Welcome to the MSGenWeb Benton County Page.  It is my goal to assist you

in discovering your family tree by providing searchable data, links, and resources.
Good luck, and if I can be of any assistance send an email anytime.

Melissa McCoy-Bell
Benton County MSGenWeb Coordinator


Old Benton County Court House
in Ashland, Mississippi, now home of the Benton County Museum and Historical Society

Benton County Formation
Benton County was formed in 1870, when reconstructionist laws came into effect after the Civil War.  Benton was originally Tippah
and Marshall County up until that time.  The town of Ashland is the county seat and location of the Court House.  Benton County borders
with Marshall County on the West, Tippah County on the East, Union and Lafayette on the South, Hardeman and Fayette Counties in Tennessee on the North. 
The land that makes up Benton belonged to the Chickasaw Indians before settlement.  In 1834, the Treaty of Pontotoc

was signed between the State of Mississippi and the Chickasaw Nation allowing the purchase of land by white settlers.
Nathan Bedford Forrest, a general in the Civil War was from Salem, MS, located in what is now Benton County.

 We Need You!
To send me old pictures of Benton County.  So... if you have some old pictures of the towns, communities, gatherings, schools, or buildings in Benton County scan them and attach them to an email and I will create a page for them for all to see.


Benton County Links

Benton County Surnames
Benton County Lookups
Benton County Queries -
before the new boards were activated
Benton County Family Pages
Vital Records
Benton County Cemeteries
Contact the Ashland Library
The Charles Terry Diary - an ante-bellum diary of life in Salem, dating from 1856
Marriages Performed by Reverend Jesse T. Cox
Ashland High School Class of 1928
USGENWEB archives for Benton County


Links that include Benton County Information

Tippah County Cemeteries (contains some from Benton Co)
Tippah County Confederates
The 1840 and 1850 Federal Census of Tippah County
The 1866 Census Records
The Tippah County Marriage Records
Old Map Collection of Tippah, Union and Pontotoc Counties
Wolf River Conservancy

Genealogy Links

GENDEX:  WWW Genealogy Index
USGenWeb
Treasure Maps - The how-to Genealogy Website
Bureau of Land Management

African American Links

Slave Voices from Duke University
A Guide to African American History
Slave Narratives from Mississippi
African Ancestry
African American Collections - Mississippi State University

Mississippi Links

Reference Tools-CD Lookups
Mississippi Genealogy and Historical Society
Mississippi Vital Records 
Mississippi Libraries Online
Civil War Files - Mississippi State University
MSGENWEB

Native American Links

Genealogical Choctaw Trail
Bureau of Indian Affairs
Choctaw Vision
Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma
All Things Cherokee




Join Our facebook Group

A
nd join other researchers searching in Benton County, we look forward to meeting you!

 USGENWEB


MSGENWEB State Coordinator: Jeff Kemp

Assistant State Coordinator:  Denise Wells



Page updated May 27, 2020

A proud member of the USGenWeb Project,

keeping genealogy free on the Internet
 
MSGENWEB

Your comments and suggestions are welcome. If you have questions regarding your ancestry please post a query, a surname, or post questions to the Benton Facebook Page. 
If you have information that you would like to share by adding it to this page, please contact us.  Thank you for stopping by and good luck in your research!


 
Melissa McCoy-Bell

           © 1997-2020,  by Melissa McCoy-Bell.  All rights reserved.