Jakes' Files List of McCord Families
Paul Jakes was an early pioneer researcher who worked for a Seminary Extension in Mississippi and traveled across the country gathering decades of McCord family history, eventually depositing his files with a state university in Mississippi. It was later transcribed by Dr. Symm McCord and ended up on a website no longer easily available: Angelfire.com.
This list, known as Jakes' Files, contains over 900 McCord families in the US along with wives, children, locations and notes. In this file, families were grouped by the head, generally the husband and ordered by his given name (first name). Later, other people added the McCord Family Line Groups list codes (link below) and other relevant notes.
From this list, I took the individual families, put them into the Family Group Sheets (FGS) format with headings and numbered the children. This was done using a Python script (created by Google Gemini-3.6-flash AI) to parse out the names, dates, places, etc.. They were then output them in in a Markdown (.md) file format. NOTE THAT I HAVE NOT CHANGED ANY OF THE INFORMATION IN THIS FILE, ONLY REFORMATTED THE EXISTING INFORMATION! In fact, I did not even add my own second great-grandfather Samuel McCord or his family who were not included in this file (although I may do this at some point).
With a standard format for each family, it will make finding things much easier. However, due to the many names and places in it, I recommend you load it into Google's Gemini Notebook because a regular chatbot likely will not be able to read the entire file. This way you can ask questions to locate the families and information you are seeking. Also, do not breakdown the file into smaller parts or you may lose information else where in this file that may be valuable to you. Once in Gemini Notebook, you could ask: "Find all McCords with the given name of Sam or Samuel that lived in Iowa," and get back a very detailed response. This will also find spelling variations of McCord and identify wives and children's name that would have been difficult to identify. You can also output sections into document that can be used elsewhere.
Download Jakes' File McCord Family Group Sheets in Markdown (.md) format.
This large file is structured for AI research but can also be read in a plain text editor like Notepad. There are Markdown converters available online to convert it to other formats. It can also be printed out, but it would be best to only print what you needed as the whole file would take many pages!
Due to the huge file size, 700+ pages, it was not practical to check every family’s information manually. I have spot-checked and it appears to conform to the copy posted by Zak Jones on the McCord Surname - DNA Genealogy Facebook page. It is also quite possible that some information was incorrectly copied or missed entirely from earlier transcriptions, or that errors were introduced during processing.
I did find some dates with years that contained only 3 digits; checking these against the original confirmed they were recorded that way initially. Like any genealogy project—especially one with as many identical or duplicated names as this one—I leave it to researchers to verify the accuracy of the records.
Before downloading, I encourage you to read the previously made comments below. Also, you can find the McCord Family Line Groups list here.
Walter D. Wood
November 2026
Previous Comments Made on Jakes' Files
From Cat Coberly:
The following family records have been copied from two microfilm reels that the Mississippi Department of Archives and History filmed in March 1978. There are two reels, one containing 62 exposures and the other containing 42 exposures. Although the data can be read fairly well on a microfilm projector and a mostly readable photocopy was obtained, the photocopy itself was too faint for further reproduction. However, these files are too valuable not to be made more widely available to McCord researchers, so I have begun to copy the data from the only complete file. The files will correspond to the order in which they appeared on the microfilm.
There are three series of data, all listed alphabetically, giving the name of the male head of the family (designated the husband even where he represents a single male). The alphabetization does not vary with the various spellings of the surname (McCord, McCorde, McChord, Mackorda, and even McFord). Some of the notes are open to several interpretations. The reference sources are also abbreviated, and a bibliography would be a useful reference to add to these files. On occasion Jakes indicated his source as "media research," but usually gives much more solid documentation. He interjects comments followed by his initials "PRJ" (or PRE), and occasionally other unidentified initials appear. I have annotated many of the records with my own comments followed by the initials TBH. The documentation is not included for these comments but will be furnished by correspondence to those requesting it.
An index should be prepared at a later date for the surname McCord. In the heads of families of the first series, the following given names are listed: Benjamin, David, James, John, Joseph, Robert, Samuel, Thomas, and William. These nine given names account for over 80% of the heads of families, with James, John, and William accounting for about 52% of the entries. This propensity of early McCord families to reuse the same given names is at least partly due to adhering to traditional naming patterns (first son named after the husband's father, second after the wife's father, third after the husband's oldest brother; first daughter after the wife's mother, second after the husband's mother). This presents numerous pitfalls to McCord family researchers, as picking the right William McCord to plug into the early generations can be a formidable task.
David McCord has given me some notes on Paul Jakes, who compiled the original files. He apparently had a traveling job (perhaps church-related), and everywhere he went he did research and either phoned or visited all the McCords in the area. We will attempt to work out his lineage and include it in these notes when revised. The latest date found on any record is 1970 on Record 656, indicating he continued his research at least into that year. On Record 284, Olga McCord (b. 11 Jan 1890 in Williamson Co., TN, daughter of Russell Franklin and Sallie Minerva Crutcher McCord) married George E. Jakes on 16 July 1910; these are presumed to be the parents of Paul R. Jakes.
Compiled by Tom Hill, 554 Durand St., E. Lansing, MI 48823 — 7 Dec 1992
Configured for Clan McCord easy reading by Shirley Perez, updated 2005–2008. No changes to the original content were made. There are many symbols and abbreviations in the index. Some dates include a character instead of a number.
