Oktibbeha County Chancery Clerk

About the Oktibbeha County Chancery Clerk

The Chancery Clerk is an elected county official who serves as clerk of the Oktibbeha County Chancery Court. Sharon Livingston holds the office. She and the office staff keep the minutes, files, and money records for the county's equity court, and they maintain the land records and board records that touch nearly every property owner in the county.

The office works out of the Oktibbeha County Courthouse on East Main Street in downtown Starkville. Counter hours run Monday through Friday. A small staff splits the work: Carolyn Boswell handles accounting, Terri Clifford and Subrina Oswalt handle court records, and Haley Nixon and Natasha Powers handle land records. A short visit covers most copy and recording requests.

The county page on the clerk's statutory responsibilities lays out the office role, and the staff directory lists the address, phone, fax, and hours. Use the contact block below before any visit or mailed request.

What the Chancery Clerk Does in Oktibbeha County

The office attends Chancery Court, keeps the minute books, and preserves the files and papers of every chancery case. It records the documents that move estates and guardianships through the court, and it recorded land instruments that build the county's chain of title. A separate duty set covers the Board of Supervisors, since the Chancery Clerk in Mississippi serves as clerk to the county board and keeps its minutes.

• Chancery Court case files and minute books
• Wills admitted to probate, letters testamentary, and letters of administration
• Guardianship and conservatorship letters, inventories, appraisements, and allowed accounts
• Final records of estates and other instruments the law requires the clerk to record
• Land records, deeds, mortgages, and the abstract of judgments
• Board of Supervisors minutes and county financial records

In probate and guardianship matters the clerk carries real statutory power between court terms. The Chancery Clerk may take proof of wills, admit wills to probate in common form, grant letters of administration, issue warrants of appraisement, allow and register claims against an estate, appoint guardians, and act to collect and preserve an estate in the circumstances the law provides. Those acts are entered in the minute books and final records the office keeps.

Circuit matters sit with a different office. Circuit civil and criminal cases, marriage licenses, jury lists, and the judgment roll belong to the Oktibbeha County Circuit Clerk, not the Chancery Clerk. That split is the single most useful thing to know before you call.

The Oktibbeha County Record Vault

The Chancery Clerk is the keeper of the county's record vault, and the depth of that vault is unusual. Several record series reach back to the county's founding years in the 1830s. A researcher tracing a chain of title, an old will, or a family land grant works from these books, which stay open for public inspection during counter hours.

The vault holds court minutes, will books, land records, judgments, liens, and board minutes. The dates below come from the county's record vault listing.

Note: Land records are open for public inspection from 8 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday, and recorded documents become available to the public the next day.

Searching Oktibbeha County Land Records Online

The Chancery Clerk runs a land-records portal that indexes three things and three things only: Official Land Records, Board Minutes, and Land Redemption or Delinquent Tax. The portal is an index and a copy-purchase tool, not a full case system. It does not carry divorce, probate, estate, guardianship, or custody case files, which means most chancery cases never appear in any public online search.

The staff directory for the office is published on the county website. The Chancery Court staff directory lists the office contacts, the land-records and court-records staff, and the same hours shown above.

The directory above is the quickest way to confirm the phone, fax, and address before a visit. The portal itself carries firm warnings that shape how the index should be used. The clerk states that the online index is not the official record, that the courthouse Land Records Index controls, that online credit-card copy purchases are final, and that a 3.5% service fee with a $2 minimum applies to those purchases.

Recording Rules for Oktibbeha County Land Records

Recording a document with the Chancery Clerk follows a few local rules that catch first-time filers. The office records the instrument you bring; it does not draft it. Getting these points right the first time avoids a returned document and a second trip to the courthouse.

• The Chancery Clerk does not provide blank land-record forms, so bring a completed, ready-to-record instrument.
• Original pleadings are returned to the filer, so include a stamped self-addressed envelope with a mailed filing.
• A recording-fee check that is short by any amount gets the document returned unrecorded.
• Recorded documents are available to the public the next day, not the same day.
• Make payment by cash, check, or money order payable to Oktibbeha County Chancery Clerk.

Oktibbeha County Chancery Clerk Fees

Chancery charges fall into two groups. Land recording and copy charges apply at the counter, while chancery case filing fees apply when you open a divorce, estate, or guardianship matter. The amounts below come from the county record filing fee page and the Chancery Court filing fee list.

Always verify a current fee before mailing anything, since a short payment means a returned document. Probate, estate, and family filing fees are explained in more detail on the Oktibbeha County Chancery Court records page.

How to Request a Certified Copy

A certified copy carries the clerk's seal and is the version courts, banks, and many agencies accept as official. An uncertified printout from the online land index is fine for a quick look but is not the same document. Use these steps for a mailed chancery or land record copy.

1. Identify the document well enough for the staff to find it, using the case or instrument type, party names, and a date, book, or page where you have one.
2. Confirm the record is held by the Chancery Clerk; circuit cases, marriage licenses, and the judgment roll go to the Circuit Clerk instead.
3. Call 662-323-5834 to verify the copy and certification charge and the accepted payment method before you mail anything.
4. Mail the request with a check or money order made payable to Oktibbeha County Chancery Clerk, plus a stamped self-addressed return envelope.
5. Pick up the certified copy at the courthouse or wait for it to arrive by return mail.

Records Request Options and Form Fields

There is no public chancery case-search portal in Oktibbeha County, so divorce, probate, estate, guardianship, and custody records come through the clerk counter, the phone, the mail, or a county public-records request. The online portal only offers the three land and board applications listed earlier. When a record is not in that index, the county public records request form is the universal fallback for non-confidential files.

The request form is listed on the county documents and forms page. The exact field labels are not fully published online, but a county records request of this type asks for the items below.

The Mississippi Public Records Act, found at Section 25-61-1 and following, requires public bodies to make records available unless an exemption applies, and the Mississippi Ethics Commission publishes the full text. Sealed family, adoption, and minor-related chancery files may still require court authorization even under that law.