Dear Mississippi Territory Researchers To do a search of possible inhabitants of *West Florida*, which includes most of the territory (except Texas which was owned by Mexico and prior to that to Spain) along the middle Gulf Coast, one has to do some diligent searching. How much time do you have? To begin, try to find (with the help of your public librarian if you live in a metropolitan area) this book, which is an INDEX [and that only] Phillip McMullin, GRASSROOTS OF AMERICA If you live near an LDS family history center, order six microfiche (each microfiche costs 15 cents) with this number, FHL US/CAN Fiche 6051323 Let's see--that is less than the cost of a Starbuck's coffee! The book (which is expensive if you try to buy it today) has been filmed, as stated above. Also, it is an INDEX--the introduction is almost a PhD document, however. It covers these Congressional records for all the early mid-part of the United States. By googling, I found an explanation of Grassroots of America www.houstonlibrary.org/clayton/clf/lr002.html Grassroots of America is a computerized index to many volumes called the Gales and Seaton edition [this edition only] of American State Papers. What are American State Papers? They are many volumes published under the auspices of the early United States Congress and have to do with all kinds of matters which came before Congress about the early 1800s. It seems the British burned many of the records in Washington DC and these volumes are to replace many of those papers. There are volumes and volumes, but the ones ancestor-searchers are mainly interested in are the land records and claims. That is why one MUST read, at least partially, the opening pages of The Grassroots of America. (Who told you genealogy was easy?) Anyway Grassroots of America is full of surnames (plus first names). If you find the names in which you are interested, copy [or better photocopy] carefully the names in which you are interested. The first number given after the name will be the volume number of the many volumes. The second number will be the page or pages of that volume or those volumes. You will need this information to plow through these Congressional papers---and tables and tables. In many cases, parts of the books pertaining to land claims in Mississippi Territory (which included large parts of Louisiana) have been reproduced over and over again, and if you search for the name Walter Lowrie, you may find some records which pertain to EARLY inhabitants of what is now Mississippi. In any case, do an AUTHOR search for Walter Lowrie. You will find that Southern Historical Press of Easley, SC has republished two of his books. The one for Mississippi has some introductory notes by the eminent genealogist/lecturer/author, Elizabeth Shown Mills. One book has to do with Orleans and another with Mississippi. In Mississippi and Louisiana Libraries, you may find these books on the shelves of your local or nearby libraries. By the way, do a google.com search for American State Papers. One of the hits I got with google led me to online volumes, but still, one needs an index. Do you want to wade through images and images of volumes and volumes? Don't give up. Talk to your local public librarian about interlibrary loan of Grassroots of America, in case you are not near an LDS FHC.. A librarian told some of us in a recent talk that most Universities and colleges let their books circulate, and in the summer, you may get a better chance at these books. (Have you visited a University library recently? Except for computers, how many students are using books?) If you know of persons who have ancestors of early date in Louisiana, Mississippi, and what later became Alabama, forward some of this information to them. But the index plus the American State Papers pertain to claims from border to border--in what I loosely call The Louisiana Purchase, and that includes all the territory between Michigan and probably Minnesota. After hearing a lecture on Grassroots of America, I spotted the index in my local FH center. I found listed the seven Scott brothers of Feliciana Parish I was searching and also one of their two brothers-in-law. Two of them married girls/women who lived in Wilkinson Co., MS, although one marriage had taken place in Sumter Co. SC (or thereabouts). And let me tell you this--the records in Louisiana and Mississippi are greatly superior to those which one can find for early South Carolina, outside of Charleston. Ancestors turn up in some unusual records!! By the way, for any researchers whose people were early in the area called The Louisiana Purchase, which runs from Canada to the Gulf Coast, you, too, will be interested in Grassroots of America. Be a generous patron, and order these six microfiche to your local Family History Center, if at all possible. You might prowl around a University library to try to find American State Papers--many volumes. That is why you need the index, such as Grassroots of America. The American State Papers have been republished by the same publishing company mentioned above, but also the volumes have been filmed by the FH Library. Use this information to search the catalog. The Class 8 is the one you want for land claims. American state papers : documents, legislative and executive of the Congress of the United States E.W.Wallace E.W.Wallace always trying to learn something new in genealogy, that is!