Simpson County, MississippiA Proud Part of the Mississippi GenWeb!
Contact Us:
State Coordinator: Jeff Kemp
County Coordinator: Gerry Westmoreland
Below are a few tips that may help you with your research.
If you have a researchers' tip that should be on our list, send it to Simpson County MSGenWeb.
Talk to everyone in your family about what they know about the ancestors, keeping in mind that memories can fade and that some of their information is inaccurate. (Great Grandma was a full-blooded Native American or we came over on the Mayflower are two examples of information that is said over & over that is usually not true.) Write down what you've found out.
Buy or download a free genealogy program to organize your information. Brother's Keeper is shareware and can be downloaded for free. This way all of your information is organized and can be emailed to someone easily.
Use ALL types of spellings when you look for records. Many times the spelling changed (Hawley to Holley) or the person writing down the information had trouble deciphering the script. Sometimes names are spelled so "screwy" that your best bet is just to go through the pages. The "s" looks like "f" in some old script, so Smith could look like Fith to a beginning transcriber.
Use the search engine on this website and others to locate surnames.
Be sure to take advantage of query boards. There are a number of different query boards on the internet to use.
Census records are a valuable source of information in our county and in surrounding counties. The 1850 census records begin listing all of the family members and where each was born. Ancestry allows access to the 1850, 1940, and 1950 census records for free - so take advantage.
Check the Cemetery records. There are some on our Cemetery Page and there are others at Find-a-Grave
Check the funeral home listings. Many times people did not have money to buy a tombstone, but their remains were handled by an undertaker.
Check the birth, death and marriage records. Those may list parents names, etc. Get copies of these records by ordering them from the appropriate source.
Don't take every piece of information someone sends you as gospel. Ask for sources. Verify information. Have an open mind. YOU could be mistaken!
