Mississippi Church Records

United States   Mississippi    Church Records

Before 1900 the largest religious groups in Mississippi were the Baptist and the Methodist Episcopal (now United Methodist) churches.

The Family History Library has a few original church records for Mississippi, including some Baptist and Presbyterian documents. However, the records of these major denominations seldom include birth, marriage, and death dates.

Some denominations have collected their records into central repositories. You can write to the following addresses to learn where their records are located:

Baptist
Mississippi Baptist Historical Commission Mississippi College Library P.O. Box 51 Clinton, MS 39060 Phone: (601) 925-3434 Fax: (601) 925-3435 Internet: http://www.mc.edu/campus/library/libhistory.htm

The Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives 901 Commerce Street #400 Nashville, TN 37203-3630 Phone (615) 244-0344 Fax (615) 782-4821

Histories of the Baptists include:


 * Benjamin, Griffin. History of the Primitive Baptists of Mississippi. Jackson, Miss.: Barksdale and Jones, 1853. Digital version at Internet Archive; 1958 reprint: book 976.2 K2g
 * Schilling, T.C. Abstract History of the Mississippi Baptist Association, 1806-1906. New Orleans, La.: n.p., 1908. film 1036195 Item 1; digital version and index at Baptist History Homepage

Methodist
J.B. Cain Archives of Mississippi Methodism Millsaps-Wilson Library Millsaps College 1701 North State Street Jackson, MS 39210 Telephone: 601-974-1073 Fax: 601-974-1082 Internet: http://library.millsaps.edu/index.php/archives/jb-cain-archives-of-mississippi-methodism/

Commission on Archives and History of the United Methodist Church 36 Madison Avenue P.O. Box 127 Madison, NJ 07940 Telephone: 201-408-3590 Fax: 201-408-3909 Internet: http://www.gcah.org/Directory/CommAH.htm

A helpful history is J. Allen Lindsey, Methodism in the Mississippi Conference (Jackson, Mississippi: Hawkins Foundation, Mississippi Conference Historical Society, 1964; book 976.2 K2L

Roman Catholic
Diocese of Biloxi 1790 Popps Ferry Road Biloxi, MS 39532 Phone: (228) 702-2100

The diocese includes the counties of: Covington, Forrest, George, Greene, Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, Jefferson Davis, Lamar, Lawrence, Marion, Pearl River, Perry, Stone, Walthall and Wayne

Diocese of Jackson 237 East Amite P.O. Box 2248 Jackson, MS 39225 Phone: (601) 969-1880

The diocese includes the counties of: Adams, Alcorn, Amite, Attala, Bolivar, Benton, Calhoun, Carroll, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Claiborne, Clarke, Clay, Coahoma, Copiah, DeSoto, Franklin, Grenada, Hinds, Holmes, Humphreys, Issaquena, Itawamba, Jasper, Jefferson, Kemper, Lafayette, Lauderdale, Leake, Lee, Leflore, Lincoln, Lowndes, Madison, Marshall, Monroe, Montgomery, Neshoba, Newton, Noxubee, Oktibbeha, Panola, Pike, Pontotoc, Prentiss, Quitman, Rankin, Scott, Sharkey, Simpson, Smith, Sunflower, Tallahatchie, Tate, Tippah, Tishomingo, Tunica, Union, Warren, Washington, Webster, Wilkinson, Winston, Yalobusha and Yazoo