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The Sextons Records are very narrow in scope. They had a specific purpose,Return to Top
which was alert the city fathers of an impending epidemic and to provide
a guide as to when a quarantine was necessary. FURTHER, many, many people traveled away from Natchez EVERY YEAR during the "sick times," etc., and the Sextons records kept the travelers appraised as to when it was all right to return home. They showed if a particular physician was handling an
unusual load of deaths, etc.There were many uses for the Sextons records and they were the very first item presented at each meeting of the town aldermen. They were published as a part of the official records of the town. BUT - they are a list of those people that died WITHIN THE CITY LIMITS OF NATCHEZ. If you lived across the street from the city limits you were not listed. If you lived across the street and you were brought to the Natchez City Cemetery for burial you were listed as an "interment". The only information listed for interments were where they came from and where they were buried. Should you have lived just outside the city limits it was generally listed either that you came from "Adams County" or from the "Country".
The general usage of "The Country" rather than listing a particular city indicated that the person was simply taken away to be buried in a local private
plantation cemetery. Only rarely did the Sexton put down the particular
name of the private cemetery.Everyone listed in these records DIED in Natchez but not all are buried in the City Cemetery.