the original marriage books held by the county courthouses, though the extent of the collection varies from county to county. County clerks usually indexed the books by the groom's surname. For marriages before 1926, use the statewide index made by the federal Works Progress Administration from records found in Mississippi courthouses. It is arranged by the groom's surname using the Soundex code, and gives the groom, the bride, the date of record, the official who performed the marriage, the county, and the book and page.

MSDH has marriage statistical records from January 1, 1926. From July 1, 1938 to December 31, 1941, marriages were kept only by the circuit court clerk of the county that issued the license, so for those years go to the county. MSDH can also search for the county where a license was issued, but it notes that not every marriage record is on file with its office.

MSDH does not keep divorce records. As of 2025, for a $17 fee it will search its divorce index over a five-year span to find the county where a divorce was granted, for January 1, 1926 to June 30, 1938 and from January 1, 1942 to the present. The decree itself comes from the chancery clerk of that county.

Federal and state census

Mississippi's earliest federal census schedules are gone. The National Archives says the 1800 schedules for Mississippi Territory are no longer extant, and there are no 1810 schedules for Mississippi. The 1820 census survives for Mississippi, so it is the first federal census likely to name your family there.

MDAH also has some surviving state census files, which fill gaps between federal counts. They do not exist for every county, several years are not indexed, and some were taken in years between federal censuses. The State Census Returns are a series on MDAH's Digital Archives.

The enumeration of educable children is another census-like source. These lists give the names and ages of children aged five to eighteen and, beginning in 1885, their parents or guardians, and some families missed by the state or federal census taker appear on them. Dates vary by county: the oldest go back to 1850, while others are as late as the 1950s.

County and court records

Once you know where a family lived, look at county records such as marriage licenses, wills, deeds and tax records. Holdings differ by county because some courthouses have suffered fire or other damage. In most cases the original record stays in the courthouse while MDAH keeps a microfilm copy, and MDAH has a finding aid listing its county records on microfilm.

MDAH also holds hundreds of cases from the High Court of Errors and Appeals, the forerunner of the State Supreme Court. Cases thought to have genealogical value were indexed by Mary Flowers Hendrix in Mississippi Court Records 1799 to 1859, which is indexed by the names of the parties.

Military records and Confederate pensions

MDAH has microfilm copies of service records for Mississippians in the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Civil War and the Spanish-American War, and of World War I draft registration cards. It also holds Mississippi World War I statement of service cards, 1917 to 1919, on its Digital Archives.

The only pension files at MDAH are those of people who served in the Confederate army or navy, and they are on microfilm. Pension files for veterans of other wars and for Union soldiers are at the National Archives in Washington. MDAH's Series 145 holds pension applications from and correspondence with widows and descendants of Confederate veterans; a few files also have the veteran's death certificate, the couple's marriage license or a request for a grave marker. FamilySearch imaged these documents at MDAH in 2011, and they are arranged by the veteran's last name.

African American and Native American families

MDAH's Freedmen's Bureau labor contracts list some 36,000 former slaves. Each contract records a freedman's agreement to work for a planter for a fee, medical care, housing and sometimes a share of the crop, with the county, the planter's name, the plantation name if one was given, the freedman's name and age, and the terms of pay. Sometimes family units or relationships are shown. The contracts are indexed by freedman, planter and plantation.

Part of the Mississippi Freedmen's Bureau microfilm includes marriage records of some newly freed people, with names, ages, and places of birth and residence. Most of these marriages took place in Warren County and involved grooms who served in the United States Colored Troops.

For Choctaw and Chickasaw families, MDAH has microfilm of the Dawes Commission enrollment cards. The commission made its rolls of people eligible for tribal membership from 1898 to 1914, and the cards usually give roll number, name, age, sex, degree of Indian blood, relation to the head of household and the names of parents.

Visiting and asking MDAH

Most MDAH records are not online and must be seen at the William F. Winter Archives and History Building in Jackson, where the reading rooms are open to the public at no charge and staff help researchers. If you cannot visit, you can send a written research request by email or mail. As of 2026, MDAH limits each request to one hour of searching, then sends a letter explaining the results with a quote sheet for copies; for longer projects it keeps a list of freelance researchers.