Georgia Colonial Records

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United States

U.S. Colonial Records

Georgia

Colonial Records

History

The first European settlements in Florida were in 1566 on Santa Catalina by the Spanish. A British settlement was founded at Fort King George (Darien) in 1721. In 1732, a charter was granted by the British Crown to create the colony of Georgia.

Earliest Church Records	Earliest Land Records	Earliest Court Records	Earliest Newspapers
1733	1732	1751	1763

Statewide Records and Resources

Early Colonial Records available at the Georgia State Archives in Atlanta (1754-1778), film 0158964 ff.

• Wills, 1754-1777
• Letters of administration, 1755-1771
• Inventories of estates, 1754-1770
• Letters of guardianship, 1757-1777
• Probate, administration, letters, minutes, appraisements, 1771-1775
• Inventories, probate, 1776-1778

Original colonial wills, 1751-1788 (film 0840408). Published records of wills and estates:

• Abstracts of Colonial Wills of the State of Georgia Wills, 1733-1777, by National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the state of Georgia, (Atlanta, Georgia : Town Comm. of the Nat. Soc. of Colonial Dames of America, Georgia, 1962).
• In the Name of God, Amen: Georgia Wills, 1733-1860, an Index of Testators to Wills of Georgia Recorded in Colonial Will Books and in Loose Will Collections, 1733-1777 and Wills Recorded or on File in County and State Offices, 1777-1860 by Ted O. Brooke, (Atlanta: Pilgrim Press, 1976, film 1036842).
• Index to Probate Records of Colonial Georgia, 1733-1778, (Atlanta: R.J. Taylor, Jr. Foundation, 1983).

The Colonial Records of the State of Georgia (Atlanta: Franklin Printing, 1904-1916, except where indicated) is a 32 Vol. series with published records for Georgia

Land Records

From 1732-1755, Georgia land records were part of a trusteeship where lands were given to males and their heirs. Land was distributed by headright and bounty grants after 1756. Land records available at the Georgia State Archives in Atlanta are listed below (with links to FamilySearch digital images):

• Colonial records of Georgia, 1750-1829 (film 0158965 ff.).

- Commission books, 1754-1827

- Conveyances, 1750-1798

- Mortgages, 1755-1785

- Proclamations, 1754-1794

- Bonds, bills of sale, deeds of gift, powers of attorney, 1755-1762

- Fiats for grants, 1755-1776

- Entry of claims, 1755, 1762-1765

- Miscellaneous records, 1765-1777

• Marks and brands, 1755-1793 (film 0158972).
• Georgia Surveyor General.

- Entry of land claims, 1755-1758 (film 0488183).

- Headright surveys, 1748-1773 (film 0465059). Copied and recorded in 1798.

- Headrights and registers of land grants, 1756-1939 (film 0465071 ff.). This collection includes lists of the wharf and town lots in the town of Brunswick.

- Headright surveys, 1753-1767, and undated (film 0464998 ff.).

- Land Office records index, 1767-1908 (film 0465173 ff.).

• Telamon Cyler Collection of colonial records (film 0214742). Includes deeds, inventories, bonds, powers of attorney, etc.

Published Land Records

• Early Miscellaneous Land Records of Georgia by Christine Aldridge, (Nacodoches, TX: Partin, 1994).
• Abstracts of Georgia Colonial Conveyance Book, C-1, 1750-1761 by Frances Howell Beckemeyer, (Atlanta: R.J. Taylor, Jr. Foundation, 1975).
• Entry of Claims for Georgia Landholders, 1733-1755 by Pat Bryant, (Atlanta: State Printing Office, 1975).
• An Index to English Crown Grants in Georgia by R. J. Taylor, Jr. Foundation, (Spartanburg, South Carolina : Reprint Co. Publishers, c1989).
• An Index to Georgia Colonial Conveyances and Confiscated Lands Records, 1750-1804 by R.J. Taylor, Jr. Foundation, (Atlanta, Georgia : R.J. Taylor, Jr. Foundation, c1981).
• Index to the Headright and Bounty Grants of Georgia, 1756-1909, (Vidalia, GA: Genealogical Reprints, 1970).
• Abstracts of Georgia Colonial Book J, 1755-1762 by George Fuller Walker, (Atlanta: R.J. Taylor, Jr. Foundation, 1978).
• Georgia land Owner's Memorials: 1758-1776 by Eve Bondurant Warren Weeks, (Danielsville, GA: Heritage Papers, 1988).

Colonial Georgia Law

• The Earliest Printed Laws of the Province of Georgia, 1755-1770 by John D. Cushing, 2 Vols., (Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier, 1978).
• Digest of the Laws of the State of Georgia: From its Settlement as a British Province in 1755 to the Session of the General Assembly in 1800 Inclusive...With a Copious Index to the Whole by Horatio Marbury and William H. Crawford, (Savannah, GA: Seymour, Woolhopter and Stebbins, 1802, film 0203234).

Church Records

Early churches in Georgia included Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, Quaker, Anglican, Reformed, and Congregational congregations. Church records can be helpful in finding christening, marriage, and burial records. For more information about what colonial church records are available, search in the specific county of research. Below are listed published works or collections that are relevant to the state of Georgia.

• Henry Newman's Salzburger Letterbooks by George Fenwick Jones, (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1966).
• Georgia Baptists: Historical and Biographical by J.H. Campbell, (Macon, GA: J.W. Burke and Co., 1874, film 1033617).
• The Episcopal Church in Georgia, 1733-1957 by Henry Thompson Malone, (Atlanta: Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Atlanta, 1960).
• A Bibliography of Georgia Methodism by Harold Lawrence, (Tignall, GA: Boyd Publishing Co., 1981).
• A Brief History of Early Methodist Societies and Meeting Houses in the Broad River Valley of Georgia by John Wright Boyd, (Washington, GA: Wilkes Publishing Co., 1986, fiche 6103873).
• A History of the Presbyterian Church in Georgia by James Stacy, (Elverton, GA: Press of the State, 1912, fiche 6103873).
• A Story of the Southern Synod of the Evangelical and Reformed Church, 1740-1968 by Banks J. Peeler, (Salisbury, NC:Southern Synod of the Evangelical and Reformed Church, 1968).
• The Moravians in Georgia, 1735-1740 by Adelaide L. Fries, (1905, Reprint, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1967, film 1425607).

Manuscript Collections

• Georgia State Archives in Atlanta.
• George State Historical Society in Savannah. See Checklist of Eighteenth-Century Manuscripts in the Georgia Historical Soceity by Lilla M. Hawes, (Sacannah: The Society, 1976).
• The R.J. Taylor, Jr. Foundation in Atlanta.
• Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia, Athens.
• Washington Memorial Library, Stevens-Davis Memorial Collection, Macon.
• Robert W. Woodruff Library, Emory University, Atlanta.

Additional Readings

• Early Miscellaneous Georgia Records by Christine Aldridge, (Nacogdoches, TX: Partin, 1994).
• Emigrants from Great Britain to the Georgia Colony by Jeannette H. Austin, (Riverdale, GA: The Author, 1970, film 1597743).
• The Georgians: Genealogies of Pioneer Settlers by Jeannette H. Austin, (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1984).
• Arredondo's Historical Proof of Spain's Title to Georgia: A Contribution to the History of the Spanish Borderlands by Herbert E. Bolton, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1925).
• A List of the Early Settlers of Georgia by E. Merton Coulter and Albert B. Saye, (1949, reprint, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1983, film 1421844).
• The Fledgling Province: Social and Cultural Life in Colonial Georgia, 1733-1776 by Harold E. Davis, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1976).
• Georgia Genealogy and Local history: A Bibliography by James Edwards Dorsey, (Spartanburg, SC: The Reprint Co., 1983).
• Colonial Georgia Genealogical Data, 1748-1783 by William H. Dumont, (Washington, DC: National Genealogical Society, 1971).
• Genealogical Material from Legal Notices in Early Georgia Newspapers by Folks Huxford, (Easley, SC: Southern Historical Press, 1989).
• The Germans of Colonial Georgia, 1733-1783 by George Fenwick Jones, (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1986).
• [https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/509663?availability=Family%20History%20Library The Georgia Dutch : from the Rhine and Danube to the Savannah, 1733-1783 by George Fenwick Jones, (Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1992).
• The Spanish Missions of Georgia by John Tate Lanning, (Chapel hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1935).
• The Story of Georgia and the Georgia People, 1732-1860 by George G. Smith, 2nd ed., (1901, reprint, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1968, film 0908502)
• The Seed That Was Sown in the Colony of Georgia: The Harvest and the Aftermath, 1740-1870 by Charles Spalding Wylly, (1910, reprint, Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1983, film 0929227).