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
Telephone: 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
Telephone 615-244-0344
Fax 615-782-4821
Internet: http://www.sbhla.org/links.htm

Histories of the Baptists include:

Benjamin, Griffin. History of the Primitive Baptists of Mississippi. 1853. Reprint, Jonesboro, Arkansas: Sammons Printing, 1958. (Family History Library book 976.2 K2g.)

Schilling, T.C. Abstract History of the Mississippi Baptist Association, 1806-1906. New Orlean, Louisiana: N.p., 1908. (Family History Library film 1036195.)

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; Family History Library book 976.2 K2L.)

Roman Catholic

Diocese of Biloxi

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