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ACTIVITIES LINKS TO GENEALOGICAL & HISTORICAL SITES
LINKS TO OTHER GENEALOGY SOURCES
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ABOUT AGS The Augusta Genealogical Society is a nonprofit organization. It was founded in Augusta, Georgia in September 1979, by 84 charter members and now has well over 1500 members in 44 states as well as Puerto Rico, Guam, Singapore, Germany and Ireland. AGS maintains a genealogical library, publishes a newsletter and journal, presents monthly lectures and semi-annual "Footprints" methodology seminars, co-sponsors semi-annual seminars with Augusta State University, and specializes in cemetery surveys. The Society is the proud recipient of four Certificates of Commendation from the American Association for State and Local History. All mail should be directed to P.O. Box 3743, Augusta GA 30914-3743. We are located at 1109 Broad Street, Augusta GA. Our phone number is 706-722-4073.
WHAT'S NEWFOOTPRINTS 2010"Following Footprints is Fun!!!"Whether you’re new to genealogy or a seasoned researcher who enjoys meeting with fellow genies, come to the AGS Adamson Library at 1109 Broad Street on Saturday, 27 February, 2010 for our award-winning genealogy workshop that has introduced the basics of research for well over two decades. The registration fee of $15 for members and $20 for non-members (with a $5 refund if you join AGS when registering for the workshop) includes a catered boxed lunch and a 100+ page research handbook with at least twelve topics such as organization of records, oral interviews, using census, soundex and other genealogical sources, preparing home and portable files, courthouse research, time lines, and computer research. Using the Adamson Library and your specially prepared Footprints Research Handbook will also be addressed. Speakers will be our own local members who are very familiar with resources and the problems encountered by our patrons. Jule Rucker, Jerry Scott, Gloria Lucas, Octavia Garlington, Jan McTier, and Tom Dirksen have all served as Librarians of the Day and have spoken at many AGS workshops and programs. Registration will be from 8:30 a.m. until 8:55 with classes beginning promptly at 9 a.m. and lasting until 4:30 p.m. A one-hour lunch break will allow attendees to meet new friends and socialize with acquaintances.
Call the Library at 706-722-4073 or Jerry Scott at 803-279-4383
or email Jerry at JScott7388@aol.com to register. Deadline is Tuesday,
23 February, so register soon to assure your handbook and lunch.
PROGRAM PREVIEWS
by Janice M. Johnson 7 JANUARY 2010 THE MAPPING OF OLD ABBEVILLE DISTRICT How can a researcher track down a “missing” post-colonial or Revolutionary War site in an area where records are believed to no longer exist? This was the dilemma faced by AGS member Nancy Lindroth when she began to research battles and skirmishes in the Old Ninety-Six District, one of the seven original judicial districts in South Carolina. Specifically, she was interested in the Old Abbeville District where many Scotch-Irish and French Huguenot farmers settled in the mid-eighteenth century. The French named the area for Abbeville in the Picardie region on the Somme River in northern France near the English Channel. Abbeville County was designated in 1785 and is known today mostly for its secession role in the Civil War and as the scene of the last Confederate council of war held by President Jefferson Davis. But the region has a rich history that includes the signing of a treaty with the Cherokees and the creation of adjacent counties that include Greenville, Anderson, Laurens, Greenwood and McCormick counties in South Carolina. Elbert County across the Savannah River in Georgia shares a similar back-country history. Nancy quickly learned that primary records in this section of South Carolina are very limited. The Abbeville Courthouse burned in the late 1800s. Colonial plats on file at the SC Department of Archives and History were available during her research only in the original books or in much-used microfilm. “The Mapping of Old Abbeville District” has been developed by Nancy with the subtitle of “How to find historic locations without historic court house records in modern Abbeville County and portions of Edgefield, Greenwood and McCormick Counties.” After becoming involved with the project, she found an additional obstacle: the county maps created by the SC Department of Transportation are drawn to different scales, so the old counties and those created from them could not just be pieced together to form a larger map. A twentieth-century development has also hindered the study of lands where the native American tribes once roamed and where successive settlers farmed and fought for their homesteads. Timber was in great demand during World War I, and much of South Carolina was deforested. Abandoned farms and eroded and unproductive land were common but were rescued by the creation of national forests and parks that restored timber and created a habitat for fish and wildlife. Better land management is of course commendable, but the downside to historical research is that the earliest trails and roads disappeared into the new forests and man-made lakes. Nancy’s program will explain some techniques that helped her to track missing places and their early inhabitants. She has produced a handout that identifies printed, published, and online map resources. While she used the Old Abbeville District for her research, she will show that her methods may apply to other places of interest to a researcher.
The regular monthly programs are free and open to the public. GEORGIA BIBLIOGRAPHY
Click
here for bibliography AGS TRUST FUNDImagine That!! Donors Set Up AGS Trust Fund And Give Large Donation For Virginia Records. Two magnanimous AGS members brought new meaning to us of the word generosity when they endowed the Society with our very first ongoing private trust fund, to ensure the Society's future stability, and then made available another large fund to be used exclusively for colonial Virginia records for our Library. The donors, who Insist on anonymity, have spent many years assembling details of the lives and times of their ancestors. Trips to research centers throughout the South and East enabled them to identify sources many genealogists only dream of finding. It is their wish that these types of documents and records be made available locally, hence the gift restricted to colonial Virginia, the home place of untold numbers of Southern families. What a splendid piece of generosity, to their fellow members, and to their community!
Available for PurchaseWILKES COUNTY,
GEORGIA
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