Some people eat, sleep and chew gum, I do genealogy and write...

Saturday, December 7, 2019

Reclaim the Records: The Mississippi Death Index goes online, for free!


I got the following email notice from Reclaim the Records:
Hello again from Reclaim The Records! We are pleased to announce that for today's 'Giving Tuesday' quasi-holiday, we have decided to give y'all a new treat. 
Introducing the first-ever freely-available publication, online or otherwise, of the Mississippi Statewide Death Index! This record set covers deaths in the state of Mississippi from about November 1912 (although a few counties were slow to join in) through 1943. This record set was originally compiled by the Works Project Administration (WPA), as part of their incredibly important Historical Records Survey group.

Up until, oh, right now, the only place anyone could see or use this index was by visiting the Mississippi Department of Archives and History in Jackson, Mississippi in person, then tediously cranking through the faded and scratched microfilm rolls, or shuffling around microfiche sheets for some of the years. But now it's all scanned and online and free to use from your own home, without restrictions or copyrights, forever! 
And we at Reclaim The Records couldn't have done this without teamwork: a dedicated genealogist who knew about the records and about his rights and reached out to us for help; two generous genealogy non-profits that helped us digitize and host these new materials; and a pool of awesome supporters and donors that enabled our work on this project. (This is you!)
The records are on one of my favorite websites, Archive.org or The Internet Archive. Here is a screenshot and a link.

https://archive.org/details/msdeathindex?sort=titleSorter&utm_source=Reclaim+the+Records&utm_campaign=4cd8046ede-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_05_01_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_05ada25d21-4cd8046ede-190759609&mc_cid=4cd8046ede&mc_eid=87d2371d01

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