Mississippi Culpepper Archives
Hancock County

County History

Hancock County is the southernmost county in Mississippi, situated along the Gulf of Mexico and the state line with Louisiana. It was originally established on December 14, 1812 during the territorial period and was named in honor of John Hancock. The coast region along its southern border was first discovered by the Spaniards and later rediscovered by La Salle and colonized by Iberville for the French. A part of the great French Province of Louisiana for a time, by the treaty of Paris in 1763, it became a British possession and was incorporated with the newly established province of West Florida. It was not until early in the nineteenth century that the settlements of the whites penetrated far into the interior of the county from the coast, as all of southern Mississippi was up to that time in the actual occupancy of the Indians.

Under the treaties of 1801 and 1805, the Indians relinquished to the United States all the southern portion of the present State of Mississippi. In 1812, the district of Mobile, lying east of Pearl River, west of the Perdido River, and south of the 31st degree of latitude, was annexed to the Mississippi territory. A few months later, all of the region lying within the present limits of Mississippi, was erected into the two large counties of Hancock and Jackson. In 1841, that portion of Hancock lying east of the line between ranges 13 and 14 was embodied in Harrison County. The Hancock County Courthouse and all records were destroyed by fire in 1853. In 1890, that portion of the county lying north of the dividing line between townships 4 and 5, and extending from the middle of Pearl River east to the line between ranges 13 and 14 west, was taken to form Pearl River County. Bay St. Louis is the county seat, and Waveland is the largest other town.

Hancock County is part of the Gulfport-Biloxi, Mississippi Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of 2000, the population was 42,967. The area is also home to the John C. Stennis Space Center, NASA's largest rocket engine test facility. On August 28-29, 2005 the county was the scene of the final landfall of the eye of Hurricane Katrina, and its communities and infrastructure suffered some of the most intense damage inflicted by that storm. Over the entire 7 mile beach front plus the first block off the beach, not one building or home was left intact. Hancock is bordered by Pearl River County (north), Harrison County (east), the Gulf of Mexico (south), and St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana (west).

Any names below in red have not been matched with a person in the Culpepper family tree. If you can identify any of them, please let us know.

Census Records

1820 US Census

1830-1890 US Censuses

1890 US Census

1900 US Census

Transcribed for Culpepper Connections by Shannon Leigh O’Connor Christian

1910-1930 US Censuses

Military Records

World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918

Source: National Archives and Records Administration. World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-18 (database online) Provo, UT: Ancestry.com, 2002. National Archives and Records Administration. World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. M1509, 4,277 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration

U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946

Source: National Archives and Records Administration. U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946 (database online). Provo, Utah: MyFamily.com, Inc., 2005. Original data: Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, 1938-1946 (Archival Database); World War II Army Enlistment Records; Records of the National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 64; National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD.

Marriages

Mississippi Marriages, 1776-1935

Source: Hunting For Bears, comp.. Mississippi Marriages, 1776-1935 (database on-line). Provo, UT, USA: MyFamily.com, Inc., 2004. Original data: Mississippi marriage information taken from county courthouse records. Many of these records were extracted from copies of the original records in microfilm, microfiche, or book format, located at the Family History Library.

Land Records

Mississippi Land Claims

Source: American State Papers. Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States, Volume III (4 Dec 1815 - 27 May 1824).Gales and Seaton, Washington 1994 (FHL US/CAN 973 R2ag 1994 v.3)

Mississippi Land Records

Source: United States, Bureau of Land Management. Mississippi Land Records (database on-line). Provo, UT, USA: MyFamily.com, Inc., 1997. Original data: United States, Bureau of Land Management. Mississippi Pre-1908 Patents: Homesteads, Cash Entry, Choctaw Indian Scrip and Chickasaw Cession Lands. General Land Office Automated Records Project, 1997

Hancock County Tax Records

Deaths

Social Security Death Index

Source: Social Security Administration. Social Security Death Index (database on-line). Provo, Utah: MyFamily.com, Inc., 2007. All records of deaths on or before 31 Dec 2007 in which the final benefit was paid or final residence was in this county.

Places