Mississippi Resource

State archives can be an invaluable resource for finding information for your genealogy research. The amount of information available for free online varies from state to state. Mississippi is one of the growing number of states that offers a Digital Archive. The digital archive currently offers documents of the Sovereignty Commission, a number of photograph collections, a historic map collection, interviews with Sam H Bowers Jr and the estate papers of Jefferson Davis.

The Sovereignty Commission operated from 1956 to 1973. It was created in response to Brown v. Board of Education. Officially, the Commission's purpose was to protect the sovereignty of Mississippi against federal encroachment. In actuality, the Commission was put in place to counter civil rights activism.

The records contain the names and activities of thousands of individuals. Records include lists of teachers, investigation reports, letters, telegrams and more. If you have family that lived in Mississippi in the time period the Commission operated, it's worth searching to see if there are any records pertaining to them in this collection.

There are a number of photograph collections including the 1927 Flood Photograph Collection, photographs from Hurricanes Camille and Katrina, Lochinvar Photograph Collection, Mississippi State Penitentiary and Vicksburg National Military Park Photographs, just to name a few. Other personal collections document the state of Missisippi and her people.

The Historic Map Collection is another free genealogy resource offered in the digital archive. The collection has over 2,400 maps. However, at this time, only 22 are currently digitized.

The Jefferson Davis Estate Papers will be of interest to those that study the Civil War. Jefferson Davis served as President of the Confederate States of America. The complete probate and will file are available. You can browse or search the collection.

Sam H Bowers Jr was responsible for the death of civil rights leader Vernon Dahmer. In the 1980s, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History recorded three interviews with him. These are available to listen to for free in the digital archives. Transcriptions of the interviews, as well as a manuscript written by Bowers is also available.

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Interviewing Family Members

Living family members can be one of the best free genealogy resources at your disposal. While odds are a single person may not know all of the information you seek, you can usually put pieces from several people together to get a full picture. Even if someone doesn't know exact dates, they may know other facts that can help you narrow the gap.

Things to consider when interviewing family members

1) It was not unusual for children to be named after a favorite relative of the parents. My maternal grandfather is named for both of his grandfathers, Thomas for his maternal grandfather and Walter for his paternal one. When interviewing family members, ask if they were named after anyone.

2)If someone is unsure on a date, ask if they can remember anything that might help narrow the range. When I interviewed my grandfather in an attempt to get more information on his grandparents, I was able to determine that his paternal grandfather and maternal grandmother died before his birth and his maternal grandfather died after he was born but before he graduated. Since I knew that the two that died prior to his birth were alive when the 1930 census was taken, it narrowed the year of death for them to an eleven year range.

3) Most families have skeletons in the closet. Some relatives will talk about them and others won't. If you are interviewing someone and they suddenly clam up, don't push the issue. Change the subject to something more innocuous and note the question down to ask someone else about. If you push the issue, you risk the family member refusing to answer any other questions you may have, not to mention blocking access to other family members who may be able to give you answers.

4) Ask about religion. While some families stay with a specific religion, it's not unusual for others to change. Church records can be an invaluable resource when trying to trace genealogy. You don't want to waste your time digging through the records of the wrong church.

5) If you have information from your research, ask about it. It may trigger a memory. When I asked my mother about her grandparents' siblings, she could only remember a couple names. After doing some research in census records, I went back to her with a list of names. Once she heard a name, she remembered the individual and could tell me about them.

6) Come prepared with some questions, but don't be afraid to follow the interview where it goes. Having questions prepared will help prevent gaps in conversation. The flexibility to let the interviewee choose the direction of the interview may yield some interesting finds, which may include answers to questions you hadn't considered.

7) Be courteous. Ask before you show up with your notepad in hand. Keep the interview brief, no more than one to two hours. If you have limited time to spend with the relative, make sure you take frequent breaks. Thank the person for their time and any photographs or mementos they give you or allow to scan or copy.

8) Consider recording the interview if the person agrees. If you are jotting down information by hand, you may miss something or inadvertently get something mixed up. It also distracts the person being interviewed. Using recording equipment allows you to focus on what the person is saying and interact in the conversation. It may also help the person being interviewed feel more at ease.

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