Mississippi_Historical_Counties_Dataset Shapefile Thumbnail Tags historical county boundaries, 7 February 1785 to 31 December 2000, Mississippi Summary The Atlas is meant to be a resource for people (a) seeking records of past events, (b) trying to analyze, interpret, and display county-based historical data like returns of elections and censuses, and (c) working on state and local history. The special interests of those potential users range from history to demography, economics, genealogy, geography, law, and politics. Counties and their equivalents (e.g., parishes in Louisiana and independent cities in four other states) cover all the territory of the United States, function as repositories of valuable records, and long have been used as the geographic base units for the gathering of essential social, political, and economic data. The authority to create, change, or eliminate counties and to specify their functions lies with the states and their predecessors. In detail, the role of counties varies from state to state, but in every state they administer the judicial system and provide a great number of services. In the process, counties collect and preserve large quantities of information. For example: records of marriages, births, and deaths; probated wills; militia training; real-estate transfers; tax collections; welfare benefits; school programs; voter registrations; etc. Outside densely populated cities, counties have served as colonial, territorial, and state legislative districts and as the building blocks of congressional districts. In the nineteenth century they became the grassroots centers for the development of political parties. Moreover, counties have been the principal geographic units for the collection and aggregation of data from colonial/territorial, state, and federal censuses. Unfortunately for researchers, the average county has changed size, shape, or location between four and five times. Therefore, knowing the present county of the place where a past event occurred may not be sufficient to find its official records. If county boundaries changed in the meantime, it is necessary to learn what county had jurisdiction at the time of the event to identify the courthouse where the record is stored today. If the reported population of a county changed from one census to another, was that because of an increase or a decrease in the number of people, or an annexation or loss of populated territory, or a combination of both? Trying to analyze county-based historical data without controlling for boundary changes is almost certain to yield errors and lead to false conclusions. Description This document serves as the metadata for the Mississippi Historical Counties Dataset shapefile for use in a geographic information system (GIS). That file may be downloaded without charge from this Web site (http://www.newberry.org/ahcbp); see also Distribution_Information, below. In addition, an interactive map of Mississippi's Historical Counties Dataset is available for operation and viewing through the Web site by means of ArcIMS, a program produced by Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI). ArcIMS draws its boundary data for the interactive map from the Mississippi Historical Counties Dataset shapefile. The interactive map is projected while the downloadable shapefile is not. Here are descriptions of the sources and methods used to gather and process the information that appears in the shapefile and in the interactive map so that users can evaluate the quality and utility of the data. The comprehensive Mississippi Historical Counties Dataset shapefile holds the polygons, metadata, and attribute data for every different configuration of every county or county equivalent in Mississippi, dated to the day, from 7 February 1785 through 31 December 2000. The Historical Counties Dataset, together with a number of supplementary cartographic data files and text files, enable users easily to employ a geographic information system for the analysis and display of county-related historical data. First among the non-cartographic data files is the Mississippi Comprehensive Database (a tab-delimited text file that can be imported into a database or spreadsheet program), which provides descriptions of all known changes in state and county boundaries, changes in county organization and attachments, and changes in status and name, together with citations to the sources. These data include unmappable boundary changes, which usually means changes too small to plot as polygons at compilation scale, changes whose shapes could not be plotted at compilation scale (e.g., shift of a boundary line from the centerline of a road to one shoulder or the other), and changes that could not be mapped for other reasons (e.g., the location of the change could not be determined). In the Comprehensive Database, there is a separate entry for each county involved in each event. That facilitates assembling all the events pertaining to a single county. In addition to the Comprehensive Database, there are five supplemental texts. These are: (1) a comprehensive County Index (includes proposed and extinct counties and non-county areas and provides cross references for name changes, with hyperlinks to corresponding individual county chronologies), (2) a Consolidated Chronology that organizes all the data by date, combining all the counties involved in an event into a single, composite entry, (3) a set of Individual County Chronologies, each one covering all the changes in a single county or equivalent, (4) a Bibliography that lists the primary and secondary sources found useful in the historical research, and (5) a Commentary on the research problems and materials that were remarkable or unusual in the process of historical compilation (Not every state requires a commentary.). A "Read Me" file introduces all these files and indicates how to get started with them. Credits Principal financial support for the project was provided by the Reference Materials Program of the National Endowment for the Humanities, an independent federal agency; additional support came from the Newberry Library, Chicago, the project's headquarters, and from a number of corporations, foundations, and individuals. Use limitations Free for use under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Creative Commons License Extent West -91.662506 East -84.888247 North 35.008029 South 30.149892 Scale Range There is no scale range for this item. ArcGIS Metadata . Topics and Keywords . THEMES OR CATEGORIES OF THE RESOURCE boundaries * CONTENT TYPE Downloadable Data PLACE KEYWORDS Mississippi TEMPORAL KEYWORDS 7 February 1785 to 31 December 2000 THEME KEYWORDS historical county boundaries Hide Topics and Keywords . Citation . TITLE Mississippi_Historical_Counties_Dataset PRESENTATION FORMATS digital map FGDC GEOSPATIAL PRESENTATION FORMAT vector digital data SERIES NAME Atlas of Historical County Boundaries-Digital (Shapefiles) Hide Citation . Citation Contacts . RESPONSIBLE PARTY ORGANIZATION'S NAME Peggy Tuck Sinko, Historical Compiler CONTACT'S ROLE originator RESPONSIBLE PARTY ORGANIZATION'S NAME John H. Long, Editor, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries CONTACT'S ROLE originator RESPONSIBLE PARTY ORGANIZATION'S NAME Laura Rico-Beck, Digital Compiler CONTACT'S ROLE originator Hide Citation Contacts . Resource Details . DATASET LANGUAGES English (UNITED STATES) STATUS completed SPATIAL REPRESENTATION TYPE vector SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION Method: Historical compilers plot county boundary changes in chronological order. Working directly from originals or photocopies of the verbal boundary descriptions in the state session laws, the ultimate authoritative source, the researcher plots the lines on a transparent compilation sheet laid over a modern base map of the state. As each change is plotted, the compiler writes a descriptive entry for the state's boundary chronology and a brief citation of the source of the information. The compiler creates the Comprehensive Database from this information. Plotting boundary changes of all counties together and in sequence, not merely reconstructing the counties at different points in time (e.g., dates of censuses) or concentrating on a single county at a time (thereby taking it out of the context of what happened to its neighbors), is an important aspect of the historical compilation process. Doing so gives the compiler valuable insight into how the counties developed and whether the intentions of legislators were realized in their enactments. For example, a law may say its purpose is to transfer territory from County A to County B, but the actual effect, visibly evident from the plot, may be to transfer territory from both A and C to B. When boundaries are plotted this way, gores (gaps between counties) and overlaps created accidentally by the legislature are readily apparent, and errors in plotting are discovered almost immediately. It is nearly impossible to detect such developments unless the counties are plotted together. Descriptive entries in the comprehensive database and in the chronologies reflect actual changes because they are written from the compilation plots, not from the laws alone or from secondary works. One additional benefit of this approach is that it provides an automatic checking mechanism. When the historical compiler reaches the end of the development of the county network, the final version should be identical with the boundaries of the present county. If there is a difference between the completed compilation and the standard, current map, the compiler knows there is a mistake somewhere. Such a discrepancy is rare, but when one is discovered, the compiler reviews the compilation to find the source of the problem. Usually it is a matter of the compiler erring in the plot of a boundary or accidentally omitting some change, either of which can easily be corrected, but occasionally the fault is found on the current, federal map. When the error appears on the federal map, the boundary is plotted accurately and a brief explanation of the difference is added to the supplemental Commentary. Problematic Data. Every so often, a state's law makers mistakenly overlapped the lines of two or more counties. Once such an overlap was detected, it seldom lasted long because dual jurisdictions generate only trouble, and states acted swiftly to eliminate them. This atlas treats areas of overlapping jurisdiction as distinct polygons and provides the usual data (e.g., start dates and end dates) for each one. Much more common than overlaps are non-county areas, that is, areas not within the jurisdiction of any county. Sometimes legal boundary descriptions left small areas, known as gores, outside the bounds of any county. Such inadvertent omissions errors most often occurred in the early days of a state's history when boundary makers lacked knowledge of the state's topography. Sometimes, legislators purposely did not extend county jurisdiction over all of their state's territory as early as possible, but waited until they had a better understanding of the lay of the land and until the prospect of European settlement was closer. Under those circumstances, they often provided a minimum of legal and administrative services for each non-county area by formally attaching it to a fully operational county; later, when the area was ready for settlement or was already under development, the state created one or more counties from the non-county area. This atlas aims to be absolutely comprehensive and, with a few exceptions (see next paragraph), to leave no "holes" in its historical and geographic coverage of a state. In practice, each state compilation includes all the territory within its bounds in 2000, regardless of what authority created or altered a county there, plus all other territory that may have been within the state's jurisdiction at an earlier time. Also, there are no empty spaces, no areas outside a named polygon. Each non-county area, whether an accidental gore or a region purposely set aside for future settlement, is represented by a polygon, the polygon is named (often merely as a non-county area with a number, such as NCA1), and a full set of data about it is entered in the database and the attribute file. The exceptions to the "no-holes" policy described above are the large non-county areas in western Virginia, New York, and the New England states during much of the seventeenth century. In London and the other European capitals, officials had access to so little accurate information about inland territory that imperial claims and land grants, including colonial charters, often were incomplete or imprecise or asserted limits (e.g., the Pacific Ocean or "South Sea") that were so extreme as to be impractical to plot. Compilers treated those large, indefinitely bounded, and inadequately described, non-county areas as empty territory and made no attempt to represent them as coherent, historically complete polygons. Because the ArcGIS program requires that all polygons be closed, the compilers supplied estimated boundary lines to close polygons representing indefinitely extensive frontier counties and noted their action in the "Change" field. Some changes have not been mapped because the change is too small to map, or the location is unknown, or both; for example, a law that transferred ten acres belonging to farmer Smith from one county to another would be unmappable because the parcel is too small to be mapped at the standard compilation scale or because the location of Smith's farm cannot be discovered. When the location of a change too small to map is known, the historical compiler marks the location and the digital compiler digitizes it as a point. All such tiny changes are collected in a separate shapefile, usually labeled [YEAR]_pt.shp. Using the historical compiler's plotting overlays and associated material (e.g., notes, copies of the laws), the GIS compiler draws the counties in digital form. For digitizing, the program is ArcGIS 9.1, and the electronic modern "base map" is from the Digital Chart of the World (DCW) provided with ArcGIS by Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), plus, as needed, such other data (often from another source) as the grid of the Public Land Survey System (PLSS). By repeating much of the procedure of the historical compiler, the digital compiler implicitly checks the work of her predecessor and occasionally finds line segments that must be corrected. As digitizing proceeds, data from the comprehensive database are entered into the attribute table. After perfecting the boundary lines, the GIS digitizer assembles copies of all county polygons and attribute data into a single shapefile, the Historical Counties Dataset shapefile. * PROCESSING ENVIRONMENT Version 6.2 (Build 9200) ; Esri ArcGIS 10.6.1.9270 CREDITS Principal financial support for the project was provided by the Reference Materials Program of the National Endowment for the Humanities, an independent federal agency; additional support came from the Newberry Library, Chicago, the project's headquarters, and from a number of corporations, foundations, and individuals. ARCGIS ITEM PROPERTIES * NAME MS_Historical_Counties * SIZE 10.637 * LOCATION file://\\DESKTOP-TP9LNVL\F$\DATA\00_BOUNDARIES\MS_Historical_Counties.shp * ACCESS PROTOCOL Local Area Network Hide Resource Details . Extents . EXTENT GEOGRAPHIC EXTENT BOUNDING RECTANGLE WEST LONGITUDE -91.662506 EAST LONGITUDE -84.888247 SOUTH LATITUDE 30.149892 NORTH LATITUDE 35.008029 EXTENT DESCRIPTION publication date TEMPORAL EXTENT BEGINNING DATE INDETERMINATE DATE 02/07/1785 ENDING DATE INDETERMINATE DATE 12/31/2000 EXTENT GEOGRAPHIC EXTENT BOUNDING RECTANGLE EXTENT TYPE Extent used for searching * WEST LONGITUDE -91.662506 * EAST LONGITUDE -84.888247 * NORTH LATITUDE 35.008029 * SOUTH LATITUDE 30.149892 * EXTENT CONTAINS THE RESOURCE Yes EXTENT IN THE ITEM'S COORDINATE SYSTEM * WEST LONGITUDE -91.662506 * EAST LONGITUDE -84.888247 * SOUTH LATITUDE 30.149892 * NORTH LATITUDE 35.008029 * EXTENT CONTAINS THE RESOURCE Yes Hide Extents . Resource Points of Contact . POINT OF CONTACT ORGANIZATION'S NAME Dr. William M. Scholl Center for American History and Culture, The Newberry Library CONTACT'S POSITION Director, Dr. William M. Scholl Center for American History and Culture CONTACT'S ROLE point of contact CONTACT INFORMATION . ADDRESS TYPE both DELIVERY POINT 60 W. Walton Street CITY Chicago ADMINISTRATIVE AREA Illinois POSTAL CODE 60610 COUNTRY US E-MAIL ADDRESS scholl@newberry.org HOURS OF SERVICE 8:00 am - 5:00 pm M-F, CT Hide Contact information . Hide Resource Points of Contact . Resource Maintenance . RESOURCE MAINTENANCE UPDATE FREQUENCY as needed Hide Resource Maintenance . Resource Constraints . LEGAL CONSTRAINTS LIMITATIONS OF USE No liability is assumed by the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries Project or the Newberry Library OTHER CONSTRAINTS Free access for use under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Creative Commons License SECURITY CONSTRAINTS CLASSIFICATION unclassified CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM none ADDITIONAL RESTRICTIONS none CONSTRAINTS LIMITATIONS OF USE Free for use under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Creative Commons License Hide Resource Constraints . Spatial Reference . ARCGIS COORDINATE SYSTEM * TYPE Geographic * GEOGRAPHIC COORDINATE REFERENCE GCS_North_American_1983 * COORDINATE REFERENCE DETAILS GEOGRAPHIC COORDINATE SYSTEM WELL-KNOWN IDENTIFIER 4269 X ORIGIN -400 Y ORIGIN -400 XY SCALE 11258999068426.238 Z ORIGIN -100000 Z SCALE 10000 M ORIGIN -100000 M SCALE 10000 XY TOLERANCE 8.9831528411952133e-09 Z TOLERANCE 0.001 M TOLERANCE 0.001 HIGH PRECISION true LEFT LONGITUDE -180 LATEST WELL-KNOWN IDENTIFIER 4269 WELL-KNOWN TEXT GEOGCS["GCS_North_American_1983",DATUM["D_North_American_1983",SPHEROID["GRS_1980",6378137.0,298.257222101]],PRIMEM["Greenwich",0.0],UNIT["Degree",0.0174532925199433],AUTHORITY["EPSG",4269]] REFERENCE SYSTEM IDENTIFIER * VALUE 4269 * CODESPACE EPSG * VERSION 6.12(3.0.1) Hide Spatial Reference . Spatial Data Properties . VECTOR . * LEVEL OF TOPOLOGY FOR THIS DATASET geometry only GEOMETRIC OBJECTS FEATURE CLASS NAME MS_Historical_Counties * OBJECT TYPE composite * OBJECT COUNT 487 Hide Vector . ARCGIS FEATURE CLASS PROPERTIES . FEATURE CLASS NAME MS_Historical_Counties * FEATURE TYPE Simple * GEOMETRY TYPE Polygon * HAS TOPOLOGY FALSE * FEATURE COUNT 487 * SPATIAL INDEX TRUE * LINEAR REFERENCING FALSE Hide ArcGIS Feature Class Properties . Hide Spatial Data Properties . Data Quality . SCOPE OF QUALITY INFORMATION . RESOURCE LEVEL dataset Hide Scope of quality information . DATA QUALITY REPORT - COMPLETENESS OMISSION . MEASURE DESCRIPTION The data set is complete. All changes are dated to the day. If there is a difference between the effective date of change and the date when a law was passed, the effective date of change is used. Boundary changes too small to map are included in the chronologies and in the Comprehensive Database. As a rule, boundary changes occurring entirely on water were not mapped. Exceptions to this rule might include county boundaries which run through large inland water bodies like Lake Okeechobee, Lake Pontchartrain, Great Salt Lake, etc. No regular or systematic updating of the pre-2001 data is anticipated because (a) the historical data cannot change and (b) the compilers believe their methods and materials are sufficient to produce data that are complete and correct. (That is not to say no error can slip through. Suggestions for ad hoc changes or additions to the historical data, together with an explanation of why the change should be made and supporting evidence, should be directed to scholl@newberry.org or Dr. William M. Scholl Center for American History and Culture, The Newberry Library, 60 W. Walton St., Chicago, IL 60610.) County boundary changes that occur after 31 December 2000 will routinely be digitized by both the state of Mississippi and the federal government and, therefore, will be available from agencies of those governments in separate files in the indefinite future. Hide Data quality report - Completeness omission . DATA QUALITY REPORT - QUANTITATIVE ATTRIBUTE ACCURACY . MEASURE DESCRIPTION The Atlas of Historical County Boundaries Project aims to achieve high accuracy through the use of the most authoritative and reliable sources, analysis of those sources by tested procedures, and careful proofreading of the results. Because counties are created and changed by their states, the state session laws are the primary, authoritative sources for the county lines, names, organization, and attachments. The initial plots of the boundaries are direct conversions of the legal boundary descriptions in the laws into linework on the plotting sheets. They are performed with copies of the legal descriptions at hand, and those same laws also are at hand for the GIS compiler when digitizing boundaries. All other sources, including old maps, are derived from those legal descriptions. The historical compiler searches the state session laws and, when necessary, related material (e.g., court decisions, executive proclamations) for information about the courses of the boundaries. Secondary texts, maps, and local experts are consulted as needed (e.g., when recovering a long-lost landmark that figured in an early boundary description). Dates of changes are also taken from the laws. Some laws specify when the change will go into effect, but others (mostly those passed before the twentieth century) do not; if no official effective date is provided, the historical compiler uses the date when the law was passed or approved. The locations of places and landmarks cited in the boundary descriptions are gathered from the modern, federal base maps or from secondary publications (e.g., gazetteers, county histories, articles in historical journals), old maps, or local experts. Several steps are taken to insure the accuracy of the boundaries as they are manually plotted, and to maintain the precision of those plots as they are manually digitized. The digitizing process involves faithfully drawing the sketched counties using landmarks such as rivers, roads, and places. These positional data were obtained from ESRI's Data and Maps collection (1:100,000 scale). Additionally, Public Land Survey System data (also at 1:100,000 scale) were used to digitize boundaries in Mississippi. These PLSS data were acquired from ESRI. Once the initial digitizing is complete a master file is created and uploaded on IMS. When the digitizing is complete, the digitized polygons and their attribute data are once again checked for accuracy against the chronology for the state. Hide Data quality report - Quantitative attribute accuracy . DATA QUALITY REPORT - ABSOLUTE EXTERNAL POSITIONAL ACCURACY . DIMENSION horizontal MEASURE DESCRIPTION Accurate to matching USGS 1:500,000 scale State Base maps. Hide Data quality report - Absolute external positional accuracy . Hide Data Quality . Lineage . PROCESS STEP . WHEN THE PROCESS OCCURRED 2007-01-01 DESCRIPTION Digitizing Historical Counties. Using the historical compiler's base map, plotting overlays, the Comprehensive Database, and associated material (e.g., notes, copies of the laws), the GIS compiler manually digitizes the historical county polygons over the digital base map. By repeating much of the process of the historical compiler, the digital compiler implicitly checks the work of the historical compiler and occasionally finds line segments that are in error and must be corrected. As digitizing proceeds, data from the Comprehensive Database are entered into the attribute table. The process of entering attribute data entails an implicit review of the database and, if the greater map detail involved in working at digitization scale (see below) is different from the original descriptions, that may lead to updates of the database, including dates and version numbers and even descriptions of changes. The compiler works "heads up," facing the monitor and using the mouse to draw lines against a background of the digital base map. The historical compiler's plots are not scanned and overlaid on the digital base map, nor does the digital compiler trace the earlier work on a digitizing tablet, because neither technique is as efficient or accurate as drawing the lines anew. One reason is that the scale for most of the historical compilations is 1:500,000 and the scale for digitization is 1:100,000. It is most unusual to draw a map at a larger scale than its source or early version, but in this case it was unavoidable because digitization did not commence until after nearly all the states had already been compiled at the smaller scale. In effect, the historical plots are a preliminary stage, and the plots from that work become the chief sources or guides (supported by the historical notes and copies of the legal descriptions, and other material) for the digital compiler who renders the final, detailed version of the boundary lines. SOURCE DATA . RELATIONSHIP TO THE PROCESS STEP used SOURCE CITATION . ALTERNATE TITLES MSB1, BASE2 Hide Source citation . Hide Source data . SOURCE DATA . RELATIONSHIP TO THE PROCESS STEP produced SOURCE CITATION . ALTERNATE TITLES MSB2 Hide Source citation . Hide Source data . Hide Process step . PROCESS STEP . WHEN THE PROCESS OCCURRED 2007-01-01 DESCRIPTION Create the comprehensive Historical Counties Dataset shapefile. After digitizing the historical counties, the GIS compiler creates a shapefile known as the comprehensive Historical Counties Dataset shapefile. It holds all versions of each county, plus unsuccessful proposals for changes and new counties, thus enabling a user to acquire maps of every version of every county. After the historical and IMS master files have been created, areas are calculated for all polygons. SOURCE DATA . RELATIONSHIP TO THE PROCESS STEP used SOURCE CITATION . ALTERNATE TITLES MSB2 Hide Source citation . Hide Source data . SOURCE DATA . RELATIONSHIP TO THE PROCESS STEP produced SOURCE CITATION . ALTERNATE TITLES MSB3 Hide Source citation . Hide Source data . Hide Process step . PROCESS STEP . WHEN THE PROCESS OCCURRED 2007-01-01 DESCRIPTION Final Proofing. Compilers proof the polygons of the master shapefile against the comprehensive database. After using ArcIMS to prepare an interactive, viewable cartographic shapefile, the compiler compares the entries in the database to the entries in the attribute table and checks the IMS image for the date and county names specified in the database entry. Discrepancies in the textual material (i.e., database) can be corrected on the spot; apparent errors in the polygons are noted for later correction by the GIS compiler. Later, after the GIS compiler corrects any faults in the line work, those corrections are reviewed again by the compilers and, if all polygons and text match properly, the shapefile is posted to the Web site. SOURCE DATA . RELATIONSHIP TO THE PROCESS STEP used SOURCE CITATION . ALTERNATE TITLES MSB3 Hide Source citation . Hide Source data . SOURCE DATA . RELATIONSHIP TO THE PROCESS STEP produced SOURCE CITATION . ALTERNATE TITLES MSB4 Hide Source citation . Hide Source data . Hide Process step . PROCESS STEP . WHEN THE PROCESS OCCURRED 1993-01-01 DESCRIPTION Historical Compilation. Working directly from originals or photocopies of the verbal boundary descriptions in the laws, the historical compiler plots the boundary lines of Historical Counties Dataset on a transparent compilation sheet laid over a base map of the state. Compilation proceeds from past to present. As each change is plotted the compiler writes a descriptive entry for the state's boundary chronology and a brief citation of the source of the information and enters it into the Comprehensive Database. (See also Supplemental_Information, Method, above.) The base map for this operation was the Mississippi map from the U.S.G.S. State Base series at the scale of 1:500,000. (The 1:1,000,000 version of the map was employed whenever smaller scale was appropriate or needed to plot large or simple changes.) The original strategy for the Atlas was to publish all states in book form before venturing to digitize the data, and the 1:500,000 scale maps were used in making the books. Before switching to all digital products and methods, about 80% of the states had been researched and compiled using this series of base maps, including 24 states published in 19 printed volumes. It was not practical to re-compile those data at a larger scale like 1:100,000. (See below, the next two process steps.) SOURCE DATA . RELATIONSHIP TO THE PROCESS STEP used SOURCE CITATION . ALTERNATE TITLES Miss. Laws Hide Source citation . Hide Source data . SOURCE DATA . RELATIONSHIP TO THE PROCESS STEP used SOURCE CITATION . ALTERNATE TITLES MS_BIB Hide Source citation . Hide Source data . SOURCE DATA . RELATIONSHIP TO THE PROCESS STEP used SOURCE CITATION . ALTERNATE TITLES Miss. Terr. Stat. Hide Source citation . Hide Source data . SOURCE DATA . RELATIONSHIP TO THE PROCESS STEP produced SOURCE CITATION . ALTERNATE TITLES MSB1 Hide Source citation . Hide Source data . Hide Process step . PROCESS STEP . WHEN THE PROCESS OCCURRED 2007-01-01 DESCRIPTION Digital Base Map Creation. The GIS compiler creates a digital base map for the state (and any neighboring states that take part in its history) by editing the relevant portion of the Digital Chart of the World (DCW) supplied by ESRI in its ArcView package. This process consists chiefly in deleting elements (e.g., rivers) that are not related to the boundaries or do not serve a major reference function for potential readers and adding such other data as necessary. State Web sites commonly are the best sources for the grid of the Public Land Survey System (PLSS) in states west of the Appalachian Mountains and for the networks of town boundaries in the New England states. The main component of the customized base map is the set of detailed polygons of the modern counties. The GIS compiler projects the DCW so that the working version matches the projection of the paper base map used by the historical compiler. SOURCE DATA . RELATIONSHIP TO THE PROCESS STEP used SOURCE CITATION . ALTERNATE TITLES BASE1 Hide Source citation . Hide Source data . SOURCE DATA . RELATIONSHIP TO THE PROCESS STEP produced SOURCE CITATION . ALTERNATE TITLES BASE2 Hide Source citation . Hide Source data . Hide Process step . PROCESS STEP . WHEN THE PROCESS OCCURRED 2008-20-09 DESCRIPTION Topology Check. A multi-step process was applied to ensure that historical county polygons fit together precisely at all dates. The first step was to convert the historical county shapefile to a polygon feature class in an ESRI geodatabase. ArcMap tools were then used to planarize the polygon boundary lines in the historical county feature class, and to create polygons from these lines. This resulted in a new feature class consisting of non-overlapping component polygons. The ESRI topology functionality was applied to the component polygons to detect overlaps and gaps, and to snap vertices to the ESRI modern county polygon feature class. Based on the original historical county data, a table was created to specify, for each component polygon, the different counties to which it belonged and the time frames. The table was programmatically checked to verify that each component polygon was correctly assigned to historical counties throughout its life, with no unexpected gaps or overlaps. The component polygons were then reassembled back into the historical counties, and converted to a shapefile. The resulting historical county shapefile consists of a large number of overlapping polygons; however, as a result of the topology check process, the subset of counties in effect at any selected date is topologically correct, with no unexpected gaps or overlaps. There are a number of known gaps and overlaps, however, due to legislative or surveying errors, and to conflicting territorial claims. SOURCE DATA . RELATIONSHIP TO THE PROCESS STEP used SOURCE CITATION . ALTERNATE TITLES MSB4 Hide Source citation . Hide Source data . SOURCE DATA . RELATIONSHIP TO THE PROCESS STEP produced SOURCE CITATION . ALTERNATE TITLES MSB5 Hide Source citation . Hide Source data . Hide Process step . SOURCE DATA . DESCRIPTION "Mississippi: Bibliography and Sources," a partially annotated bibliography of textual and cartographic sources that yielded useful information in the compilation of the historical evolution of Mississippi's counties, is a separate document that is a companion to this shapefile. Items in the bibliography are not equally important, yet each one was sufficiently valuable to the research and compilation of Mississippi's historical county boundaries to merit listing. With the exception of the detailed citations above, no other sources are cited and described separately in the metadata and in the style set by the FGDC metadata standard; traditional bibliographic style is more compact and provides sufficient information for a user to find the item in any library. SOURCE MEDIUM NAME hardcopy—printing on paper SOURCE CITATION . TITLE Mississippi Historical County Boundaries - Bibliography ALTERNATE TITLES MS_BIB EDITION various RESPONSIBLE PARTY ORGANIZATION'S NAME various CONTACT'S ROLE originator RESPONSIBLE PARTY ORGANIZATION'S NAME various CONTACT'S ROLE publisher CONTACT INFORMATION . ADDRESS DELIVERY POINT various Hide Contact information . Hide Source citation . Hide Source data . SOURCE DATA . DESCRIPTION These laws are the authority for the creation and change of each county; they contain the legal, verbal descriptions of the county boundaries, the effective dates of change, and related material. The historical compilers plot the lines described in the laws, converting them from words to lines on a map. SOURCE MEDIUM NAME hardcopy—printing on paper SOURCE CITATION . TITLE General Laws of Mississippi ALTERNATE TITLES Miss. Laws PRESENTATION FORMATS hardcopy document FGDC GEOSPATIAL PRESENTATION FORMAT document RESPONSIBLE PARTY ORGANIZATION'S NAME Government of Mississippi CONTACT'S ROLE publisher CONTACT INFORMATION . ADDRESS DELIVERY POINT Jackson, Miss. Hide Contact information . RESPONSIBLE PARTY ORGANIZATION'S NAME Mississippi legislature CONTACT'S ROLE originator Hide Source citation . EXTENT OF THE SOURCE DATA DESCRIPTION publication date TEMPORAL EXTENT BEGINNING DATE INDETERMINATE DATE 10/1817 ENDING DATE INDETERMINATE DATE 12/31/2000 Hide Source data . SOURCE DATA . DESCRIPTION The compilation of this digest is often attributed to Edward Turner. These laws are the authority for the creation and change of each county; they contain the legal, verbal descriptions of the county boundaries, the effective dates of change, and related material. The historical compilers plot the lines described in the laws, converting them from words to lines on a map. SOURCE MEDIUM NAME hardcopy—printing on paper SOURCE CITATION . TITLE Statutes of the Mississippi Territory ALTERNATE TITLES Miss. Terr. Stat. PUBLICATION DATE 1816-01-01 PRESENTATION FORMATS hardcopy document FGDC GEOSPATIAL PRESENTATION FORMAT document RESPONSIBLE PARTY ORGANIZATION'S NAME Government of Mississippi Territory CONTACT'S ROLE publisher CONTACT INFORMATION . ADDRESS DELIVERY POINT Natchez, Miss. Hide Contact information . RESPONSIBLE PARTY ORGANIZATION'S NAME Mississippi territory legislature CONTACT'S ROLE originator Hide Source citation . EXTENT OF THE SOURCE DATA DESCRIPTION publication date TEMPORAL EXTENT BEGINNING DATE INDETERMINATE DATE 01/1799 ENDING DATE INDETERMINATE DATE 11/1816 Hide Source data . SOURCE DATA . DESCRIPTION The U.S. National Atlas Public Land Survey represents the Public Land Surveys (e.g., donation lands, land grants, private and public lands) of the United States. This polygon coverage of the townships, ranges, and sections contained in the Public Land Survey System grid for the nation made it possible to map boundary lines where boundary descriptions were based upon the PLSS or included references to some of its features. The PLSS data were acquired through ESRI. SOURCE MEDIUM NAME CD-ROM RESOLUTION OF THE SOURCE DATA SCALE DENOMINATOR 0 SOURCE CITATION . TITLE U.S. National Atlas Public Land Survey ALTERNATE TITLES PLSS PRESENTATION FORMATS digital map FGDC GEOSPATIAL PRESENTATION FORMAT vector digital data RESPONSIBLE PARTY ORGANIZATION'S NAME National Atlas of the United States and the United States Geological Survey CONTACT'S ROLE originator RESPONSIBLE PARTY ORGANIZATION'S NAME ESRI CONTACT'S ROLE publisher CONTACT INFORMATION . ADDRESS DELIVERY POINT Redlands, California, USA Hide Contact information . RESOURCE LOCATION ONLINE LOCATION http://www.esri.com Hide Source citation . Hide Source data . SOURCE DATA . DESCRIPTION The ESRI detailed county, msrivers, glocale, gsummit, highway, mjwater, and rail100K data were used as a modern base map, a reference for drawing historical county boundaries. SOURCE MEDIUM NAME CD-ROM RESOLUTION OF THE SOURCE DATA SCALE DENOMINATOR 100 SOURCE CITATION . TITLE ESRI Data Maps ALTERNATE TITLES BASE1 EDITION 2000 PRESENTATION FORMATS digital map FGDC GEOSPATIAL PRESENTATION FORMAT vector digital data RESPONSIBLE PARTY ORGANIZATION'S NAME Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI) CONTACT'S ROLE originator RESPONSIBLE PARTY ORGANIZATION'S NAME Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI) CONTACT'S ROLE publisher CONTACT INFORMATION . ADDRESS DELIVERY POINT Redlands, California, USA Hide Contact information . Hide Source citation . EXTENT OF THE SOURCE DATA DESCRIPTION publication date TEMPORAL EXTENT DATE AND TIME 2000-01-01 Hide Source data . Hide Lineage . Distribution . DISTRIBUTOR . CONTACT INFORMATION ORGANIZATION'S NAME Dr. William M. Scholl Center for American History and Culture, The Newberry Library CONTACT'S POSITION Director, Dr. William M. Scholl Center for American History and Culture CONTACT'S ROLE distributor CONTACT INFORMATION . ADDRESS TYPE both DELIVERY POINT 60 W. Walton Street CITY Chicago ADMINISTRATIVE AREA Illinois POSTAL CODE 60610 COUNTRY US E-MAIL ADDRESS scholl@newberry.org HOURS OF SERVICE 8:00 am - 5:00 pm, M-F, CT Hide Contact information . AVAILABLE FORMAT NAME SHP FILE DECOMPRESSION TECHNIQUE Zipped file. TECHNICAL PREREQUISITES To use this data requires software that supports ESRI GIS shapefiles. ORDERING PROCESS DATE OF AVAILABILITY TRANSFER OPTIONS TRANSFER SIZE 10.637 ONLINE SOURCE LOCATION http://www.newberry.org/ahcbp TRANSFER OPTIONS ONLINE SOURCE DESCRIPTION Mississippi Historical Counties Dataset shapefile Hide Distributor . DISTRIBUTION FORMAT * NAME Shapefile TRANSFER OPTIONS * TRANSFER SIZE 10.637 ONLINE SOURCE LOCATION http://www.newberry.org/ahcbp Hide Distribution . Fields . DETAILS FOR OBJECT MS_Historical_Counties . * TYPE Feature Class * ROW COUNT 487 DEFINITION county and county equivalents DEFINITION SOURCE Miss. Laws FIELD FID . * ALIAS FID * DATA TYPE OID * WIDTH 4 * PRECISION 0 * SCALE 0 FIELD DESCRIPTION Internal feature number. The FID number is the unique identifier (a primary key in database terms) for each polygon within a shapefile; its application is limited to its single shapefile. DESCRIPTION SOURCE ESRI DESCRIPTION OF VALUES Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated. Hide Field FID . FIELD Shape . * ALIAS Shape * DATA TYPE Geometry * WIDTH 0 * PRECISION 0 * SCALE 0 FIELD DESCRIPTION Feature geometry. DESCRIPTION SOURCE ESRI DESCRIPTION OF VALUES Coordinates defining the features. Hide Field Shape . FIELD NAME . * ALIAS NAME * DATA TYPE String * WIDTH 20 * PRECISION 0 * SCALE 0 FIELD DESCRIPTION name or other identification of county or equivalent, limited to 20 characters DESCRIPTION SOURCE colonial, territorial, state, and federal laws DESCRIPTION OF VALUES character field Hide Field NAME . FIELD ID . * ALIAS ID * DATA TYPE String * WIDTH 50 * PRECISION 0 * SCALE 0 FIELD DESCRIPTION Whereas the FID numbers (see above) uniquely identify the different polygons in a single state's shapefile, the ID code identifies unique geographical institutions, i.e., states, counties, and other administrative entities. The ID code is stable across datasets (state shapefiles); it does not change when there is a change in the county's name, shape, size, location, or parent state or equivalent. Each county's unique identifier is set in terms of its current or most recent state affiliation. Hence, "MES_York" is the identifier for modern York County, Maine, and all its earlier versions, even though it was created as part of colonial Massachusetts and is represented by polygons in the shapefiles of both Massachusetts and Maine. Because the FIPS system (see below) provides no codes for some extinct counties, no codes for non-county areas, and no codes for the colonies and territories that were predecessors of the states, it has been necessary to create a more comprehensive, alternative system of identifiers. The system adopted by the Atlas identifies each state and colony or territory with three letters, the first two based on the system of two-letter codes employed by the U.S. Post Office and the third indicating the status of the organization. (In most cases that is simply a C for colony, a T for territory, or an S for state.) For example, IAT stands for Iowa Territory and IAS for the state of Iowa. Some precursors of states need special ID codes, most of which are intuitively easy to read and to apply, especially in the context of a particular state's dataset. Examples are NWT (Northwest Territory, formally named Territory Northwest of the River Ohio), SWF (Spanish West Florida), FRS (State of Franklin), DKT (Dakota Territory), CRC (Colony of Carolina), and TXR (Republic of Texas). Counties are identified by appending their names to the state codes, as in "KYS_Adair" for Adair County in the state of Kentucky. Non-county areas are abbreviated NCA; within a specific state they are differentiated from each other by adding a numeral to the abbreviation, as in "MOS_NCA1" for non-county area number 1 in the state of Missouri. Occasionally special codes are needed to deal with unusual historical situations, as in Vermont where the original Washington County, identified as "VTS_Washington01," became extinct and later the name was applied to another county ("VTS_Washington") that continues today. The county identifiers also have been created with an eye towards users who may wish to download and work with more than one state file for regions and want a comprehensive way to sort and select shapefiles or to link the attribute table to the comprehensive database. DESCRIPTION SOURCE project standards DESCRIPTION OF VALUES character field Hide Field ID . FIELD STATE . * ALIAS STATE * DATA TYPE String * WIDTH 20 * PRECISION 0 * SCALE 0 FIELD DESCRIPTION name of the county's current or most recent state affiliation. DESCRIPTION SOURCE colonial, territorial, state, and federal laws DESCRIPTION OF VALUES character field Hide Field STATE . FIELD FIPS . * ALIAS FIPS * DATA TYPE String * WIDTH 5 * PRECISION 0 * SCALE 0 FIELD DESCRIPTION FIPS codes are provided for the convenience of researchers working with data that has already been labeled with numbers from that coding system. FIPS is the abbreviation of Federal Information Processing Standard. FIPS codes were created in the first half of the twentieth century and are meant to facilitate efficiency and clarity in data handling. The system provides a two-digit code for each state or equivalent and a three-digit code for each county or equivalent. (Sometimes those codes are combined into five-digit numbers that start with the two digits for the state, as in this attribute table). The FIPS codes for states and counties in existence at the end of 2000 were taken from the federal government's FIPS PUB 6-4 (created 1996, last modified 10 May 2002), and the codes for extinct counties were taken from earlier lists. Some counties or other administrative entities may have no FIPS codes. In some cases they represent historical counties that became extinct before the introduction of FIPS codes; in other cases they represent temporary non-county areas. In the attribute table the FIPS field for those areas and extinct counties has been left blank because there is no standard system for pre-FIPS colonies, territories, and counties and no coding system includes non-county areas. Of course, users may supply a FIPS substitute of their own creation or, for extinct early counties, adopt an existing, alternative coding scheme, such as the one employed by Richard L. Forstall in his compilation, "Population of States and Counties of the United States: 1790-1990" (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1996). In addition, as described above under Attribute Label: ID, the Atlas developed a parallel system of non-FIPS Identifiers to encode all states, counties, and equivalents; it is more flexible and working with it is easier than using the FIPS codes. DESCRIPTION SOURCE FIPS PUB 6-4 CODED VALUES NAME OF CODELIST Federal Information Processing Standards SOURCE FIPS PUB 6-4 Hide Field FIPS . FIELD VERSION . * ALIAS VERSION * DATA TYPE SmallInteger * WIDTH 4 * PRECISION 4 * SCALE 0 FIELD DESCRIPTION sequential and chronological change in county name or configuration DESCRIPTION SOURCE compiler DESCRIPTION OF VALUES character field Hide Field VERSION . FIELD START_DATE . * ALIAS START_DATE * DATA TYPE Date * WIDTH 8 * PRECISION 0 * SCALE 0 FIELD DESCRIPTION first date for a particular county version or event, arranged as mm/dd/yyyy DESCRIPTION SOURCE colonial, territorial, state, and federal laws RANGE OF VALUES MINIMUM VALUE 17850207 MAXIMUM VALUE 20001231 BEGINNING DATE OF VALUES 02/07/1785 ENDING DATE OF VALUES 03/14/1934 Hide Field START_DATE . FIELD END_DATE . * ALIAS END_DATE * DATA TYPE Date * WIDTH 8 * PRECISION 0 * SCALE 0 FIELD DESCRIPTION last date for a particular county version or event, arranged as mm/dd/yyyy DESCRIPTION SOURCE colonial, territorial, state, and federal laws RANGE OF VALUES MINIMUM VALUE 17880131 MAXIMUM VALUE 20001231 BEGINNING DATE OF VALUES 01/31/1788 ENDING DATE OF VALUES 12/31/2000 Hide Field END_DATE . FIELD CHANGE . * ALIAS CHANGE * DATA TYPE String * WIDTH 254 * PRECISION 0 * SCALE 0 FIELD DESCRIPTION creation, change, or other event for each county on the given date DESCRIPTION SOURCE colonial, territorial, state, and federal laws, compiler DESCRIPTION OF VALUES character field Hide Field CHANGE . FIELD CITATION . * ALIAS CITATION * DATA TYPE String * WIDTH 254 * PRECISION 0 * SCALE 0 FIELD DESCRIPTION reference to the source of data for the event described under CHANGE DESCRIPTION SOURCE colonial, territorial, state, and federal laws, any other texts, maps, or interviews employed to gather data DESCRIPTION OF VALUES character field Hide Field CITATION . FIELD START_N . * ALIAS START_N * DATA TYPE Integer * WIDTH 9 * PRECISION 9 * SCALE 0 FIELD DESCRIPTION first date for a particular county version or event, arranged in the standard date format yyyymmdd DESCRIPTION SOURCE colonial, territorial, state, and federal laws RANGE OF VALUES MINIMUM VALUE 17850207 MAXIMUM VALUE 19340314 Hide Field START_N . FIELD END_N . * ALIAS END_N * DATA TYPE Integer * WIDTH 9 * PRECISION 9 * SCALE 0 FIELD DESCRIPTION lsat date for a particular county version or event, arranged in the standard date format yyyymmdd DESCRIPTION SOURCE colonial, territorial, state, and federal laws RANGE OF VALUES MINIMUM VALUE 17880131 MAXIMUM VALUE 20001231 Hide Field END_N . FIELD AREA_SQMI . * ALIAS AREA_SQMI * DATA TYPE Double * WIDTH 19 * PRECISION 0 * SCALE 0 FIELD DESCRIPTION area of a county or equivalent in square miles, calculated from polygon by means of ArcMap facility DESCRIPTION SOURCE compiler DESCRIPTION OF VALUES numeric field Hide Field AREA_SQMI . FIELD DATASET . * ALIAS DATASET * DATA TYPE String * WIDTH 25 * PRECISION 0 * SCALE 0 FIELD DESCRIPTION The dataset field identifies the topical focus of the master shapefile. For every state the subject matter consists of all events affecting state and county jurisdiction within the borders of the modern state, regardless of the enabling authority, plus similar events involving the state outside its modern bounds, regardless of where or when. For example, polygons for Virginia's earliest western counties appear in the dataset for Kentucky because they represent part of the history of the area that became Kentucky; they also are included in the Virginia dataset because they are integral to the early history of Virginia, even though Virginia long ago ceded its authority over the area. In general, therefore, the dataset encompasses more data than a state, concentrating on one state (the principal point of focus) but possibly embracing data from one or more related, secondary states. Historically, almost every colony and territory transformed smoothly into statehood with no complications that might have required separate datasets for the state and its predecessors. The exception is Dakota Territory, which has its own dataset, and which split into a pair of states. DESCRIPTION SOURCE Project standards DESCRIPTION OF VALUES character field Hide Field DATASET . FIELD CNTY_TYPE . * ALIAS CNTY_TYPE * DATA TYPE String * WIDTH 25 * PRECISION 0 * SCALE 0 FIELD DESCRIPTION This field classifies each county and equivalent into one of several categories: (1) District; judicial districts, a county equivalent which at one time served as a basic unit of government in South Carolina, (2) Parish; a county equivalent which at one time served as a basic unit of government in South Carolina, and which is currently the primary unit of government in Louisiana, (3) Jefferson_Territory; an extralegal territory, never recognized by the United States, that included all of present Colorado and parts of present Nebraska, Wyoming, and Utah, (4) Proposal; proposed counties which never became operational, (5) County; all remaining counties and county equivalents included in this dataset. DESCRIPTION SOURCE Project standards DESCRIPTION OF VALUES character field Hide Field CNTY_TYPE . FIELD FULL_NAME . * ALIAS FULL_NAME * DATA TYPE String * WIDTH 50 * PRECISION 0 * SCALE 0 FIELD DESCRIPTION name or other identification of county or equivalent DESCRIPTION SOURCE colonial, territorial, state, and federal laws DESCRIPTION OF VALUES character field Hide Field FULL_NAME . Hide Details for object MS_Historical_Counties . Hide Fields . References . AGGREGATE INFORMATION ASSOCIATION TYPE cross reference AGGREGATE RESOURCE NAME . TITLE Atlas of Historical County Boundaries FGDC GEOSPATIAL PRESENTATION FORMAT book and vector digital data OTHER CITATION DETAILS 19 book vols. (1993-2000), online publication (2000-present) RESPONSIBLE PARTY ORGANIZATION'S NAME Peter Siczewicz, GIS Consultant CONTACT'S ROLE originator RESPONSIBLE PARTY ORGANIZATION'S NAME Laura Rico-Beck, GIS Specialist, GIS Compiler CONTACT'S ROLE originator RESPONSIBLE PARTY ORGANIZATION'S NAME John H. Long, Editor, Historical Compiler CONTACT'S ROLE originator RESPONSIBLE PARTY ORGANIZATION'S NAME Gordon DenBoer, Historical Compiler CONTACT'S ROLE originator RESPONSIBLE PARTY ORGANIZATION'S NAME Robert Will, Cartographic Assistant CONTACT'S ROLE originator RESPONSIBLE PARTY ORGANIZATION'S NAME George E. Goodridge, Jr., Historical Compiler CONTACT'S ROLE originator RESPONSIBLE PARTY ORGANIZATION'S NAME John Ford, Cartographic Assistant CONTACT'S ROLE originator RESPONSIBLE PARTY ORGANIZATION'S NAME Emily Kelley, Historical Compiler, GIS Compiler CONTACT'S ROLE originator RESPONSIBLE PARTY CONTACT'S ROLE publisher CONTACT INFORMATION . ADDRESS DELIVERY POINT New York Hide Contact information . RESPONSIBLE PARTY ORGANIZATION'S NAME Douglas Knox, Book Digitizing Director, GIS Compiler CONTACT'S ROLE originator RESPONSIBLE PARTY ORGANIZATION'S NAME Peggy Tuck Sinko, Assoc. Editor, Historical Compiler CONTACT'S ROLE originator RESPONSIBLE PARTY ORGANIZATION'S NAME Kathryn Ford Thorne, Historical Compiler CONTACT'S ROLE originator Hide Aggregate resource name . Hide References . Metadata Details . METADATA LANGUAGE English (UNITED STATES) METADATA CHARACTER SET utf8 - 8 bit UCS Transfer Format SCOPE OF THE DATA DESCRIBED BY THE METADATA dataset SCOPE NAME * dataset * LAST UPDATE 2019-02-14 ARCGIS METADATA PROPERTIES METADATA FORMAT ArcGIS 1.0 CREATED IN ARCGIS FOR THE ITEM 2009-10-01 14:19:04 LAST MODIFIED IN ARCGIS FOR THE ITEM 2019-02-14 10:53:12 AUTOMATIC UPDATES HAVE BEEN PERFORMED Yes LAST UPDATE 2019-02-14 10:53:12 Hide Metadata Details . Metadata Contacts . METADATA CONTACT ORGANIZATION'S NAME Dr. William M. Scholl Center for American History and Culture, The Newberry Library CONTACT'S POSITION Director, Dr. William M. Scholl Center for American History and Culture CONTACT'S ROLE point of contact CONTACT INFORMATION . ADDRESS TYPE both DELIVERY POINT 60 W. Walton Street CITY Chicago ADMINISTRATIVE AREA Illinois POSTAL CODE 60610 COUNTRY US E-MAIL ADDRESS scholl@newberry.org HOURS OF SERVICE 8:00 am - 5:00 pm, M-F, CT Hide Contact information . Hide Metadata Contacts . Thumbnail and Enclosures . THUMBNAIL THUMBNAIL TYPE JPG ENCLOSURE ENCLOSURE TYPE File DESCRIPTION OF ENCLOSURE original metadata ORIGINAL METADATA DOCUMENT, WHICH WAS TRANSLATED yes SOURCE METADATA FORMAT fgdc Hide Thumbnail and Enclosures . FGDC Metadata (read-only) . CITATION CITATION INFORMATION ORIGINATOR Peggy Tuck Sinko, Historical Compiler ORIGINATOR Laura Rico-Beck, Digital Compiler ORIGINATOR John H. Long, Editor, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries PUBLICATION DATE 2/12/2010 TITLE Mississippi_Historical_Counties_Dataset GEOSPATIAL DATA PRESENTATION FORM vector digital data SERIES INFORMATION SERIES NAME Atlas of Historical County Boundaries-Digital (Shapefiles) ONLINE LINKAGE http://www.newberry.org/ahcbp DESCRIPTION ABSTRACT This document serves as the metadata for the Mississippi Historical Counties Dataset shapefile for use in a geographic information system (GIS). That file may be downloaded without charge from this Web site (http://www.newberry.org/ahcbp); see also Distribution_Information, below. In addition, an interactive map of Mississippi's Historical Counties Dataset is available for operation and viewing through the Web site by means of ArcIMS, a program produced by Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI). ArcIMS draws its boundary data for the interactive map from the Mississippi Historical Counties Dataset shapefile. The interactive map is projected while the downloadable shapefile is not. Here are descriptions of the sources and methods used to gather and process the information that appears in the shapefile and in the interactive map so that users can evaluate the quality and utility of the data. The comprehensive Mississippi Historical Counties Dataset shapefile holds the polygons, metadata, and attribute data for every different configuration of every county or county equivalent in Mississippi, dated to the day, from 7 February 1785 through 31 December 2000. The Historical Counties Dataset, together with a number of supplementary cartographic data files and text files, enable users easily to employ a geographic information system for the analysis and display of county-related historical data. First among the non-cartographic data files is the Mississippi Comprehensive Database (a tab-delimited text file that can be imported into a database or spreadsheet program), which provides descriptions of all known changes in state and county boundaries, changes in county organization and attachments, and changes in status and name, together with citations to the sources. These data include unmappable boundary changes, which usually means changes too small to plot as polygons at compilation scale, changes whose shapes could not be plotted at compilation scale (e.g., shift of a boundary line from the centerline of a road to one shoulder or the other), and changes that could not be mapped for other reasons (e.g., the location of the change could not be determined). In the Comprehensive Database, there is a separate entry for each county involved in each event. That facilitates assembling all the events pertaining to a single county. In addition to the Comprehensive Database, there are five supplemental texts. These are: (1) a comprehensive County Index (includes proposed and extinct counties and non-county areas and provides cross references for name changes, with hyperlinks to corresponding individual county chronologies), (2) a Consolidated Chronology that organizes all the data by date, combining all the counties involved in an event into a single, composite entry, (3) a set of Individual County Chronologies, each one covering all the changes in a single county or equivalent, (4) a Bibliography that lists the primary and secondary sources found useful in the historical research, and (5) a Commentary on the research problems and materials that were remarkable or unusual in the process of historical compilation (Not every state requires a commentary.). A "Read Me" file introduces all these files and indicates how to get started with them. PURPOSE The Atlas is meant to be a resource for people (a) seeking records of past events, (b) trying to analyze, interpret, and display county-based historical data like returns of elections and censuses, and (c) working on state and local history. The special interests of those potential users range from history to demography, economics, genealogy, geography, law, and politics. Counties and their equivalents (e.g., parishes in Louisiana and independent cities in four other states) cover all the territory of the United States, function as repositories of valuable records, and long have been used as the geographic base units for the gathering of essential social, political, and economic data. The authority to create, change, or eliminate counties and to specify their functions lies with the states and their predecessors. In detail, the role of counties varies from state to state, but in every state they administer the judicial system and provide a great number of services. In the process, counties collect and preserve large quantities of information. For example: records of marriages, births, and deaths; probated wills; militia training; real-estate transfers; tax collections; welfare benefits; school programs; voter registrations; etc. Outside densely populated cities, counties have served as colonial, territorial, and state legislative districts and as the building blocks of congressional districts. In the nineteenth century they became the grassroots centers for the development of political parties. Moreover, counties have been the principal geographic units for the collection and aggregation of data from colonial/territorial, state, and federal censuses. Unfortunately for researchers, the average county has changed size, shape, or location between four and five times. Therefore, knowing the present county of the place where a past event occurred may not be sufficient to find its official records. If county boundaries changed in the meantime, it is necessary to learn what county had jurisdiction at the time of the event to identify the courthouse where the record is stored today. If the reported population of a county changed from one census to another, was that because of an increase or a decrease in the number of people, or an annexation or loss of populated territory, or a combination of both? Trying to analyze county-based historical data without controlling for boundary changes is almost certain to yield errors and lead to false conclusions. SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION Method: Historical compilers plot county boundary changes in chronological order. Working directly from originals or photocopies of the verbal boundary descriptions in the state session laws, the ultimate authoritative source, the researcher plots the lines on a transparent compilation sheet laid over a modern base map of the state. As each change is plotted, the compiler writes a descriptive entry for the state's boundary chronology and a brief citation of the source of the information. The compiler creates the Comprehensive Database from this information. Plotting boundary changes of all counties together and in sequence, not merely reconstructing the counties at different points in time (e.g., dates of censuses) or concentrating on a single county at a time (thereby taking it out of the context of what happened to its neighbors), is an important aspect of the historical compilation process. Doing so gives the compiler valuable insight into how the counties developed and whether the intentions of legislators were realized in their enactments. For example, a law may say its purpose is to transfer territory from County A to County B, but the actual effect, visibly evident from the plot, may be to transfer territory from both A and C to B. When boundaries are plotted this way, gores (gaps between counties) and overlaps created accidentally by the legislature are readily apparent, and errors in plotting are discovered almost immediately. It is nearly impossible to detect such developments unless the counties are plotted together. Descriptive entries in the comprehensive database and in the chronologies reflect actual changes because they are written from the compilation plots, not from the laws alone or from secondary works. One additional benefit of this approach is that it provides an automatic checking mechanism. When the historical compiler reaches the end of the development of the county network, the final version should be identical with the boundaries of the present county. If there is a difference between the completed compilation and the standard, current map, the compiler knows there is a mistake somewhere. Such a discrepancy is rare, but when one is discovered, the compiler reviews the compilation to find the source of the problem. Usually it is a matter of the compiler erring in the plot of a boundary or accidentally omitting some change, either of which can easily be corrected, but occasionally the fault is found on the current, federal map. When the error appears on the federal map, the boundary is plotted accurately and a brief explanation of the difference is added to the supplemental Commentary. Problematic Data. Every so often, a state's law makers mistakenly overlapped the lines of two or more counties. Once such an overlap was detected, it seldom lasted long because dual jurisdictions generate only trouble, and states acted swiftly to eliminate them. This atlas treats areas of overlapping jurisdiction as distinct polygons and provides the usual data (e.g., start dates and end dates) for each one. Much more common than overlaps are non-county areas, that is, areas not within the jurisdiction of any county. Sometimes legal boundary descriptions left small areas, known as gores, outside the bounds of any county. Such inadvertent omissions errors most often occurred in the early days of a state's history when boundary makers lacked knowledge of the state's topography. Sometimes, legislators purposely did not extend county jurisdiction over all of their state's territory as early as possible, but waited until they had a better understanding of the lay of the land and until the prospect of European settlement was closer. Under those circumstances, they often provided a minimum of legal and administrative services for each non-county area by formally attaching it to a fully operational county; later, when the area was ready for settlement or was already under development, the state created one or more counties from the non-county area. This atlas aims to be absolutely comprehensive and, with a few exceptions (see next paragraph), to leave no "holes" in its historical and geographic coverage of a state. In practice, each state compilation includes all the territory within its bounds in 2000, regardless of what authority created or altered a county there, plus all other territory that may have been within the state's jurisdiction at an earlier time. Also, there are no empty spaces, no areas outside a named polygon. Each non-county area, whether an accidental gore or a region purposely set aside for future settlement, is represented by a polygon, the polygon is named (often merely as a non-county area with a number, such as NCA1), and a full set of data about it is entered in the database and the attribute file. The exceptions to the "no-holes" policy described above are the large non-county areas in western Virginia, New York, and the New England states during much of the seventeenth century. In London and the other European capitals, officials had access to so little accurate information about inland territory that imperial claims and land grants, including colonial charters, often were incomplete or imprecise or asserted limits (e.g., the Pacific Ocean or "South Sea") that were so extreme as to be impractical to plot. Compilers treated those large, indefinitely bounded, and inadequately described, non-county areas as empty territory and made no attempt to represent them as coherent, historically complete polygons. Because the ArcGIS program requires that all polygons be closed, the compilers supplied estimated boundary lines to close polygons representing indefinitely extensive frontier counties and noted their action in the "Change" field. Some changes have not been mapped because the change is too small to map, or the location is unknown, or both; for example, a law that transferred ten acres belonging to farmer Smith from one county to another would be unmappable because the parcel is too small to be mapped at the standard compilation scale or because the location of Smith's farm cannot be discovered. When the location of a change too small to map is known, the historical compiler marks the location and the digital compiler digitizes it as a point. All such tiny changes are collected in a separate shapefile, usually labeled [YEAR]_pt.shp. Using the historical compiler's plotting overlays and associated material (e.g., notes, copies of the laws), the GIS compiler draws the counties in digital form. For digitizing, the program is ArcGIS 9.1, and the electronic modern "base map" is from the Digital Chart of the World (DCW) provided with ArcGIS by Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), plus, as needed, such other data (often from another source) as the grid of the Public Land Survey System (PLSS). By repeating much of the procedure of the historical compiler, the digital compiler implicitly checks the work of her predecessor and occasionally finds line segments that must be corrected. As digitizing proceeds, data from the comprehensive database are entered into the attribute table. After perfecting the boundary lines, the GIS digitizer assembles copies of all county polygons and attribute data into a single shapefile, the Historical Counties Dataset shapefile. TIME PERIOD OF CONTENT TIME PERIOD INFORMATION RANGE OF DATES/TIMES BEGINNING DATE 02/07/1785 ENDING DATE 12/31/2000 CURRENTNESS REFERENCE publication date STATUS PROGRESS Complete MAINTENANCE AND UPDATE FREQUENCY As needed SPATIAL DOMAIN BOUNDING COORDINATES WEST BOUNDING COORDINATE -91.662506 EAST BOUNDING COORDINATE -84.888247 NORTH BOUNDING COORDINATE 35.008029 SOUTH BOUNDING COORDINATE 30.149892 KEYWORDS THEME THEME KEYWORD THESAURUS none THEME KEYWORD historical county boundaries PLACE PLACE KEYWORD THESAURUS none PLACE KEYWORD Mississippi TEMPORAL TEMPORAL KEYWORD THESAURUS none TEMPORAL KEYWORD 7 February 1785 to 31 December 2000 ACCESS CONSTRAINTS Free access for use under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Creative Commons License USE CONSTRAINTS Free for use under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Creative Commons License POINT OF CONTACT CONTACT INFORMATION CONTACT ORGANIZATION PRIMARY CONTACT ORGANIZATION Dr. William M. Scholl Center for American History and Culture, The Newberry Library CONTACT POSITION Director, Dr. William M. Scholl Center for American History and Culture CONTACT ADDRESS ADDRESS TYPE mailing and physical address ADDRESS 60 W. Walton Street CITY Chicago STATE OR PROVINCE Illinois POSTAL CODE 60610 COUNTRY UNITED STATES CONTACT ELECTRONIC MAIL ADDRESS scholl@newberry.org HOURS OF SERVICE 8:00 am - 5:00 pm M-F, CT DATA SET CREDIT Principal financial support for the project was provided by the Reference Materials Program of the National Endowment for the Humanities, an independent federal agency; additional support came from the Newberry Library, Chicago, the project's headquarters, and from a number of corporations, foundations, and individuals. SECURITY INFORMATION SECURITY CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM none SECURITY CLASSIFICATION Unclassified SECURITY HANDLING DESCRIPTION none NATIVE DATA SET ENVIRONMENT Microsoft Windows 2000 Version 5.0 (Build 2195) Service Pack 4; ESRI ArcCatalog 9.1.0.780 CROSS REFERENCE CITATION INFORMATION ORIGINATOR John H. Long, Editor, Historical Compiler ORIGINATOR Peggy Tuck Sinko, Assoc. Editor, Historical Compiler ORIGINATOR Douglas Knox, Book Digitizing Director, GIS Compiler ORIGINATOR Gordon DenBoer, Historical Compiler ORIGINATOR Kathryn Ford Thorne, Historical Compiler ORIGINATOR George E. Goodridge, Jr., Historical Compiler ORIGINATOR Emily Kelley, Historical Compiler, GIS Compiler ORIGINATOR Laura Rico-Beck, GIS Specialist, GIS Compiler ORIGINATOR Peter Siczewicz, GIS Consultant ORIGINATOR Robert Will, Cartographic Assistant ORIGINATOR John Ford, Cartographic Assistant PUBLICATION DATE various TITLE Atlas of Historical County Boundaries GEOSPATIAL DATA PRESENTATION FORM book and vector digital data PUBLICATION INFORMATION PUBLICATION PLACE New York PUBLISHER Simon and Schuster PUBLISHER Charles Scribner's Sons OTHER CITATION DETAILS 19 book vols. (1993-2000), online publication (2000-present) Hide Identification . ATTRIBUTE ACCURACY ATTRIBUTE ACCURACY REPORT The Atlas of Historical County Boundaries Project aims to achieve high accuracy through the use of the most authoritative and reliable sources, analysis of those sources by tested procedures, and careful proofreading of the results. Because counties are created and changed by their states, the state session laws are the primary, authoritative sources for the county lines, names, organization, and attachments. The initial plots of the boundaries are direct conversions of the legal boundary descriptions in the laws into linework on the plotting sheets. They are performed with copies of the legal descriptions at hand, and those same laws also are at hand for the GIS compiler when digitizing boundaries. All other sources, including old maps, are derived from those legal descriptions. The historical compiler searches the state session laws and, when necessary, related material (e.g., court decisions, executive proclamations) for information about the courses of the boundaries. Secondary texts, maps, and local experts are consulted as needed (e.g., when recovering a long-lost landmark that figured in an early boundary description). Dates of changes are also taken from the laws. Some laws specify when the change will go into effect, but others (mostly those passed before the twentieth century) do not; if no official effective date is provided, the historical compiler uses the date when the law was passed or approved. The locations of places and landmarks cited in the boundary descriptions are gathered from the modern, federal base maps or from secondary publications (e.g., gazetteers, county histories, articles in historical journals), old maps, or local experts. Several steps are taken to insure the accuracy of the boundaries as they are manually plotted, and to maintain the precision of those plots as they are manually digitized. The digitizing process involves faithfully drawing the sketched counties using landmarks such as rivers, roads, and places. These positional data were obtained from ESRI's Data and Maps collection (1:100,000 scale). Additionally, Public Land Survey System data (also at 1:100,000 scale) were used to digitize boundaries in Mississippi. These PLSS data were acquired from ESRI. Once the initial digitizing is complete a master file is created and uploaded on IMS. When the digitizing is complete, the digitized polygons and their attribute data are once again checked for accuracy against the chronology for the state. COMPLETENESS REPORT The data set is complete. All changes are dated to the day. If there is a difference between the effective date of change and the date when a law was passed, the effective date of change is used. Boundary changes too small to map are included in the chronologies and in the Comprehensive Database. As a rule, boundary changes occurring entirely on water were not mapped. Exceptions to this rule might include county boundaries which run through large inland water bodies like Lake Okeechobee, Lake Pontchartrain, Great Salt Lake, etc. No regular or systematic updating of the pre-2001 data is anticipated because (a) the historical data cannot change and (b) the compilers believe their methods and materials are sufficient to produce data that are complete and correct. (That is not to say no error can slip through. Suggestions for ad hoc changes or additions to the historical data, together with an explanation of why the change should be made and supporting evidence, should be directed to scholl@newberry.org or Dr. William M. Scholl Center for American History and Culture, The Newberry Library, 60 W. Walton St., Chicago, IL 60610.) County boundary changes that occur after 31 December 2000 will routinely be digitized by both the state of Mississippi and the federal government and, therefore, will be available from agencies of those governments in separate files in the indefinite future. POSITIONAL ACCURACY HORIZONTAL POSITIONAL ACCURACY HORIZONTAL POSITIONAL ACCURACY REPORT Accurate to matching USGS 1:500,000 scale State Base maps. LINEAGE SOURCE INFORMATION SOURCE CITATION CITATION INFORMATION ORIGINATOR Mississippi territory legislature PUBLICATION DATE 1816 TITLE Statutes of the Mississippi Territory GEOSPATIAL DATA PRESENTATION FORM document PUBLICATION INFORMATION PUBLICATION PLACE Natchez, Miss. PUBLISHER Government of Mississippi Territory TYPE OF SOURCE MEDIA paper SOURCE TIME PERIOD OF CONTENT TIME PERIOD INFORMATION RANGE OF DATES/TIMES BEGINNING DATE 01/1799 ENDING DATE 11/1816 SOURCE CURRENTNESS REFERENCE publication date SOURCE CITATION ABBREVIATION Miss. Terr. Stat. SOURCE CONTRIBUTION The compilation of this digest is often attributed to Edward Turner. These laws are the authority for the creation and change of each county; they contain the legal, verbal descriptions of the county boundaries, the effective dates of change, and related material. The historical compilers plot the lines described in the laws, converting them from words to lines on a map. SOURCE INFORMATION SOURCE CITATION CITATION INFORMATION ORIGINATOR Mississippi legislature PUBLICATION DATE 1817 to 2000 TITLE General Laws of Mississippi GEOSPATIAL DATA PRESENTATION FORM document PUBLICATION INFORMATION PUBLICATION PLACE Jackson, Miss. PUBLISHER Government of Mississippi SOURCE SCALE DENOMINATOR TYPE OF SOURCE MEDIA paper SOURCE TIME PERIOD OF CONTENT TIME PERIOD INFORMATION RANGE OF DATES/TIMES BEGINNING DATE 10/1817 ENDING DATE 12/31/2000 SOURCE CURRENTNESS REFERENCE publication date SOURCE CITATION ABBREVIATION Miss. Laws SOURCE CONTRIBUTION These laws are the authority for the creation and change of each county; they contain the legal, verbal descriptions of the county boundaries, the effective dates of change, and related material. The historical compilers plot the lines described in the laws, converting them from words to lines on a map. SOURCE INFORMATION SOURCE CITATION CITATION INFORMATION ORIGINATOR Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI) PUBLICATION DATE 11/01/2000 TITLE ESRI Data Maps EDITION 2000 GEOSPATIAL DATA PRESENTATION FORM vector digital data PUBLICATION INFORMATION PUBLICATION PLACE Redlands, California, USA PUBLISHER Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI) SOURCE SCALE DENOMINATOR 100,000 TYPE OF SOURCE MEDIA CD-ROM SOURCE TIME PERIOD OF CONTENT TIME PERIOD INFORMATION SINGLE DATE/TIME CALENDAR DATE 2000 SOURCE CURRENTNESS REFERENCE publication date SOURCE CITATION ABBREVIATION BASE1 SOURCE CONTRIBUTION The ESRI detailed county, msrivers, glocale, gsummit, highway, mjwater, and rail100K data were used as a modern base map, a reference for drawing historical county boundaries. SOURCE INFORMATION SOURCE CITATION CITATION INFORMATION ORIGINATOR National Atlas of the United States and the United States Geological Survey PUBLICATION DATE 12/01/2002 TITLE U.S. National Atlas Public Land Survey GEOSPATIAL DATA PRESENTATION FORM vector digital data PUBLICATION INFORMATION PUBLICATION PLACE Redlands, California, USA PUBLISHER ESRI ONLINE LINKAGE http://www.esri.com SOURCE SCALE DENOMINATOR 1,000,000 TYPE OF SOURCE MEDIA CD-ROM SOURCE CITATION ABBREVIATION PLSS SOURCE CONTRIBUTION The U.S. National Atlas Public Land Survey represents the Public Land Surveys (e.g., donation lands, land grants, private and public lands) of the United States. This polygon coverage of the townships, ranges, and sections contained in the Public Land Survey System grid for the nation made it possible to map boundary lines where boundary descriptions were based upon the PLSS or included references to some of its features. The PLSS data were acquired through ESRI. SOURCE INFORMATION SOURCE CITATION CITATION INFORMATION ORIGINATOR various PUBLICATION DATE various PUBLICATION TIME various TITLE Mississippi Historical County Boundaries - Bibliography EDITION various PUBLICATION INFORMATION PUBLICATION PLACE various PUBLISHER various SOURCE SCALE DENOMINATOR TYPE OF SOURCE MEDIA paper, internet SOURCE CITATION ABBREVIATION MS_BIB SOURCE CONTRIBUTION "Mississippi: Bibliography and Sources," a partially annotated bibliography of textual and cartographic sources that yielded useful information in the compilation of the historical evolution of Mississippi's counties, is a separate document that is a companion to this shapefile. Items in the bibliography are not equally important, yet each one was sufficiently valuable to the research and compilation of Mississippi's historical county boundaries to merit listing. With the exception of the detailed citations above, no other sources are cited and described separately in the metadata and in the style set by the FGDC metadata standard; traditional bibliographic style is more compact and provides sufficient information for a user to find the item in any library. PROCESS STEP PROCESS DESCRIPTION Historical Compilation. Working directly from originals or photocopies of the verbal boundary descriptions in the laws, the historical compiler plots the boundary lines of Historical Counties Dataset on a transparent compilation sheet laid over a base map of the state. Compilation proceeds from past to present. As each change is plotted the compiler writes a descriptive entry for the state's boundary chronology and a brief citation of the source of the information and enters it into the Comprehensive Database. (See also Supplemental_Information, Method, above.) The base map for this operation was the Mississippi map from the U.S.G.S. State Base series at the scale of 1:500,000. (The 1:1,000,000 version of the map was employed whenever smaller scale was appropriate or needed to plot large or simple changes.) The original strategy for the Atlas was to publish all states in book form before venturing to digitize the data, and the 1:500,000 scale maps were used in making the books. Before switching to all digital products and methods, about 80% of the states had been researched and compiled using this series of base maps, including 24 states published in 19 printed volumes. It was not practical to re-compile those data at a larger scale like 1:100,000. (See below, the next two process steps.) SOURCE USED CITATION ABBREVIATION Miss. Terr. Stat. SOURCE USED CITATION ABBREVIATION Miss. Laws SOURCE USED CITATION ABBREVIATION MS_BIB PROCESS DATE 1993 SOURCE PRODUCED CITATION ABBREVIATION MSB1 PROCESS STEP PROCESS DESCRIPTION Digital Base Map Creation. The GIS compiler creates a digital base map for the state (and any neighboring states that take part in its history) by editing the relevant portion of the Digital Chart of the World (DCW) supplied by ESRI in its ArcView package. This process consists chiefly in deleting elements (e.g., rivers) that are not related to the boundaries or do not serve a major reference function for potential readers and adding such other data as necessary. State Web sites commonly are the best sources for the grid of the Public Land Survey System (PLSS) in states west of the Appalachian Mountains and for the networks of town boundaries in the New England states. The main component of the customized base map is the set of detailed polygons of the modern counties. The GIS compiler projects the DCW so that the working version matches the projection of the paper base map used by the historical compiler. SOURCE USED CITATION ABBREVIATION BASE1 PROCESS DATE 2007 SOURCE PRODUCED CITATION ABBREVIATION BASE2 PROCESS STEP PROCESS DESCRIPTION Digitizing Historical Counties. Using the historical compiler's base map, plotting overlays, the Comprehensive Database, and associated material (e.g., notes, copies of the laws), the GIS compiler manually digitizes the historical county polygons over the digital base map. By repeating much of the process of the historical compiler, the digital compiler implicitly checks the work of the historical compiler and occasionally finds line segments that are in error and must be corrected. As digitizing proceeds, data from the Comprehensive Database are entered into the attribute table. The process of entering attribute data entails an implicit review of the database and, if the greater map detail involved in working at digitization scale (see below) is different from the original descriptions, that may lead to updates of the database, including dates and version numbers and even descriptions of changes. The compiler works "heads up," facing the monitor and using the mouse to draw lines against a background of the digital base map. The historical compiler's plots are not scanned and overlaid on the digital base map, nor does the digital compiler trace the earlier work on a digitizing tablet, because neither technique is as efficient or accurate as drawing the lines anew. One reason is that the scale for most of the historical compilations is 1:500,000 and the scale for digitization is 1:100,000. It is most unusual to draw a map at a larger scale than its source or early version, but in this case it was unavoidable because digitization did not commence until after nearly all the states had already been compiled at the smaller scale. In effect, the historical plots are a preliminary stage, and the plots from that work become the chief sources or guides (supported by the historical notes and copies of the legal descriptions, and other material) for the digital compiler who renders the final, detailed version of the boundary lines. SOURCE USED CITATION ABBREVIATION MSB1, BASE2 PROCESS DATE 2007 SOURCE PRODUCED CITATION ABBREVIATION MSB2 PROCESS STEP PROCESS DESCRIPTION Create the comprehensive Historical Counties Dataset shapefile. After digitizing the historical counties, the GIS compiler creates a shapefile known as the comprehensive Historical Counties Dataset shapefile. It holds all versions of each county, plus unsuccessful proposals for changes and new counties, thus enabling a user to acquire maps of every version of every county. After the historical and IMS master files have been created, areas are calculated for all polygons. SOURCE USED CITATION ABBREVIATION MSB2 PROCESS DATE 2007 SOURCE PRODUCED CITATION ABBREVIATION MSB3 PROCESS STEP PROCESS DESCRIPTION Final Proofing. Compilers proof the polygons of the master shapefile against the comprehensive database. After using ArcIMS to prepare an interactive, viewable cartographic shapefile, the compiler compares the entries in the database to the entries in the attribute table and checks the IMS image for the date and county names specified in the database entry. Discrepancies in the textual material (i.e., database) can be corrected on the spot; apparent errors in the polygons are noted for later correction by the GIS compiler. Later, after the GIS compiler corrects any faults in the line work, those corrections are reviewed again by the compilers and, if all polygons and text match properly, the shapefile is posted to the Web site. SOURCE USED CITATION ABBREVIATION MSB3 PROCESS DATE 2007 SOURCE PRODUCED CITATION ABBREVIATION MSB4 PROCESS STEP PROCESS DESCRIPTION Topology Check. A multi-step process was applied to ensure that historical county polygons fit together precisely at all dates. The first step was to convert the historical county shapefile to a polygon feature class in an ESRI geodatabase. ArcMap tools were then used to planarize the polygon boundary lines in the historical county feature class, and to create polygons from these lines. This resulted in a new feature class consisting of non-overlapping component polygons. The ESRI topology functionality was applied to the component polygons to detect overlaps and gaps, and to snap vertices to the ESRI modern county polygon feature class. Based on the original historical county data, a table was created to specify, for each component polygon, the different counties to which it belonged and the time frames. The table was programmatically checked to verify that each component polygon was correctly assigned to historical counties throughout its life, with no unexpected gaps or overlaps. The component polygons were then reassembled back into the historical counties, and converted to a shapefile. The resulting historical county shapefile consists of a large number of overlapping polygons; however, as a result of the topology check process, the subset of counties in effect at any selected date is topologically correct, with no unexpected gaps or overlaps. There are a number of known gaps and overlaps, however, due to legislative or surveying errors, and to conflicting territorial claims. SOURCE USED CITATION ABBREVIATION MSB4 PROCESS DATE 2008-2009 SOURCE PRODUCED CITATION ABBREVIATION MSB5 Hide Data Quality . HORIZONTAL COORDINATE SYSTEM DEFINITION GEOGRAPHIC LATITUDE RESOLUTION 0.000000 LONGITUDE RESOLUTION 0.000000 GEOGRAPHIC COORDINATE UNITS Decimal degrees GEODETIC MODEL HORIZONTAL DATUM NAME North American Datum of 1983 ELLIPSOID NAME Geodetic Reference System 80 SEMI-MAJOR AXIS 6378137.000000 DENOMINATOR OF FLATTENING RATIO 298.257222 Hide Spatial Reference . DETAILED DESCRIPTION ENTITY TYPE ENTITY TYPE LABEL MS_Historical_Counties ENTITY TYPE DEFINITION county and county equivalents ENTITY TYPE DEFINITION SOURCE Miss. Laws ATTRIBUTE ATTRIBUTE LABEL FID ATTRIBUTE DEFINITION Internal feature number. The FID number is the unique identifier (a primary key in database terms) for each polygon within a shapefile; its application is limited to its single shapefile. ATTRIBUTE DEFINITION SOURCE ESRI ATTRIBUTE DOMAIN VALUES UNREPRESENTABLE DOMAIN Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated. ATTRIBUTE ATTRIBUTE LABEL Shape ATTRIBUTE DEFINITION Feature geometry. ATTRIBUTE DEFINITION SOURCE ESRI ATTRIBUTE DOMAIN VALUES UNREPRESENTABLE DOMAIN Coordinates defining the features. ATTRIBUTE ATTRIBUTE LABEL NAME ATTRIBUTE DEFINITION name or other identification of county or equivalent, limited to 20 characters ATTRIBUTE DEFINITION SOURCE colonial, territorial, state, and federal laws ATTRIBUTE DOMAIN VALUES UNREPRESENTABLE DOMAIN character field ATTRIBUTE ATTRIBUTE LABEL ID ATTRIBUTE DEFINITION Whereas the FID numbers (see above) uniquely identify the different polygons in a single state's shapefile, the ID code identifies unique geographical institutions, i.e., states, counties, and other administrative entities. The ID code is stable across datasets (state shapefiles); it does not change when there is a change in the county's name, shape, size, location, or parent state or equivalent. Each county's unique identifier is set in terms of its current or most recent state affiliation. Hence, "MES_York" is the identifier for modern York County, Maine, and all its earlier versions, even though it was created as part of colonial Massachusetts and is represented by polygons in the shapefiles of both Massachusetts and Maine. Because the FIPS system (see below) provides no codes for some extinct counties, no codes for non-county areas, and no codes for the colonies and territories that were predecessors of the states, it has been necessary to create a more comprehensive, alternative system of identifiers. The system adopted by the Atlas identifies each state and colony or territory with three letters, the first two based on the system of two-letter codes employed by the U.S. Post Office and the third indicating the status of the organization. (In most cases that is simply a C for colony, a T for territory, or an S for state.) For example, IAT stands for Iowa Territory and IAS for the state of Iowa. Some precursors of states need special ID codes, most of which are intuitively easy to read and to apply, especially in the context of a particular state's dataset. Examples are NWT (Northwest Territory, formally named Territory Northwest of the River Ohio), SWF (Spanish West Florida), FRS (State of Franklin), DKT (Dakota Territory), CRC (Colony of Carolina), and TXR (Republic of Texas). Counties are identified by appending their names to the state codes, as in "KYS_Adair" for Adair County in the state of Kentucky. Non-county areas are abbreviated NCA; within a specific state they are differentiated from each other by adding a numeral to the abbreviation, as in "MOS_NCA1" for non-county area number 1 in the state of Missouri. Occasionally special codes are needed to deal with unusual historical situations, as in Vermont where the original Washington County, identified as "VTS_Washington01," became extinct and later the name was applied to another county ("VTS_Washington") that continues today. The county identifiers also have been created with an eye towards users who may wish to download and work with more than one state file for regions and want a comprehensive way to sort and select shapefiles or to link the attribute table to the comprehensive database. ATTRIBUTE DEFINITION SOURCE project standards ATTRIBUTE DOMAIN VALUES UNREPRESENTABLE DOMAIN character field ATTRIBUTE ATTRIBUTE LABEL STATE ATTRIBUTE DEFINITION name of the county's current or most recent state affiliation. ATTRIBUTE DEFINITION SOURCE colonial, territorial, state, and federal laws ATTRIBUTE DOMAIN VALUES UNREPRESENTABLE DOMAIN character field ATTRIBUTE ATTRIBUTE LABEL FIPS ATTRIBUTE DEFINITION FIPS codes are provided for the convenience of researchers working with data that has already been labeled with numbers from that coding system. FIPS is the abbreviation of Federal Information Processing Standard. FIPS codes were created in the first half of the twentieth century and are meant to facilitate efficiency and clarity in data handling. The system provides a two-digit code for each state or equivalent and a three-digit code for each county or equivalent. (Sometimes those codes are combined into five-digit numbers that start with the two digits for the state, as in this attribute table). The FIPS codes for states and counties in existence at the end of 2000 were taken from the federal government's FIPS PUB 6-4 (created 1996, last modified 10 May 2002), and the codes for extinct counties were taken from earlier lists. Some counties or other administrative entities may have no FIPS codes. In some cases they represent historical counties that became extinct before the introduction of FIPS codes; in other cases they represent temporary non-county areas. In the attribute table the FIPS field for those areas and extinct counties has been left blank because there is no standard system for pre-FIPS colonies, territories, and counties and no coding system includes non-county areas. Of course, users may supply a FIPS substitute of their own creation or, for extinct early counties, adopt an existing, alternative coding scheme, such as the one employed by Richard L. Forstall in his compilation, "Population of States and Counties of the United States: 1790-1990" (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1996). In addition, as described above under Attribute Label: ID, the Atlas developed a parallel system of non-FIPS Identifiers to encode all states, counties, and equivalents; it is more flexible and working with it is easier than using the FIPS codes. ATTRIBUTE DEFINITION SOURCE FIPS PUB 6-4 ATTRIBUTE DOMAIN VALUES CODESET DOMAIN CODESET NAME Federal Information Processing Standards CODESET SOURCE FIPS PUB 6-4 ATTRIBUTE ATTRIBUTE LABEL VERSION ATTRIBUTE DEFINITION sequential and chronological change in county name or configuration ATTRIBUTE DEFINITION SOURCE compiler ATTRIBUTE DOMAIN VALUES UNREPRESENTABLE DOMAIN character field ATTRIBUTE ATTRIBUTE LABEL START_DATE ATTRIBUTE DEFINITION first date for a particular county version or event, arranged as mm/dd/yyyy ATTRIBUTE DEFINITION SOURCE colonial, territorial, state, and federal laws ATTRIBUTE DOMAIN VALUES RANGE DOMAIN RANGE DOMAIN MINIMUM 17850207 RANGE DOMAIN MAXIMUM 20001231 BEGINNING DATE OF ATTRIBUTE VALUES 02/07/1785 ENDING DATE OF ATTRIBUTE VALUES 03/14/1934 ATTRIBUTE ATTRIBUTE LABEL END_DATE ATTRIBUTE DEFINITION last date for a particular county version or event, arranged as mm/dd/yyyy ATTRIBUTE DEFINITION SOURCE colonial, territorial, state, and federal laws ATTRIBUTE DOMAIN VALUES RANGE DOMAIN RANGE DOMAIN MINIMUM 17880131 RANGE DOMAIN MAXIMUM 20001231 BEGINNING DATE OF ATTRIBUTE VALUES 01/31/1788 ENDING DATE OF ATTRIBUTE VALUES 12/31/2000 ATTRIBUTE ATTRIBUTE LABEL CHANGE ATTRIBUTE DEFINITION creation, change, or other event for each county on the given date ATTRIBUTE DEFINITION SOURCE colonial, territorial, state, and federal laws, compiler ATTRIBUTE DOMAIN VALUES UNREPRESENTABLE DOMAIN character field ATTRIBUTE ATTRIBUTE LABEL CITATION ATTRIBUTE DEFINITION reference to the source of data for the event described under CHANGE ATTRIBUTE DEFINITION SOURCE colonial, territorial, state, and federal laws, any other texts, maps, or interviews employed to gather data ATTRIBUTE DOMAIN VALUES UNREPRESENTABLE DOMAIN character field ATTRIBUTE ATTRIBUTE LABEL START_N ATTRIBUTE DEFINITION first date for a particular county version or event, arranged in the standard date format yyyymmdd ATTRIBUTE DEFINITION SOURCE colonial, territorial, state, and federal laws ATTRIBUTE DOMAIN VALUES RANGE DOMAIN RANGE DOMAIN MINIMUM 17850207 RANGE DOMAIN MAXIMUM 19340314 ATTRIBUTE ATTRIBUTE LABEL END_N ATTRIBUTE DEFINITION lsat date for a particular county version or event, arranged in the standard date format yyyymmdd ATTRIBUTE DEFINITION SOURCE colonial, territorial, state, and federal laws ATTRIBUTE DOMAIN VALUES RANGE DOMAIN RANGE DOMAIN MINIMUM 17880131 RANGE DOMAIN MAXIMUM 20001231 ATTRIBUTE ATTRIBUTE LABEL AREA_SQMI ATTRIBUTE DEFINITION area of a county or equivalent in square miles, calculated from polygon by means of ArcMap facility ATTRIBUTE DEFINITION SOURCE compiler ATTRIBUTE DOMAIN VALUES UNREPRESENTABLE DOMAIN numeric field ATTRIBUTE ATTRIBUTE LABEL DATASET ATTRIBUTE DEFINITION The dataset field identifies the topical focus of the master shapefile. For every state the subject matter consists of all events affecting state and county jurisdiction within the borders of the modern state, regardless of the enabling authority, plus similar events involving the state outside its modern bounds, regardless of where or when. For example, polygons for Virginia's earliest western counties appear in the dataset for Kentucky because they represent part of the history of the area that became Kentucky; they also are included in the Virginia dataset because they are integral to the early history of Virginia, even though Virginia long ago ceded its authority over the area. In general, therefore, the dataset encompasses more data than a state, concentrating on one state (the principal point of focus) but possibly embracing data from one or more related, secondary states. Historically, almost every colony and territory transformed smoothly into statehood with no complications that might have required separate datasets for the state and its predecessors. The exception is Dakota Territory, which has its own dataset, and which split into a pair of states. ATTRIBUTE DEFINITION SOURCE Project standards ATTRIBUTE DOMAIN VALUES UNREPRESENTABLE DOMAIN character field ATTRIBUTE ATTRIBUTE LABEL CNTY_TYPE ATTRIBUTE DEFINITION This field classifies each county and equivalent into one of several categories: (1) District; judicial districts, a county equivalent which at one time served as a basic unit of government in South Carolina, (2) Parish; a county equivalent which at one time served as a basic unit of government in South Carolina, and which is currently the primary unit of government in Louisiana, (3) Jefferson_Territory; an extralegal territory, never recognized by the United States, that included all of present Colorado and parts of present Nebraska, Wyoming, and Utah, (4) Proposal; proposed counties which never became operational, (5) County; all remaining counties and county equivalents included in this dataset. ATTRIBUTE DEFINITION SOURCE Project standards ATTRIBUTE DOMAIN VALUES UNREPRESENTABLE DOMAIN character field ATTRIBUTE ATTRIBUTE LABEL FULL_NAME ATTRIBUTE DEFINITION name or other identification of county or equivalent ATTRIBUTE DEFINITION SOURCE colonial, territorial, state, and federal laws ATTRIBUTE DOMAIN VALUES UNREPRESENTABLE DOMAIN character field Hide Entities and Attributes . DISTRIBUTOR CONTACT INFORMATION CONTACT ORGANIZATION PRIMARY CONTACT ORGANIZATION Dr. William M. Scholl Center for American History and Culture, The Newberry Library CONTACT POSITION Director, Dr. William M. Scholl Center for American History and Culture CONTACT ADDRESS ADDRESS TYPE mailing and physical address ADDRESS 60 W. Walton Street CITY Chicago STATE OR PROVINCE Illinois POSTAL CODE 60610 COUNTRY UNITED STATES CONTACT ELECTRONIC MAIL ADDRESS scholl@newberry.org HOURS OF SERVICE 8:00 am - 5:00 pm, M-F, CT RESOURCE DESCRIPTION Mississippi Historical Counties Dataset shapefile DISTRIBUTION LIABILITY No liability is assumed by the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries Project or the Newberry Library STANDARD ORDER PROCESS DIGITAL FORM DIGITAL TRANSFER INFORMATION FORMAT NAME SHP FILE DECOMPRESSION TECHNIQUE Zipped file. TRANSFER SIZE 10.637 DIGITAL TRANSFER OPTION ONLINE OPTION COMPUTER CONTACT INFORMATION NETWORK ADDRESS NETWORK RESOURCE NAME http://www.newberry.org/ahcbp TECHNICAL PREREQUISITES To use this data requires software that supports ESRI GIS shapefiles. AVAILABLE TIME PERIOD TIME PERIOD INFORMATION SINGLE DATE/TIME CALENDAR DATE Fall 2009 and thereafter Hide Distribution Information . METADATA DATE 2/12/2010 METADATA CONTACT CONTACT INFORMATION CONTACT ORGANIZATION PRIMARY CONTACT ORGANIZATION Dr. William M. Scholl Center for American History and Culture, The Newberry Library CONTACT POSITION Director, Dr. William M. Scholl Center for American History and Culture CONTACT ADDRESS ADDRESS TYPE mailing and physical address ADDRESS 60 W. Walton Street CITY Chicago STATE OR PROVINCE Illinois POSTAL CODE 60610 COUNTRY UNITED STATES CONTACT ELECTRONIC MAIL ADDRESS scholl@newberry.org HOURS OF SERVICE 8:00 am - 5:00 pm, M-F, CT METADATA STANDARD NAME FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata METADATA STANDARD VERSION FGDC-STD-001-1998 METADATA TIME CONVENTION local time METADATA EXTENSIONS METADATA EXTENSIONS ONLINE LINKAGE http://www.esri.com/metadata/esriprof80.html PROFILE NAME ESRI Metadata Profile Hide Metadata Reference .