Record Atlas
7 eras · 1702–2026 · 118 places

Alabama and Mississippi — Mobile, Natchez, the Gulf Coast

Mobile, Biloxi, Natchez, Vicksburg, Jackson, Montgomery, Huntsville. Which empire held this ground in which years — and, the part that matters, which archive that means.

Whose archive this ground was

YearsWho held itWhose archive that means
1702–1763 French Louisiana (Mobile from 1702) no registers survive

Fort Louis on the Mobile River was founded in 1702 and rebuilt as Fort Conde in 1711, the start of present-day Mobile. French colonists also developed plantations in the Natchez district. Archives nationales d'outre-mer in Aix-en-Provence hold French colonial government papers.
1763–1779 British West Florida (capital Pensacola) no registers survive

The Treaty of Paris of February 10, 1763 gave Britain the land east of the Mississippi, which became West Florida with Pensacola as its capital; Mobile was in the colony and the Natchez District was organised within it in the 1770s.
1779–1798 Spanish West Florida (Natchez, Mobile); land north of 31 N claimed by the United States from 1783 FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA)

Spain took Natchez in 1779 and captured Mobile and Pensacola in the 1779-1781 campaign. The Spanish government archives of West Florida (1782-1816) are on NARA microfilm T1116, and the Natchez court and land records of 1767-1805 and the Natchez Chancery Court records from 1781 are published and microfilmed; the Mississippi Provincial Archives (Spanish Dominion) are at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Natchez passed to the United States in 1796 or 1798 depending on the source, while Mobile stayed Spanish until 1813.
1798–1817 Mississippi Territory (organised April 7, 1798) FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA)

The territory covered both states: Natchez was the first capital until 1802, Georgia's claim was ceded in 1802 and added in 1804, and the Mobile District of West Florida was annexed in 1812 and occupied in 1813. The Creek War of 1813-1814 ended with the Treaty of Fort Jackson on August 9, 1814.
1817–1861 Mississippi (state from December 10, 1817) and Alabama (Territory 1817-1819, state December 14, 1819) FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA) · Chronicling America

Alabama Territory was split from Mississippi Territory in 1817 and Alabama was admitted on December 14, 1819. The Choctaw ceded land at Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830 (removal 1831-1836), the Chickasaw at Pontotoc Creek in 1832 (removal mostly 1837-1838) and the Creek at Cusseta in 1832 (removal 1834-1837).
1861–1865 Confederate States of Mississippi and Alabama FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA) · Chronicling America

Mississippi seceded on January 9, 1861 and Alabama on January 11, 1861. Vicksburg surrendered on July 4, 1863, and Union occupation of Mississippi was partial: Natchez was occupied in 1863 and parts of the north earlier.
1865–2026 Mississippi and Alabama FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA) · Chronicling America

Alabama was readmitted in 1868 and Mississippi on February 23, 1870. Statewide birth and death registration began January 1, 1908 in Alabama and November 1912 in Mississippi (full compliance about 1921); earlier records are county-level, and a few Alabama counties kept registers from the mid-1880s.

The rings are approximate — deliberately. They exist to shade which filing system a place fell under, not to adjudicate a border. A place near a ring's edge should be checked against both neighbours.

See the whole span, 1702–2026, on the map →

The map takes a range, and a range that crosses one of the rows above is where records get lost: the family never moved, and the archive on the far side of the handover will tell you it holds nothing.

118 places on this ground

1742 FamilySearch collections reach this ground

Ranked with the regional ones first — a collection for a province is usually a better lead than a national index, though the national index is often where a name is actually written down. A free account opens the images.

…and 1682 more.

All record regions · The map