Georgia Archives and Libraries

United States Georgia Archives and Libraries

The following archives, libraries, and societies have major collections or services helpful to genealogical researchers:

National

Dallas Public Central Library
1515 Young St.
Dallas, TX 75201-9987 USA
Telephone: 214-670-1433
E-mail: genealogy@dallaslibrary.org
Internet: Dallas Public Library Genealogy

Outstanding genealogical collection with records for more than Texas, including Georgia, Oklahoma, the South, Mid-Atlantic, and New England states.

National Archives at Atlanta
5780 Jonesboro Road
Morrow, Georgia 30260 USA
Phone: 770-968-2100
Fax: 770-968-2547
E-mail: atlanta.archives@nara.gov
Internet: National Archives at Atlanta

Records from over 100 federal agencies and courts in Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Also includes Vice Admiralty Courts of SC, evolution of federal courts, Constitutional rights, Revolutionary War, Civil War, reconstruction, World Wars I and II, and space exploration. Microfilms for censuses, diplomatic missions, military service records, bounty-land applications, passenger arrival lists, naturalizations, American Indians, and African Americans.

Statewide

Georgia Archives
5800 Jonesboro Road
Morrow, GA 30260
Phone: 678 364-3700
Internet: Georgia Archives

Holdings include state government records, county records, Georgia histories, newspapers, and some family histories. This is the best place to start family history research in Georgia. The Georgia Archives identifies and preserves Georgia's most valuable historical documents.

Georgia's Virtual Vault provides virtual access to historic Georgia manuscripts, photographs, maps, and government records housed in the state archives. It includes Colonial will books, Confederate pension applications, County maps, County tax digests, Georgia death certificates, headright and bounty plats, marriage records, Spanish-American War service summary cards and more.

Two helpful guides to the collection are:

• Georgia Department of Archives and History.A Preliminary Guide to Eighteenth-Century Records Held by the Georgia Department of Archives and History. Atlanta, Georgia. The Department, 1976. FHL fiche 6100334; book 975.8 A3pg

• Davis, Robert Scott, Jr. Research in Georgia. Easley, South Carolina: Southern Historical Press, 1981. FHL book 975.8 D27d.

Georgia Historical Society
501 Whitaker Street
Savannah, GA 31499
Internet: Georgia Historical Society Library

They have almost as many genealogical sources as the Georgia Archives.

Georgia Genealogical Society
P.O. Box 38066
Atlanta, GA 30334
Internet: Georgia Genealogical Society

They provide advice but have no building or library collection of their own.

Regional

Atlanta History Center
130 West Paces Ferry Road NW
Atlanta, GA 30305
Telephone: 404-814-4000
E-mail: Contact Us
Internet: Atlanta History Center

Sources for studying Atlanta and southern regional history and culture. The 42,000 square foot library possesses over 15,000 cubic feet of records, including 33,000 published volumes, more than 2,000 manuscript and photograph collections, and 7,800 rolls of microfilm.

Atlanta-Fulton Public Library Central Library

Their Historic Georgia, and Genealogy collections are large with good coverage of the Southeast United States.

Coweta County Genealogical and Historical Research Library

Holdings include the best set of family folders in Georgia.

DeKalb History Center

Subject files, biographical files, DeKalb County cemetery index, maps, manuscripts, photographs, rare books, DeKalb County collection such as memoirs, yearbooks, and Atlanta City and suburban directories.

Ellen Payne Odom Genealogy Library
Moultrie-Colquitt County Library
204 5th Street, S.E.
Moultrie, Georgia 31768 USA
Telephone: 229-985-6540
E-mail: mccls@mccls.org
Internet: Ellen Payne Odom Genealogy Library

Emphasizes Scottish immigrants to America, but also has a good basic American genealogy collection.

Huxford Spear Genealogical Library

Their genealogical collection covers the Southeast United States well.

John E. Ladson Jr. Genealogical and Historical Library
119 Church Street
Vidalia, GA 30474
Internet: John E. Ladson Jr. Genealogical and Historical Library

This is primarily a book collection, but their genealogical sources cover the entire Atlantic seaboard.

Salzburger Society
Loest Research Library
2980 Ebenezer Road
Georgia Highway 275
Rincon, Georgia 31326
Telephone: 912-754-7001
E-mail: gaslzbrgr@aol.com
Internet: Georgia Salzburger Society

Histories, journals, genealogical records, and church histories.

Southwest Georgia Regional Library

They have very good books, surname folders, genealogies, newspapers, and oral history collections.

Thomasville Genealogical, History and Fine Arts Library
135 North Broad Street
Thomasville, Georgia 31792 USA
Telephone: 229-226-9640
Fax: 229-226-3199
E-mail: glibrary@rose.net
Internet: Thomasville Genealogical, History and Fine Arts Library

Good collection of southern states family history material.

University of Georgia Main Library

They have the largest collection in the state of manuscripts about early Georgia settlers. Also, they hold county histories, county records, family records, biographies and newspapers.

Washington Memorial Library Washington Memorial Library
Middle Georgia Regional Library
1180 Washington Avenue
Macon, GA 31201
Internet: Washington Memorial Library

One of the best collections in Georgia for genealogy, African Americans, and local history.

Online Records

Links to online databases and indexes that may include vital records, biographies, cemeteries, censuses, histories, immigration records, land records, maps, military records, naturalizations, newspapers, obituaries, or probate records.

For Further Reading

• Ellen Garrison, ed., Archives in Appalachia: A Directory (Boone, North Carolina: Appalachian Consortium Press, 1985). WorldCat 12712710; FHL Book 975 A3a. This work covers the states of Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. The record is arranged alphabetically by state, then by the name of the repository. Each entry lists the archive, its address, phone number, inclusive dates of the collection, the records of the collection, what subjects are covered by the collection, and the size of the collection.

References