Rabun County, Georgia Genealogy

United States &gt; Georgia &gt; Rabun County

Parent County
1819--Rabun County was created 21 December 1819 from Cherokee Indian lands. County seat: Clayton

Boundary Changes
Rabun County has not had any boundary changes but when researching this county for ancestors you might consider the following. Rabun in located where South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia meet. The geography of the Eastern part of the county is such that many times its residants went to North or South Carolina to conduct business. Records can be found in all three states. When Rabun County was settled, many of the new residants merely crossed the river from South Carolina to the new county and state. They would go back across the river to visit family members and friends. The town in South Carolina was closer than the town in Georgia to purchase supplies. When the Civil War started many men from Rabun County enlisted in South Carolina with their relatives. The geography of the area rather than lines drawn for states determined where events took place and where records were kept.

Neighboring Counties

 * Clay County, North Carolina
 * Habersham
 * Jackson County, North Carolina
 * Macon County, North Carolina
 * Oconee County, South Carolina
 * Towns

Land
Land records in Rabun County are incomplete. Many of the land transactions were not recorded at the county seat. Land was traded between family members and neighbors for generations without official records being kept. In 1911, Congress passed the Weeks Law which authorized the purchase of timbered land on a large scale. Some of this land was located in Rabun County, Georgia. Officials were sent into Racun County in 1912 to start purchasing land. Proposals of sale were secured and surveyors were sent to locate lands on which options had been secured. Their reports were turned over to title examiners who had to pass on the deeds before the lands could be purchased. The titles to most of the lands were so poor that proceedings of condemnation were taken before the Federal Court before good titles could be obtained. A Federal Court was established in Clayton for that purpose.

The condemnation process required that an attempt be made to locate all parties who might have an interest in or claim to the land in question. Advertisements were placed in the local paper listing the descendants of the last clear land owner in order to find anyone who might have claim to the land. Sometimes this was the first land owner when the county was created. Therefore every known descendant was listed down to the time the land was condemed. Over 6,000 names arranged in up to six generations of family genealogies are listed in these court cases. The data this process produced in invaluable to the researcher. Information was accumulated that has not been found in any other records to date. Both the maiden and married names of many female family members can be found. The addresses of those who had moved away also offer possible migration locations for family members. The exact method by which the names were compiled is not known. It is likely they were acquired in many ways, including deeds, newspaper advertisements, personal interviews, and other public records available at the time.

The original court case files are located at the National Archives, East Point, Georgia. The original land acqusition files are located at the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest Office, Gainesville, Georgia. These groups of records have not been organized or microfilmed. There is a book that was published in 2001 that gives the genealogies in many of these cases and has a name index, "Genealogy Extracted from Forest Service Court Cases in Rabun County, Georgia", by Susan Lewis Koyle. This book is located in the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.

Local Histories
Sketches of Rabun County History by Andrew Jackson Ritchie. Located in Family History Library in Salt Lake.

Rabun County Georgia and its people, vol. 1 &amp; 2, 1992.

A Pictorial History of Rabun County by Cuba and Archie McKay, 2003.

Societies and Libraries
Rabun County Historical Society

Mailing Address:

PO Box 921

Clayton, Georgia 30525

Street Address:

81 N. Church Street

Clayton, Georgia 30525

Web Sites

 * USGenWeb project. May have maps, name indexes, history or other information for this county. Select the state, then the county.
 * Family History Library Catalog