Georgia Genealogy Facts
When Georgia was founded it initially consisted of 12 parishes. These parishes were St. George, St. Thomas, St. Mary, St. Philip, Christ Church, St. Matthew, St. Philip, St. David, St. Patrick, St. John, St. Andrew, St. James and St. Paul. It stayed this way until 1777 when counties were formed. Eventually as Native American land was aquired, new counties were created.
- Georgia entered the union as a state on Jan. 2, 1788 as the 4th state.
- Georgia has 159 Counties.
- Georgia’s capital and largest city is Atlanta.
- Georgia is bordered by Florida (south), Alabama (west), Tennessee (north), South Carolina (east) and North Carolina (northeast).
- Georgia has a land area of 59,441 square miles making it the 24th largest state.
- Georgia’s 2010 population was 9,687,653.
- Georgia largest cities (2010) are Atlanta (470,688), Augusta-Richmond County (190,782), Columbus (185,271), Savannah (128,453), Athens-Clarke County (103,238), Macon (94,316), Roswell (85,920), Albany (75,394), Marietta (61,261), Warner Robins (57,907).
- Georgia is named in honor of King George II of England.
- Georgia State Nickname is “Empire State of the South” and ” The Peach State”.
- Georgia State Motto is “Wisdom, Justice, and Moderation”.
Georgia County Genealogy
The Georgia Archives has nearly all of the state’s pre-1900, bound, county records on microfilm and has several collections of loose, original records. Land records were recorded with the Clerk of the Superior Court in each county. Probate records were recorded with the Clerk of the Ordinary Court, as were marriages. Most civil court cases were handled completely by the Superior Court.
Select a County Below
Appling, Atkinson, Bacon, Baker, Baldwin, Banks, Barrow, Bartow, Ben Hill, Berrien, Bibb, Bleckley, Brantley, Brooks, Bryan, Bulloch, Burke, Butts, Calhoun, Camden, Candler, Carroll, Catoosa, Charlton, Chatham, Chattahoochee, Chattooga, Cherokee, Clarke, Clay, Clayton, Clinch, Cobb, Coffee, Colquitt, Columbia, Cook, Coweta, Crawford, Crisp, Dade, Dawson, De Kalb, Decatur, Dodge, Dooly, Dougherty, Douglas, Early, Echols, Effingham, Elbert, Emanuel, Evans, Fannin, Fayette, Floyd, Forsyth, Franklin, Fulton, Gilmer, Glascock, Glynn, Gordon, Grady, Greene, Gwinnett, Habersham, Hall, Hancock, Haralson, Harris, Hart, Heard, Henry, Houston, Irwin, Jackson, Jasper, Jeff Davis, Jefferson, Jenkins, Johnson, Jones, Lamar, Lanier, Laurens, Lee, Liberty, Lincoln, Long, Lowndes, Lumpkin, Macon, Madison, Marion, McDuffie, McIntosh, Meriwether, Miller, Mitchell, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Murray, Muscogee, Newton, Oconee, Oglethorpe, Paulding, Peach, Pickens, Pierce, Pike, Polk, Pulaski, Putnam, Quitman, Rabun, Randolph, Richmond, Rockdale, Schley, Screven, Seminole, Spalding, Stephens, Stewart, Sumter, Talbot, Taliaferro, Tattnall, Taylor, Telfair, Terrell, Thomas, Tift, Toombs, Towns, Treutlen, Troup, Turner, Twiggs, Union, Upson, Walker, Walton, Ware, Warren, Washington, Wayne, Webster, Wheeler, White, Whitfield, Wilcox, Wilkes, Wilkinson, Worth
Georgia contains some counties that no longer exist because they were discontinued, renamed or merged with another county. These are important for Georgia genealogy research purposes. Those Georgia counties are:
- Campbell County: (Formed on Dec. 20, 1828 from Carroll County, Coweta County, Dekalb County, and Fayette County – merged into Fulton Jan. 1, 1932)
- Cass County: (Formed in 1832. Renamed Bartow County in 1861)
- Milton County: (Formed on Dec. 18, 1857 from Cherokee County, Cobb County, and Forsyth County Counties – merged into Fulton County Jan. 1, 1932)
- Old Randolph County: (Formed in 1807, renamed Jasper County in 1812)
Georgia Genealogy Links
See Georgia County Genealogy for County Links. These genealogy links fall into 3 categories: Commercial Sites, Personal Sites or Organization Sites. Some are have free access some require a payment. This is just a list that has been collected or submitted. I do not endorse or promote one genealogy site above another. Feel free to submit your own favorite genealogy or family history related sites.
- Georgia General Website Links
- Family History Library (familysearch.org) – The largest collection of free family history, family tree and genealogy records in the world.
- Georgia Historical Records (ancestry.com) – Databases include Court, Land, Wills & Financial Records; Birth, Marriage & Death Records; Voter Lists & Census Records; Immigration & Emigration Records; Obituary Records; Military Records; Family Tree Records; Pictures; Stories, Memories & Histories; Directories & Member Lists.
- Georgia’s Virtual Vault (sos.state.ga.us)
- Search 60 Years Of Everton Data (familylink.com) – For the first time ever you can get access to more than 150,000 pedigree files and family group sheets from Evertons.
- Georgia Genealogy Network (facebook.com)
- Encyclopedia of Georgia (georgiaencyclopedia.org) – free, online resource on Georgia history, culture, geography, and natural environment.
- The Georgia Family Group Sheet Project (fgs-project.com)
- USGenweb – Georgia Genealogy (rootsweb.ancestry.com)
- Free GenForum Message Boards – Georgia (genforum.genealogy.com)
- Free Rootsweb Message Boards – Georgia (boards.ancestry.com)
- Cyndis List Georgia Links (cyndislist.com)
- Georgia Mailing List (rootsweb.ancestry.com)
- Georgia American History and Genealogy Project (usgennet.org)
- Georgia Migrations Project (rootsweb.ancestry.com)
- Georgia (wikipedia.org)
- Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness (RAOGK) – Georgia (raogk.org)
- Georgia Genealogy Look Ups (geneasearch.com)
- USGenWeb Archives Project for Georgia (usgwarchives.org)
- Background Sources for Georgia (ancestry.com) from Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources.
- Georgia History Links Website Links
- Historic Postcard Collection (sos.state.ga.us) These 1,666 postcards, dating from the early 1900s through the 1970s, come from a variety of sources in the collections of the Georgia Archives. They depict many historical buildings and landmarks throughout the state.
- Vanishing Georgia (sos.state.ga.us) The Vanishing Georgia Photographic Collection of almost 18,000 images is the result of a Georgia Archives project begun in the mid-1970s to locate and copy historically significant photographs held by individuals throughout Georgia.
- History of Georgia Genealogy (ancestry.com) from Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources.
- Georgia US Genweb County Site Links
Georgia State History
