Welcome to the Mississippi - Reference Books

An Index to the Signatures of Deposit for the Freedman's Savings and Loan Bank, 1865-1869, for the State of Mississippi: Columbia, Natchez, and Vicksburg - Compiled by Nettie Nesbary, Betty Craft, Lettie Sabbs and Karen Massey. This book indexes records of the Freedman's Savings and Loan Bank, which was begun after the Civil War and Emancipation to provide black Union troops with a place to deposit their wages and bounties. It consists of three indices of Registers of Signatures of Depositors, one for each of the three branch offices in Mississippi: Columbia, Natchez and Vicksburg.

More than 7,000 African Americans can be located within these indices to the Registers, which are arranged in alphabetical order by the surname of the individual account. Each entry includes account number, surname, given name, place of birth, place of residence, race, and a notation as to whether more information is available in the original record. The actual Registers of Signatures of Deposit for the Freedman's Savings and Loan Bank may also include the following information: date of entry, place raised, age, complexion, name of spouse, names of children, name of father, name of mother, names of brothers and sisters, and anything else useful in identification, such as signatures or height. Whether the listed relatives were living or dead was often recorded, and sometimes even additional information was divulged.

The compilers of this index are members of the African American Genealogical and Historical Society of Chicago and have been researching Mississippi families for ten years. They are active in several national, state and local societies and have written articles for genealogical journals. 1997, 134 pp., paper, $15.50 #ZN170

Warren County, Mississippi, Probate Index - Mary Lois S. Ragland and Jane J. Williams. In this book, Williams and Ragland present the names of the Complainants (the plaintiffs, decedents or minors) in alphabetical order, usually grouped on the surnames' first two letters (i.e. Ab, Ac, Ad, Ai, and Al, All, etc.). The unique probate number (the book covers numbers 1 to 9999) assigned to each Complainant by the court appears next to his or her name, enabling the researcher to request a copy of the right file directly from the Warren County Chancery Clerk, or to look it up on microfilm. 1993, 241 pp., every-name index, paper $23.00 #ZR026

The Woodville Republican: Mississippi's Oldest Existing Newspaper - O'Levia Neil Wilson Wiese. These abstracts include announcements of Masonic Lodge meetings, legal notices, runaway slaves, marriages and deaths, religious and community events, court proceedings, legal disputes, estate and tax sales, military appointments, elections, epidemics, murders and suicides, and all other data of genealogical interest.

Volume 1: Dec. 18, 1823 through Dec. 17, 1839. 1990, 275 pp., index, paper, $22.00 #ZW137

Volume 2: January 4, 1840 - October 30, 1847 (1991) reprint, 283 pp., map, index, paper, $25.50 #ZW351

Volume 3: January 8, 1848 - January 9, 1855 (all issues of 1849 are missing). 1992, 327 pp., index, paper $28.00 #ZW317

Volume 4: June 22, 1878 - December 25, 1880 1994, 275 pp., index, paper $25.00 #ZW321

Volume 5: January 1, 1881 - December 22, 1883 1996, 295 pp., index, paper, $26.00 #ZW349

Marriages and Deaths from Mississippi Newspapers - Betty Couch Wiltshire. A major compilation; marriage notices include the names of bride and groom, and all others mentioned. Paper bound and indexed.

Vol. 1, 1837-1863. Data from 72 papers published in northern Miss. 1987, 280 pp., $20.50 #ZW431

Vol. 2, 1801-1850. Data from 34 papers published in southern Miss. 1988, 330 pp., $27.00 #ZW432