Mississippi Land Records

See Also Researching in Land Records - Land records provide two types of important evidence for the genealogist. Prior to the Civil War, more than eighty-five percent of all Americans owned or leased land. Therefore, almost every researcher, whether a seasoned professional or weekend hobbyist, has required land records to document the existence, association, or movement of an individual or ancestral family. Most beginning genealogists underestimate the importance of using land records to pin persons to specific locales. In the South, which has far fewer vital records than New England, the land records are even more crucial to genealogical success. For answers to these and other questions, researchers look to Land records......

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 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.

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General Land Research Information

See Also Researching in Land Records.
U.S. House of Representative Private Claims, Vol. 1, Vol. 2 or Vol. 3

The right to own land has always been one of the great incentives for living in the United States. Yet researchers often overlook the importance of land records as a source of family history information. Written evidence of people’s entitlement goes back in time further than virtually any other type of record family historians might use.

Land records meet the needs of researchers in different ways and contain a variety of genealogical and historical data. They are a major source of information for many family histories and provide primary source material for local history as well. They are closely related to probate and other official court records and should be investigated in connection with them. Land and property are leading issues in the settlement of estates, and the majority of civil cases in the courts deal with real and personal property. Although land records rarely yield vital statistics, in many instances they provide the only proof of family relationships. Often they include the names of heirs of an estate (including daughters’ married names and a widow’s subsequent married name) and refer to related probates and other court cases by number and court name. In some places where other records are scarce, the land records take on extra importance. Occasionally these documents disclose former residences and more often provide the new address of the grantors or heirs at the time of the sale of the property.

Land records provide two types of important evidence for the family historian. First, they often document family relationships. Second, they place individuals in a specific time and place, allowing the researcher to sort people and families into neighborhoods and closely related groups. One of land records’ most important qualities is that they are sometimes the only records that allow us to distinguish one person of a common name from another.

The National Archives has bounty-land warrant files, donation land entry files, homestead application files, and private land claim files relating to the entry of individual settlers on land in the public land states. There are no land records for the original thirteen states or for Maine, Vermont, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, and Hawaii. Records for these states are maintained by state officials, usually in the state capital. Searching for the record of a particular land grant from the federal government requires contacting both the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the National Archives (NARA).

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