Series 465: Military Grave Registrations. 1936-1941.
Creator: Work Projects Administration (RG 60).
Collection Summary: Correspondence, reports, cemetery lists, field work sheets, and index cards for the state-wide veterans’ graves registration project conducted by the Work Projects Administration. Sponsored by the American Legion and the Department of Archives and History, county level workers in this project located and registered the graves of all veterans, of all wars, interred in Mississippi. All cemeteries in each county were surveyed and a field work sheet was prepared for each veteran’s grave. The county workers then researched local records and newspapers and interviewed relatives to get as complete information as possible on each veteran. The work sheets were forwarded to the state project office in Jackson, where workers accessed records at the Department of Archives and History, the State Service Office (predecessor of the Veterans Affairs Commission), and other state and federal agencies to locate the missing information. Once all possible information was gathered, the data was transcribed onto index cards. These cards were later microfilmed. After the WPA project was completed, additional cards were added by the American Legion based on their participation in veterans’ funerals. The microfilm is arranged by war and then alphabetically. The original records are arranged by individual war. Within each war, arrangement is by county and within each county generally alphabetical. Correspondence and reports are generally arranged chronologically.
Access Restrictions: None.
Date(s): 1936-1941.
Volume: 11.50 Cubic Feet.
Finding Aid Created By: Colby Cox in November 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
Chilean and Peruvian Wars Veterans 11101 Confederate Prospects, Amite - Tippah Counties 11095 Confederate Prospects, Tishomingo - Webster Counties 11096 Confederate Veterans, Adams - Covington Counties 11092 Confederate Veterans, DeSoto - Marshall Counties 11093 Confederate Veterans, Monroe - Yazoo Counties 11094 Confederate Veterans, Out-of-State Burials 11097 Corinth National Cemetery 11097 Correspondence 11104 Correspondence and Miscellaneous 11104 Correspondence and Reports 11104 Correspondence, World War I (State Service Commissioner): 1941 11104 Correspondence, World War I: 1936-1941, n.d. 11104 Financial Reports 11104 Franco-Prussian War Veterans 11101 Index Cards, Civil War (Harrison, Hinds & Lauderdale Counties) [Mf #17812] 12951 Index Cards, Indian Wars [Mf #17812] 12951 Index Cards, Korean Conflict (Panola County only) [Mf #17815] 12953 Index Cards, Mexican War [Mf #17812] 12951 Index Cards, Philippine Insurrection [Mf #17812] 12951 Index Cards, Revolutionary War [Mf #17812] 12951 Index Cards, Spanish-American War [Mf #17812] 12951 Index Cards, WW I (Adams - Chickasaw Counties) [Mf #17812] 12951 Index Cards, WW I (Choctaw - Prentiss Counties) [Mf #17813 & 17814] 12952 Index Cards, WW I (Quitman - Yazoo Counties) [Mf #17814] 12953 Index Cards, WW II [Mf #17815] 12953 Index Cards, War of 1812 [Mf #17812] 12951 Indian Wars Veterans [Mf #17806, 17812] 11101 Mexican War Veterans, Adams - Yazoo Counties [Mf #17812] 11101 Mexican War Veterans, Miscellaneous [Mf #17812] 11101 Military Veterans Headstone Applications, Adams - Yazoo Coun 11097 Military Veterans Partial Burial List, Adams - Yazoo Counties 11097 Miscellaneous Information 11100 Out-of-State Veterans, Lists 11104 Peacetime Soldiers 11102 Philippine Insurrection Veterans [Mf #17810, 17812] 11101 Revolutionary War Veterans [Mf #17806, 17812] 11102 Spanish-American War Veterans [Mf #17812] 11103 Statewide Veterans' Cemetery Lists, Adams - Hinds Counties 11090 Statewide Veterans' Cemetery Lists, Holmes - Yazoo Counties 11091 Travel Vouchers 11100 Union Veterans, Adams County 11098 Union Veterans, Alcorn - Yazoo Counties 11099 Unknown Soldiers, Adams - Yalobusha Counties 11102 Vicksburg National Cemetery, Headstones 11097 War of 1812 Veterans [Mf #17806, 17812] 11102 World War I Veterans, Adams - Clarke Counties [Mf #17813] 11105 World War I Veterans, Clay - Humphreys Counties [Mf #17813] 11106 World War I Veterans, Issaquena - Lowndes Counties [Mf #17813 & 17814] 11107 World War I Veterans, Madison - Pike Counties [Mf #17814] 11108 World War I Veterans, Pontotoc - Tunica Counties [Mf #17814] 11109 World War I Veterans, Union - Yazoo Counties [Mf #17814] 11110 World War I Veterans, Miscellaneous 11097 World War I Veterans, Out-of-State Burials 11097