Mississippi Notary Journal Requirements — Permanently Bound, One at a Time
Yes. Mississippi requires every notary to chronicle all notarial acts in a journal, and a journal kept on paper must be permanently bound with numbered pages, with one active journal at a time. Printed loose pages do not satisfy Mississippi law.
The rule: Mississippi's Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts (Mississippi Code title 25, chapter 34) carries the journal duty and the uniform format rule: a tangible journal must be permanently bound with numbered pages, and an electronic journal must be in a permanent, tamper-evident electronic format. The Secretary of State administers the notary program and publishes the current guidance.
Last updated: August 2026.
What each Mississippi entry must include
The date and time of the act, a description of the record and the type of act, the name and address of each individual for whom the act is performed, how the signer was identified, and the fee charged. By rule, the journal may also contain the signature of the person for whom the act is performed. What it may not contain is personal financial or identification information: no complete Social Security numbers, complete driver's license numbers, or complete account numbers. Terminal digits, such as the last four of an SSN, are allowed (Rule 4.2, Miss. SOS notary rules).
What Mississippi notaries should buy
A permanently bound journal with numbered pages from any notary supplier, or a compliant electronic journal. Nothing else satisfies the statute for the journal itself. One active journal at a time holds every act until it fills; then the next register begins.
The rules are specific about the binding: glue, staples, or grommets qualify; tape, paper clips, and binder clips do not. Page and entry numbers must be preprinted (Rule 4.3).
Retention, and what happens to old journals
Ten years after the last act in a journal, the rules require destroying it by shredding or another method that leaves every entry illegible (Rule 4.7). On resignation or the revocation or suspension of a commission, journal records are deposited with the circuit clerk of the notary's county of residence; on a notary's death, whoever holds the journal notifies the Secretary of State in writing and transmits the records to the circuit clerk within 30 days (Miss. Code § 25-34-37). A lost or stolen journal is reported to the Secretary of State in writing within ten days (Rule 4.5).
Questions Mississippi notaries ask
Can I keep my Mississippi journal electronically? Yes, in a permanent, tamper-evident electronic format. Loose printed pages qualify as neither a permanently bound register nor a compliant electronic journal.
Can I keep two Mississippi journals at once? No. One journal at a time chronicles all notarial acts, whether they are performed on tangible or electronic records (Miss. Code § 25-34-37(2)). A second register starts only when the first is full.
Where do I check the current Mississippi rules? The Mississippi Secretary of State publishes notary guidance and administers the program; that office is the authority on the details.
The honest note from us
Prep & Print Notary Journal sells a $19 app that prints filled-in journal pages, and printed pages do not comply with Mississippi's permanently-bound rule. If you are commissioned in a state that leaves the journal format to you, the app is at prepandprintnotary.com. Mississippi notaries: buy the bound book or a compliant electronic journal.
Update, September 2026: we make a bound edition now. The Prep & Print bound journal is on Amazon — permanently bound, one signing per two-page spread, preprinted page and entry numbers, signature and thumbprint boxes, in five cover colors.
Every state's rule is on one page: Notary Journal Requirements by State.
Sources: Miss. Code § 25-34-37 (journal); Mississippi SOS notary rules, ch. 4. General information, not legal advice.
