Mississippi Colonial Records

Online Records

 * 1798-1817- Mississippi Territorial Land and Court Records- images only.

History
Fort Maurepas on the Biloxi Bay was built by the French on Biloxi Bay in 1699. In 1763, land east of the Mississippi was ceded to Great Britain and was administered with British West Florida. Area west of the Mississippi River was ceded to Spain that same year. The coastal areas of Mississippi were ceded from Spain to Britain in 1783. Until 1795, the rest of Mississippi was claimed by Georgia. The Mississippi Territory was formed in 1798, and the Spanish troops left the fort at Nogales (Vicksburg). In 1812, the United States obtained the coastal areas of Mississippi from Spain.

Ecclesiastical and Civil Records

 * Mississippi Provincial Archives: French Dominion, 1612-1763 by Dunbar Rowland. 6 Vols. (Jackson: Department of Archives and History, 1968, film 0899957).
 * Mississippi Provincial Archives: French Dominion, 1701-1743 by Dunbar Rowland. 3 Vols. (Jackson: Department of Archives and History, 1927-1932, film 0904441). Available digitally, not indexed.
 * Mississippi Provincial Archives: French Dominion, 1729-1763 by Dunbar Rowland. 5 Vols. (Jackson: Department of Archives and history, 1984, film 1305386).
 * Mississippi Provincial Archives, Spanish Dominion, 1757-1820 by Dunbar Rowland. 4 Vols. (Jackson: Department of Archives and History, 1969, film 0899972).
 * Mississippi Provincial Archives: English Dominion, 1763-1783 by Dunbar Rowland. (Jackson: Department of Archives and History, 1969, film 0899981). Available digitally, not indexed.
 * Mississippi Provincial Archives; Spanish Dominion by Work Projects Administration. (n.p., 1942, film 090443). This is the English translations of the original Spanish records. Vols. 3-4 are digitized.
 * First Settlers of the Mississippi Territory. (Nacogdoches, TX: Ericson Books, n.d., fiche 6051448). Available digitally.
 * Mississippi Court Records, 1799-1835 by J. Estelle Stewart King. (Beverly Hills, CA: n.p., 1936, film 0547551).
 * The Natchez Court Records, Abstracts of Early Records, 1767-1805 by May Wilson McBee. (Greenwood, MS: The Author, 1954).
 * Residents of Mississippi Territory by Jean Strickland. (Moss Point, MS: The Author, 1995).

Additional Readings

 * Historical Heritage: A Directory of Libraries, Archives, and Organizations by Sandra E. Boyd. (Hattiesburg: Mississippi Historical Society, 1990).
 * Early Inhabitants of the Natchez District by Norman Gillis. (Baton Rouge: The Author, 1963).
 * Twelve Flags: Triumphs and Tragedies by Dale Greenwell. 3 Vols. (Ocean Springs, MS: The Author, 1968).
 * Tracing Your Mississippi Ancestors by Anne S. Lipscomb. (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1994).
 * Research in the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. (n.p., n.d., film 0908063).
 * Mississippi Territory in the War of 1812 by Eron Opha Moore Rowland. (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1968, film 1036243).