This is part of an ongoing series of state-specific resources for African-American genealogy research.
For those with Georgia ancestry, a wealth of information exists online, at the Digital Library of Georgia, part of the GALILEO Initiative of the University System of Georgia. The state has digitized many different collections of records at this site, including quite a few that are relevant to African-American research.In a frame to the left of the page, there is a topic category entitled, “Peoples & Cultures.” Clicking on this topic will bring you to most of the collections that provide information on African-Americans living in Georgia, from the Civil War through today.
The following list includes several of the larger collections listed in the “Peoples & Cultures” category:
· African American Funeral Programs from the East Central Georgia Regional Library System: Funeral programs might contain a great amount of information about the life of the deceased subject, including the names of parents, siblings, and survivors. Also often include details on the funeral like songs sung during the service and names of pallbearers. This collection contains over 1,000 programs from 1933 through 2008, mostly from the Augusta, Georgia, area.
· Black History Society Photograph Collection: This collection contains photographs from the collection of the Hall County Black History Society, mostly featuring photos from the 1940s and 1950s but also including some older ones as well.
· The Church in the Southern Black Community: From the University of North Carolina’s Documenting the American South site, this collection contains texts relating to the religious life of African-Americans in the South, as well as a guide to references to religion in slave narratives.
· Civil Unrest in Camilla, Georgia, 1868 : Reconstruction, Republicanism, and Race: This collection contains images from the Freedmen’s Bureau records relating to an 1868 incident in which several African-Americans and white Republicans were assaulted during a Republican political rally.
· North American Slave Narratives: Also from Documenting the American South, this collection contains the texts of all autobiographical narratives of fugitive or former slaves, published prior to 1920.
· Robert E. Williams Photographic Collection: African-Americans in the Augusta, Ga. Vicinity (Richmond Co.), circa 1872-1898: This collection contains photographs, taken by a professional photographer of the time, of African-Americans living near Augusta, Georgia.
· Vincent A. Irick Photographs: Photographs and cyanotypes from ca. 1900, showing African-Americans living near Faceville, Georgia.
· William Stanford, Sr. Photographs, 1960: Photographs depicting a 1960 civil rights protest.
In addition to these collections overtly relating to African-American history and culture, many of the other record collections available through Georgia’s Virtual Vault could also provide information on your African-American ancestors in Georgia:
· Ad Hoc Collection: This collection contains a hodgepodge of documents of various kinds. Take a look at the variety.
· Georgia Death Certificates: This collection contains death certificates for those who died throughout the state between 1919-1927, with a few certificates from 1914-1918.
· Georgia Non-Indexed Death Certificates, 1928-1930: This database provides access to the death certificates from 1928-1930, which have not yet been indexed.
· Marriage Records from Microfilm: These marriage record books contain digital images from the entire state, county-by-county. Many of the counties had separate marriage registers for “white” and “colored” people, and both of these have been digitized. In some counties, the marriage registers even identify the past owners of former slaves.
· Spanish-American War Service Summary Cards: These summary cards provide details on veterans of the Spanish-American War, including both “white” and “colored” soldiers.
Both of these sites contain many other databases with digitized original records, in addition to the ones described here. New databases are also being added on a regular basis, including the following three newspaper archives, which were added within the last few weeks:
· The Macon Telegraph Archive: Covers the years from 1826 to 1908.
· The Columbus Enquirer Archive: Covers the years from 1828 to 1890.
· The Milledgeville Historic Newspapers Archive: Eleven newspapers covering the years from 1808 to 1820.
This article is dedicated to my two Georgia “genea-fam,” Sandra Taliaferro of “I Never Knew My Father” blog, and Luckie Daniels of “Our Georgia Roots” blog.
This article has been posted on November 9, in response to the NaBloPoMo challenge of posting one article every day throughout the month of November.
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