Creator: Work Projects Administration (RG 60).

Collection Summary: Material from the Vital Statistics Survey project conducted by the Historical Records Survey. The bulk of the material is survey sheets inventorying vital records in Mississippi in the aggregate, i.e., survey sheets cover groups of records and not the records of individuals. Also included is the Guide to Vital Statistics Records in Mississippi produced by the project to serve as an inventory of the location and nature of these records held by local governments and libraries. This survey project should not be confused with the Vital Statistics Project operated by the Community Service section of the Professional and Service Projects division, which sought to educate Mississippians about the importance of filing birth and death records with the State Department of Health and to complete incomplete birth and death records filed with the state.

Access Restrictions: None.

Date(s): 1939-1942. 

Volume: 0.50 Cubic Feet.

Finding Aid Created By: Colby Cox in October 2024.

Related Materials: TBD.

Record Group History: The Works Projects Administration (WPA) was a federal program established on May 6th, 1935, in order to increase employment during the Great Depression. While the WPA was a federal program, it was implemented and managed on the state level with each state having their own director and office to guide the operation of the WPA for each state. The WPA was primarily focused on employing individuals for the purpose of creating public works and infrastructure, but a small portion of its funding was devoted to cultural and artistic endeavors which the files in this collection are primarily concerned with. Two of the major cultural projects the WPA undertook were the Federal Writers’ Project and the Historical Records Survey. The Federal Writers Project employed writers to create guides, histories, and chronicles for each state and the Historical Records Survey sought to catalogue the historical records of each state.

Collection Inventory:
Box Content 

Box Number

Guide to Vital Statistics Records in Miss., Vol. 1: 194211114
Survey Sheets, Birth Records: 194011114
Survey Sheets, Death Records: 194011114
Survey Sheets, Divorce Records: 194011114
Survey Sheets, Marriage Records: 194011114