Gulf Islands National Seashore Reopens

LINK - Gulf Islands National Seashore is open to the public again following Katrina.

MS Blue Book

LINK - The 2004-2008 Mississippi Official and Statistical Register, better known as the Blue Book, is now available. This is a very helpful resource containing a lot of helpful information.

Chickasaw & Clay African-American Family

LINK - Paulette Ivy Harris has published a book which explores her African-American families who resided in Chickasaw and Clay Counties. The book is entitled Always a Blessing in the End: The Chronicles of the Four Ancestral Lineages of Ben Ivy & Ruth Thompson. You may contact the author at readercomments@pauletteivyharris.com or hip836@webtv.net.

Mississippi's Capitol

LINK - Shawn over at Everything and Nothing has a great post about Mississippi's Capitol Building.

The Barrier Islands

LINK - A report of what's gone and what's still there on Mississippi's Barrier Islands following Katrina. It compares the destruction to Camille's.

Mississippi Victorians

LINK - Shawn over at Everything and Nothing has information on Sherry Pace's new book on Mississippi's Victorian homes. It is called Victorian Houses of Mississippi. She has info on getting signed first editions.

Berea Baptist

LINK - Choctaw County's church of the week is Berea Baptist. The church's history dates back to the 1850s. It is located south of the Choctaw-Attala County line.

Blue Rose

LINK - Pass Christian's 1848 Blue Rose had been operating as a restaurant. It is in bad shape, but its owner hopes to restore it.

Tullis-Toledano House - Biloxi

LINK - Among the victims of Katrina was the Tullis-Toledano House in Biloxi. It got its starts as a gambling hotel back in the 1800s. This article looks back at the home's history.

Pemberton's Base

LINK - The National Park Service is mapping out the land where Pemberton's headquarters were for the Battle of Vicksburg. They are using a less invasive means of excavation which emphasizes preservation.

Finding Old Books

LINK - Looking for an old, out-of-print book? Dick Hillenbrand at Upper NY Genealogy Notes has written a post that helps folks locate those elusive books either in print or online. (via Genealogy Blog)

Katrina Book

LINK - The Sun Herald is publishing a book entitled Katrina: Eight Hours that Changed the Mississippi Coast Forever. The 120 page book which has "before and after" photos will be available in time for holiday gift-giving. You can order it at the paper's website or by calling 1-800-591-2097.

Calendar Honors Regina Hines Ellison

LINK - Leland, over at Genealogy Blog, reports that the Mary C. O'Keefe Cultural Center's 2006 calendar honors the late Regina Hines Ellison who used to have a family history column in the Sun Herald.

Eliza Winston

LINK - Over at Issaquena Genealogy and History Project is the fascinating story of Eliza Winston, Richard Christmas, and the Underground Railroad.

Road to Carolina

LINK - A new book, slated for completion in 2007, is being written about the Itawamba County community of Carolina.

Mount Helm Baptist Church

LINK - This Jackson church is celebrating 170 years.

Now located on Church Street in Jackson, Mount Helm is recognized by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History as home to the oldest African-American congregation in the city and the second oldest in Mississippi (the oldest, by one year, is Rose Hill Missionary Baptist Church in Natchez).

Burton Place

LINK - An 1840 Holly Springs home is undergoing restoration.

Veterans History Project

LINK - WLOX is launching a Veterans History Project. The station has several video clips related to the project and to veterans day services in the Mississippi Gulf Coast area.

Ackerman Presbyterian Church

LINK - The Choctaw County church of the week is Ackerman Presbyterian.

Arphax Maps Update

Several months ago I blogged about Arphax Publishing's new atlases that correspond to the federal land patents database (which, unfortunately, are still offline until they get some privacy issues addressed in the Department of the Interior's Web offerings). Many more counties are now available. Mississippi counties now published are: Attala, Holmes, Lawrence, Leake, Neshoba, Newton, Noxubee, Pike, Yalobusha, and Yazoo.

I'm not sure how they are deciding which counties to publish first, but I do hope that they get my counties published soon!

Olive Branch's Time Capsule Sealed

LINK - The city of Olive Branch's city workers sealed the time capsule at the new city hall on October 28. Included in the capsule:

• photo of city officials
• lapel pins
• letter from mayor
• list of dignitaries at the cornerstone ceremony for the city hall
• Dr. David Haraway's "Town of Olive Branch History"
• city newsletters
• Chamber of Commerce information, membership directory, and brochures
• Olive Branch calendars from 1986 and 1996
• Olive Branch bumper sticker
• Olive Branch golf course brochure
• Jack McCauley's history of the Chamber of Commerce
• DeSoto County Tribune article about time capsule
• City Hall dedication program and invitation
• Grand Lodge of Mississippi cornerstone program
• DeSoto County Times dated 14 Jan 2005
• DeSoto County Tribune Veterans Day special section and issue dated 24 Mar 2005
• Bible

Wesson Plans Museum

LINK - The town of Wesson has a dream. They want to build a museum to showcase the town's history. They would like to see it built by the town's 150th birthday.

Pass Christian Loses Historical Documents

LINK - Pass Christian has lost a lot of documents valuable for historical and genealogical research:

As Hurricane Katrina approached, local historians were confident a vault filled with precious pre-Civil War pictures, maps and documents cataloguing the history of this Gulf Coast community would be safe.

Hopes were high after the storm passed. The former bank building that served as the Pass Christian Historical Society headquarters washed away, but its vault still stood. Workers opened it to find wet, sopping papers -- the ruined history of a seaside town. Most of the collection including town ledgers and old newspapers is lost.

(via EOGN's Other News)

Claiborne County & Civil Rights

LINK - A Little Taste of Freedom: The Black Struggle in Claiborne County, Mississippi by Emilye Crosby details the struggles of blacks in that county. The article includes information on book signings.

Mary Mahoney's Reopens

LINK - One of Biloxi's best-loved restaurants, Mary Mahoney's, has reopened. It was built in 1737.

Lorenzo Dow

LINK - While reading Mississippi's census schedules from the 19th century and looking through various print sources, I've come across a lot of individuals with the given name "Lorenzo". Many of these also have the middle now "Dow." Dick Eastman offers us a glimpse of the namesake of these individuals.