Mississippi Land Records
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Most land records will be found with the county Chancery Court Clerk’s office. Despite their titles, deeds found in a county Chancery Court Clerk’s office may include other legal documents of transfer, such as deeds in fee simple granting absolute ownership; mortgages transferring property rights as security for debts; dower releases waiving wives’ rights; quit-claim deeds releasing whatever title or right is held whether valid or not; deeds of gift transferring land without reciprocal consideration; powers of attorney appointing legal agents; marriage property settlements; bills of sale transferring property that is usually not land; and various forms of contracts, such as leases, partnerships, indenture papers, and other performance bonds. Deed books from before the Civil War and especially in colonial years were more miscellaneous in their contents, even including animal brands, occasional wills, slave manumissions, apprentice papers, petitions, depositions, tax lists, and whatever else the clerk decided to preserve on a convenient page. Through such records a researcher may trace the ownership of land, in some cases for two centuries or more.
At different times, early Mississippi land records were granted by four different jurisdictions: France, Britain, Spain, and the state of Georgia. These four all owned parts of Mississippi before the area became part of the United States in 1798. Ownership of land based on a grant from a former jurisdiction is called a private land claim, and each landowner of these claims was required to file it with the federal government after Mississippi came under U.S. jurisdiction. These private land claim records are on microfilm (RG 28 SG 1) at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and can be accessed by consulting the department's guide, “Index to Private Claims and Field Notes in Mississippi.”
Mississippi Historical Records - Databases include Mississippi Court, Land, Wills & Financial Records; Mississippi Birth, Marriage & Death Records; Mississippi Voter Lists & Census Records; Mississippi Immigration & Emigration Records; Mississippi Obituary Records; Mississippi Military Records; Mississippi Family Tree Records; Mississippi Pictures; Mississippi Stories, Memories & Histories; Mississippi Directories & Member Lists and much more....
Mississippi is a public land state, which means that initial (first-grant) disposition of public owned land after 1798 became the responsibility of the federal government under the GLO (now BLM). Kinds of records contained here are field notes and surveys, tract books, official monthly abstracts, patents, and entry records. For the individual buying land directly from the United States government, the transaction was recorded in local federal land offices, and the legal description was entered into tract books. Mississippi's eight land office districts and the chronological periods of operation within the state of Mississippi were the following:
- St. Stephens (or district east of the Pearl River) (26 December 1806–17) was the first opened land office district, and it was the first closed. The district was located in what is now Washington County, Alabama. Transactions covered those for the southeastern district, including land Georgia ceded to the federal government in 1798 and 1802. Augusta became the land office serving the area.
- The Washington land office (Adams County) (or district west of the Pearl River) (1807–61) covered land including Choctaw sales of individual reserves.
- The federal land office at Huntsville, Alabama (1810–present), was created for the purpose of managing those lands acquired by treaties with the Chickasaw in 1805 and Cherokee in 1806, the office is located in Madison County, Alabama.
- Between 1827–36, the Jackson land office (Hinds County) (1823–27, 1836–61, 1866–1925) was located at Mt. Salus and regulated land sales in west-central Mississippi.
- The office at August (Perry County) (1820–59) was moved to Paulding (Jasper County) in 1860–61, having jurisdiction over lands in the lower portion of east-central Mississippi.
- The Columbus district (Lowndes County) (1833–61) encompassed lands in the northern portion of east-central Mississippi.
- The Chocchuma land office (now Grenada County) (1833–40) was located in the Choctaw District on the Yalobusha River. It moved to Grenada after 1840 where it continued operating until 1860, serving land in the vicinity of northwest Mississippi.
- The Pontotoc office (Pontotoc County) (1836–61) served lands roughly in the extreme northeast of Mississippi. By 1869, all were consolidated to one in Jackson.
When the land offices closed in Mississippi, the land records were sent to the BLM; however, the original field notes and plat books are housed at the Secretary of State's Office. Inquiries may be sent to the Public Lands Division, 401 Mississippi Street, Jackson, Mississippi 39205. This office is open to those who want to do research, but there is a fee for research done by the staff.
The best genealogical information pulled from the first-grant land records may be found in the various types of entry records. The private land claim, as previously explained, was the entry record which recorded claims to land from foreign governments. Military bounty land was issued as a reward for military service. Credit entries were simply those lands purchased with the intent of paying later, and the Cash entry signified those lands sold after 1820 when land was sold for cash only. Those lands given by the government for specific reasons were called donation entries. Homestead entries were created under the Homestead Act of 1862, which gave certain stipulations to settlers in exchange for land.
Another type of land transaction involves the buying and selling of property among private citizens (subsequent sales). In Mississippi, these transactions are recorded as deeds at the county courthouse and filed by the chancery clerk, although the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and the FHL have large collections of these land records on microfilm, filed by county.
The Mississippi Department of Archives and History has copies of records taken from both the land commissioner's office (first-grants) and the offices of chancery clerks (subsequent sales). The Congressional Records in the archives provide a considerable amount of information about land legislation including petitions from individuals, land companies, and state and local governments regarding land claims from 1795 to 1872. Located in these documents are also copies of treaties with Native Americans regarding land cessions. Other information is dispersed throughout the provincial, territorial, state and federal records found in the collection. The map file includes extensive land surveys for the area of the lower Mississippi Valley.
- Mississippi Land Books at Amazon.com
- Mississippi Land Records - Officially known as the Pre-1908 Homestead & Cash Entry Patent and Cadastral Survey Plat Index, this database contains the information from over 169,000 land patents and other material dated before 1908 for the state of Mississippi. Information recorded in the collection includes patentee name, land office, legal description, etc.
- Land Claims in Mississippi Territory, 1789-1834 - This database gives information about public land claims made by early settlers of the Mississippi Territory. Information was compiled and published in the American State Papers by Walter Lowrie, who was secretary of the senate at the time, and encompasses volumes I and II of that series. Entries include the register's number, name of claimant, name of original grantee or claimant, quantity of land, and date of the patent.
- BLM Land Records
- Land Records from All States
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