Our Library Collections: Mississippi

One in a series by CGS member Chris Pattillo highlighting some of our holdings at the Library in Oakland. For a fuller listing of our books, journals, and more, consult the CGS Library catalog. Our catalog is also included in WorldCat.

American Red Cross Nurses in Yazoo County, Mississippi

Our Mississippi collection is comparatively small.  It starts with the Journal of Mississippi History, covering the period 1948 to 1969. This is followed by compilations of court records, censuses, and other vital records published by a local genealogy society.

Abstract of Goodspeed’s Mississippi by Norman E. Gillis was published in 1962. This book abstracts the Goodspeed Brothers' 1891 Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Mississippi for brief alphabetical biographies of about 25,000 individuals from 19th-century Mississippi families, from Abby to Ziegler, in 685 pages. These memoirs give an “authentic and comprehensive account of the chief events in the history of the state and a record of the lives of many of the most worthy and illustrious families and individuals.”

WPA guide for Mississippi

Some of the oldest records I’ve found so far during this blog series can be found in Amite County Mississippi 1699-1890. We own volume 3 of the 4-volume series. published in 1957 by Albert E. Casey The book's 46 chapters cover county marriage records, deeds, estate documents, businesses, military history, wills, and family histories. This is another dense tome totaling 750 pages.

Anyone with Mississippi ancestors will be pleased to learn that our library includes Mississippi: The WPA Guide to the Magnolia State.  This is a travel guide-style book that focuses on “Deep South folkways …. Frontier hamlets, vanishing homesteads, and burgeoning communities …” The original book was written by the Federal Writers’ Project of the Works Progress Administration in 1938. It is one of a series of guides created at that time and was considered “one of the New Deal’s most innovative programs.” The bulk of the book consists of tours of different parts of the state.

Yazoo County Story

You’re in luck if you have ancestors from Mississippi's Yazoo County,  because we have a well-illustrated, yearbook-style county history published in 1958. This was a joint effort between the Yazoo Historical Association, their local chapter of the DAR, the Yazoo Junior Auxilary, and the Yazoo Chamber of Commerce.

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