My name is BJ Marlow and I am the volunteer County Director for the Mississippi Genealogy & History Network's Bolivar County Project. The mission of our organization is to aid genealogical researchers with resources and materials at no cost to the researcher.

This site is a work in progress. I will be bringing more Bolivar County resources to this website as quickly as possible. If I can be of assistance or if you have any questions, suggestions or comments, please email me at BJMarlow. If you have Bolivar County information you are willing to share, please let me know.

The county of Bolivar is located in the Delta Region of Mississippi. It was created February 9, 1836 from the Choctaw Cession of 1830 during the administration of Governor Charles Lynch. It was named for General Simon Bolivar, a South American patriot, often called the George Washington of South America, whose victories over the Spaniards won independence for Bolivia, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela from Spain. At its creation, It contained 40 townships with an area of 1440 square miles. Its present area is 879 square miles.

The County is now divided into two judicial districts, the line of division running north and south. Rosedale, situated on the Mississippi River, is the county seat of the first district, and Cleveland, situated on the main line of the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad, is the county seat of the second district.

The first county seat of Bolivar County was located at Bolivar Landing, and was located at a point on a high sand ridge about two miles northwest of the present town of Beulah, this site still being known as "the old courthouse field." Later, the county seat was removed to Prentiss on the Mississippi River opposite Napoleon, Arkansas.

The first settlers of Bolivar County were planters who found the forty to sixty foot deep Delta soil to be rich and fertile. The land had to first be laboriously cleared of the evergreens, cane and bamboo, but once cleared, the settlers found rivers, bayous, and lakes filled with edible fish, such as perch, jack, trout, bass, and big river catfish weighing as much as 200 pounds. Game, such as wild ducks, turkeys, deer, and quail were found in large numbers. The levee system was first implemented during the 1850's to the 1860's.

In it's first census in 1840, there were 1,356 residents listed. In the last federal census in 2000, the population was 40,633.

For more information check out the Bolivar County Facts & Information link on the menu panel as well as other Bolivar County Records links.