Covington County Society to Meet

The Covington County Genealogical and Historical Society will meet at 10 a.m. Jan. 12 at the Seminary Public Library. Further information is available at the Hattiesburg American.

Hot Coffee

There is a very nice multimedia tour of Hot Coffee, Mississippi done by the National Geographic folks online. It shows the Old Order German Baptists of the area. The accompanying story is also available.

A Mississippi Case Study

In her article "After Disaster Strikes the Courthouse" in the July/August 2007 issue of Family Chronicle, Emily Croom, author of Unpuzzling Your Past, uses a case study identifying the maiden name of Matilda Shelby of Smith County, Mississippi. The case was complicated because Smith, Jones, Covington, and Jasper Counties all suffered record losses. If you don't subscribe, you should purchase a copy at a bookstore or read a library copy. It's an interesting case! By the way, if you don't have a good introductory book on genealogical research, pick up a copy of Croom's book as well. It's shorter than some books of similar nature and gives a good introduction to the types of records available for research. I often recommend it to persons who are just beginning their ancestral quest.