ࡱ > !` +# bjbj\\ > > > + D T d , j $ h k k k k k k k x { v k 0 , k ! p ! k ! k @ R 3 k T / a , Georgia Genealogy & History Editor: Jeannette Holland Austin www.georgiapioneers.com Volume No. 2 Issue No. 10 October 2006 FREE Georgia Genealogy Research in 2006 to New Subscribers of HYPERLINK "http://www.georgiapioneers.com" www.georgiapioneers.com Disappearing Records During the 1960s the Georgia court houses had all of their records in the vault, except for those few items in storage. It was during this era that the State of Georgia in conjunction with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints commenced the microfilming program. When this occurred, I directed my attention to the Georgia State Archives where the microfilm is housed. This filming was the means of preserving those records which were literally fading from the pages. In the old days, the clerk copied documents in his own handwriting in volumes entitled Book A, B, etc. I saw a good number of original documents being preserved in file cabinets and spear-headed for storage. Essentially, you cannot expect to locate an original document, such as a will. Today, as I revisit the same court houses, I am rather surprised to find many of the volumes previously viewed missing from the shelves. This is due to storage issues and new systems of preserving and presenting records. Some court houses (such as Cobb) are microfilming all records. Other counties (such as Franklin) supposingly sent the oldest volumes to local historical societies. While plats are normally found in the Superior Court or Court of Ordinary, you may expect to discover original documents at the Georgia State Archives. A really unique system of preservation being performed by some counties (such as Liberty, Emanuel, etc.) is the copying and reduction of the original volumes into 8.5x11 black books which store easily on the shelves. Chatham County has placed all of its wills, etc. on microfilm which is available for viewing inside the record room, however, print cost is .75 per sheet. Since no fires destroyed this county (formed 1777), all of the records are in tact. You just have to find them. The old volumes are now housed in a separate location not accessible to the public. To see them, you must order the volumes to be hand delivered to the court house. While I was there, it took one week to obtain and film eight volumes. A universal situation nowadays in court houses is the fact that the employees have little or no knowledge of the existence of old records. One Court of Ordinary employee had never seen a will book! Because of fading ink, crumbling pages, etc., there is a distinct advantage of viewing microfilm taken 40 years earlier. However, some pages came up blank when the ink was faded. For this reason, I am using a camera to record from the old wills books, because some of the blank pages are discernible by our modern photo software programs. If you are viewing a particularly obscure record (on Georgia Pioneers.com), I have used the programs to bring up the ink and sharpen the bleeding image. These poor images were added to the website because of the possibility of figuring out some information. If you wish me to send you the unedited version of a certain image, I will be happy to do so. In the works - Over 10,000 images are currently being processed to be displayed on HYPERLINK "http://www.georgiapioneers.com" www.georgiapioneers.com Interesting Discoveries The fun part of searching court houses is the content of certain books. In Liberty County Probate Court, bounded in the first will book, was a list of residents which included height, color of eyes, etc. After a comparison of records, these persons (ages) were apparently from 1870. Old Homes & Plantations Norwood was named thusly because the first pecan tree in the county was planted on the site. The house is located near LaGrange and was built by Joel D. Newsome in 1833. The original smoke house still stands. Greenwood located near Thomasville on the 20,000 acre Whitney estate. A magnolia lane leads from the iron entrance gate to the Ionic white columns which lead to a two-story baulstraded gallery. The home was designed by John Wind for Thomas Jones who settled there in 1827. The estate has many gardens. The house and background was used by Selznick in his motion picture, Gone With the Wind. If you recall the Wilkes home, you will see Greenwood. Sallee home located six miles from Milledgeville on Meriwether Road, was built in 1822 and features a two-columned portico and wide porches. Memories Trace your Families and Give Your Children Their Memories. A new section on the website which contains really personal family memories and photos. If you are interested in including your data, please email me. This information is public to all of the internet. Genealogy Books Online Genealogy-Books.com is currently restructuring to include genealogy books for many States, including Georgia. What you do is subscribe, and read the books online. While some of these books are from the public domain, there is a great deal of original content from my own personal files. Slated to be online soon is a database of North Carolina Marriages (1748-1799). New Additions Probate: Jasper County Wills (1814-1856) (digital images). Coming Next: Oldest Wills for Chatham, Emanuel, Laurens and Rockdale Counties. Genealogies: Bird, Bradley, Burt, Butler, Goode, Grigsby, Hammond, Harris, Jordan, Juhan, Key, Killcrease, Laremon, Miller, Mims, Ryan, Sission, Spencer, Summerall and Watson Books Online (Click on European Genealogy): HYPERLINK "http://www.georgiapioneers.com/europeangenealogy/kingchas.html" History of King Charles II of England; HYPERLINK "http://www.georgiapioneers.com/europeangenealogy/kingalfred.html" King Alfred of England: Makers of History; HYPERLINK "http://www.georgiapioneers.com/europeangenealogy/queenvictoria.html" Queen Victoria: Great Britain and Her Queen; and HYPERLINK "http://www.georgiapioneers.com/europeangenealogy/heraldry.html" Heraldry AncestorTracer. Everyone benefits from the Ancestor Tracer. It is a list of names with the county of residence adjacent thereto. Over 200 names are included weekly with a current listing of over 8,000 names. If you find your ancestors name listed there, that means that there is data about him on the website. To subscribe, go to HYPERLINK "http://www.georgiapioneers.com" www.georgiapioneers.com and click on Subscribe Copyright Restrictions Apply: The content of this newsletter is the sole property of Jeannette Holland Austin. "I hereby give the right to freely quote or redistribute this article, provided that full credit is given to the author as well as links provided to www.georgiapioneers.com Without written permission, the right to add or incorporate any of my articles into a website is expressly forbidden. Copyright violators will be prosecuted. ..Jeannette Holland Austin = l { | + < ˴xgxP