Rockdale County GaArchives History .....Rockdale County Genealogy Society-Newsletter May 2003 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Larry C. Knowles http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00012.html#0002854 March 20, 2009, 4:51 pm JEANS & GENES Rockdale County Genealogical Society Publication-May 2003 ________________________________________________________ Pines Network Up and Running The library staff and an army of volunteers have been hard at work changing the Nancy Guinn Memorial Library’s bar code system over to the Pines network. Pines is the statewide library system that allows on-line interaction between all of the libraries in the system. This means that you will be able to search for materials to use in your research throughout Georgia. In some instances, books and materials can be obtained through the inter-library loan system. The materials or books can be ordered from the library holding them to be delivered to the Rockdale Library System so that they can be used locally. This will not apply to books and materials which are not circulated such as those which are held in the special collections at Nancy Guinn. In such instances, you may not be able to obtain the books locally. This may not be such a bad thing. At least, you can determine through the network the nearest location of a book or a material that you are interested in using. All of the terminals previously used to access the book catalog at Nancy Guinn have been replaced with more up-to-date equipment. These feature flat screen monitors which are sharper and clearer than the old cathode ray monitors which were used previously. These can be used to access the statewide system as well as the catalog of books at Nancy Guinn. The new terminals give the Rockdale Library System an edge over some other systems which are using the old type. The Newton Library, for instance, is already on the Pines network; but, the last time we checked, they only had two terminals with which to access the system. Clearly, this is a big step for the Rockdale County Library System and the Nancy Guinn Memorial Library. We hope that the improvements and the Pines network will provide researchers with a more effective research facility. Most likely, we can expect more visitors from other counties who will be interested in using the book collection which our club has been adding to quite extensively over the past three years. To browse the collection, go to: http://mtf.home.mindspring.com/books.htm ________________________________________________________ Ken Thomas Survives Budget Cutback Ken Thomas has survived the budget axe due to the efforts of many of our dedicated Georgia genealogists. It is reported that he was notified that his column would not be carried by the Atlanta Journal Constitution after May 1, 2003. It was a budget pare-back that the paper was instituting. His was one of the narrowly focused columns not considered to be important enough to warrant the expenditure. Fortunately, just a single email to the right person got the ball rolling and the genealogical community rallied to his support. After about a week of the bombardment, the management at the paper surrendered; and, he was notified that the column would be reinstated. The paper considers each email or phone call received to represent thirty-five thousand readers. Who says we don’t count! Ken’s column has become sort of a clearing house for information collected from across the State of Georgia. It is a must read for anyone who wants to be up-to-date about Georgia genealogy. Considering that the job only pays him thirty-three hundred dollars a year, it is a wonder that he even bothers. The paper is wise to continue to carry this important and essential genealogical writer’s work. ___________________________________________________________________ New books on Shelf for Research Georgians in the Rev. at Kettle Creek Ga R 975.865 DAV Abstracts of Ga. Land Plat Books A&B Ga R 929.3758 MAT Historical Southern Families (23 Vol.) Ga R 929.2097 Boo _______________________________________________________ Library Visitors List Surnames Researched Donald Hall, 1309 Springwood Dr., Conyers, Ga. 30012. Researching Elbert County. Cheryl Roebuck, 378 Nantucket Way, Conyers, Ga. 30013. Researching black history of Rockdale County. Henry Baker, Jr., 2160 Old Salem Rd. SE, Conyers, Ga. 30013. Researching Mitchell Gary N. Saxton, 2261 Briarwood Cr., Conyers, Ga. 30094. Researching Myers, Shupp, Saxon of Milen, Michigan and Sandusky County, Ohio from 1895 to 1902. Nancy Myers, 1131 Norton Rd., Conyers, Ga. Researching Dial Mill. Roy C. Peek, Jr. and Donna Jordan Peek, 4421 Hwy 20, N. E., Conyers, Ga. 30012. Researching Peek, Jordan, Rice, Neal, Neil, Corley, Kay. Randy Rogers, P. O. Box 12086, Jackson, MS, 39236. Researching Guinn, Gregory, Rogers, Miller, Crossley, Almand. Jonie Mitchell, Conyers, Ga. Researching Langley or Langly. Richard S. Buck, Jr., 3953 Woodland Cir., Conyers, Ga. 30013. Researching Ferrel, Gibboney, Buck. _________________________________________________________________ East Georgia Genealogical Society Serves Rockdale The East Georgia Genealogical Society is located in Winder, Georgia. It includes twenty-eight counties reaching from Hart County on the Savannah River all the way to Gwinnett, Newton, and Rockdale in central Georgia. Rockdale is one of the counties which the society attempts to cover under its umbrella. Meetings are held in Winder, Ga. on the second Tuesday of each month at 7:00 p.m. at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints. Directions: Going north on Broad Street (Hwy. 53), from the intersection of Broad Street and W. Midland Street, go northwest on W. Midland Street for about 1.2 miles, turn right on Sims Road. The LDS Church is 0.5 mile on the right. Alternate Directions: Going south on Hwy. 53, turn right on Sims Road. The LDS Church is about 1 mile on the left. Their newsletter which is called “Georgia Settlers” indicates that it is published quarterly. One copy can be found on the magazine table in the special collections room at the Nancy Guinn Library. It is very comprehensive and provides genealogical data. Two of the issues provided data from the original marriage records of Rockdale County. As far as we know, this is the only source of this information outside of the Rockdale County Courthouse and perhaps the Georgia Archives. Their data was probably copied from the LDS microfilm files from Salt Lake City, Utah. The web site provides a list of the various articles dealing with genealogical data from the twenty-eight counties and how to obtain copies of the newsletter. The newsletters themselves are not published on the web site. The web site is maintained on Rootsweb. The URL is: http://www.rootsweb.com/~gaeggs/ The email address is: gaeggs@email.com We have been sending a copy of Jeans & Genes, the Rockdale County Genealogical Society Newsletter, to their mail address at P. O. Box 117, Winder, Ga. 30680. _______________________________________________________________________ Maps Made Available for Georgia Counties From: William Bennett [mailto:wb5705@aol.com] Sent: Saturday, February 22, 2003 8:58 PM To: GENMSC-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Georgia County Maps Available I have the most recent Official Georgia County Highway Maps available for all 159 Georgia Counties. These maps are in Adobe Acrobat PDF format on CD-ROM. You can order any 10 of the maps plus the Adobe Acrobat Reader software for $8.99 plus $2.00 for US and Canadian postage. Additional Georgia County maps can be added for $.50 each with no additional shipping charge. These maps are very detailed, with all public access roads included. They are a great resource for the genealogist, as all known cemeteries are shown, including thousands of nearly forgotten, obscure country cemeteries. I have been able to find a number of rural cemeteries in which I have ancestors buried by using these maps. The Adobe Acrobat software allows you to zoom in at up to 900% magnification to pick out the smallest details. These maps are a wealth of information for people searching for their Georgia roots, as well as for many other uses. If there are any questions, please feel free to email me at wb5705@aol.com. Thanks, William Bennett. ____________________________________________________________________ Personal Data Assistants (PDAs) May Be Useful I have a laptop that I use for scheduled big research tasks, but for everyday I have tried using two PDA’s. One was the Jornada 568, similar to the Dell Axim, and the other a Jornada 720, slightly older and bigger model. After trying them both I actually decided on the older bigger 720, for two reasons. One being the built in keyboard, personally I think a keyboard is vital, the other being that it runs a cut down version of Access, which these newer PocketPC’s do not do. I run a collection of tables for births, marriages, deaths, wills, deeds, etc for collecting snippets of info for people who I cannot immediately add to my tree, but i think that one day I might be able to.. It’s amazing how often stuff that I have entered into this “odds and sods” database, that meant absolutely nothing to me at the time becomes very relevant a few months down the line. However there may now be an equivalent program for the PocketPC, or you may not think it a particular requirement. The main software that I use on the PDA is “Pocket Genealogist” from http://www.northernhillssoftware.com/. It is a superb program that transfers and synchronizes all the data from the genealogy program to the PDA, so enabling you to have all your data with at any time. Incredibly useful. There are two versions, one that is basically read only, although with the ability to add research notes, and a full data entry version that is in the advanced beta testing stage. It does direct syncs to and from Legacy and TMG as well as gedcoms. I found it about a year ago when I first got a PDA and would recommend it to anyone. The support is superb, and the data entry beta is available for anyone to try from the site - and no, I have no involvement in it whatsoever. This program alone for me justified the PDA. I also make great use of my digital camera for taking photos of screens, fiche readers, book pages etc. Like you, it has saved me a fortune. I use an Olympus 2100UZ, again an old model, only 2.1 megapixels, but I get incredibly clear pictures from it. It is particularly useful as it is good in low light situations, and I do not need to use the flash indoors, which is the only thing that the records offices I visit seem to be concerned with. Quite what the problem with a flash is I do not know, but so long as I can get good results without it I’m happy. Hope this helps, Maud juniorcop@yahoo.com (Jennie Williams) wrote in message news: <20030406210122.3395.qmail@web21409.mail.yahoo.com>... > Hi! > > I just bought a Dell Axim PDA. I’ve never seen anyone > at a library, courthouse, cemeteries, and what have > you using a PDA yet. For the past two years I’ve been > lugging my laptop around with me to these places. > Does anyone know about this device or have any > opinions for it? I guess one could just as easily take > notes/drawings on paper and scan them into digital > format and transfer them to a laptop or so. > Subject: Re: Gadget called Seiko InkLink & PDA questions Date: 7 Apr 2003 00:45:10 -0700 From: madmaud@ntlworld.com (maud) Organization: http://groups.google.com/ ____________________________________________________________________ How To Read A Deed For Genealogical Research 1. Note page number and book number so you can easily return to it if necessary. (The page and book number will usually be stamped on the page of the original book of entry at the courthouse. It may not be on the deed itself.) 2. Note the date. 3. Note the name of the person selling the land and the person buying the land. Are they relatives? In-laws? (Sons-in-Law were given land by their fathers-in-law sometimes.) Check the names of the witnesses to the deed. Are they related to buyer or seller? 4. Note the location of the land. If it is near a creek or river, it will often tell you whether it is the north, south, east or west side. This location will be important for you to tell your family from other families of the same name. The deed will often tell you whose land it borders. Those neighbors will often be relatives either by blood or by marriage. People didn’t and couldn’t travel far to go courting in those days. 5. The wife’s name usually appears on the deed. (Ed. This is meant to infer that there is a possibility that the name will be thereon and provide a source of the relationship. This is certainly not the case in more recent deeds where both names are usually shown as purchaser.) 6. Sometimes a deed will give genealogical information, such as “John Jones, son of Samuel Jones” to identify him clearly from other John Jones in the community. 7. A man, in deeding land to a person, will often give his relationship, such as “Out of love and affection, I deed 50 acres of land to my son, Henry.” This is proof of relationship and is valuable. 8. Possible proof of relationship may exist in a deed which states that John Smith deeds to Seth Smith 70 acres of land on Bear Creek, said land being part of an original survey for George Smith. Keep in mind that this may be three generations of the Smiths. 9. Begin reading the deeds from 1800s Back in time to turn up children’s names, who they married, other pertinent data. (Ed. A tract of land which has been in a family for a long time will pass down from generation to generation and be subdivided as time passes. This will usually provide you with a lot of information about the various relationships.) 10. When a person died, his land was divided among his heirs according to the laws of the state if he died intestate (without a will). (Ed. There may not be a deed in such cases. The records of the probate court will show how the property was divided. The best source of information will be the tax returns after the probate has established the new ownership.) 11. You can determine when a person comes of age or when he dies from the deeds. An administrator will handle the disposition of the land when a person becomes deceased. (Ed. Probate court and tax returns must be used as well as deeds to provide a complete picture of the succession of ownership.) 12. You will want to order copies from the original deed books and not just the index if you know the person you are researching was in the county at the time. 13. In early America and until the 19th century, the name of nearly every male who lived to maturity can be found in land records. These records are frequently one of the very few records in existence for early settlement periods. The older the deed is, the more likely that it will contain genealogical information. 14. A head right grant was fifty acres of land granted to those who paid the passage to come from the old country. This was done to attract settlers. A person received the right to claim fifty acres of land for each person whose passage he paid. In Virginia, for example, head right grants were awarded as early as 1623. 15. Land records may exist when other records do not; therefore, they can be used to establish where a person was at a given time. ________________________________________________________________ JEANS & GENES is a publication of the Rockdale County Genealogical Society. % Nancy Guinn Library, 864 Green St. SW, Conyers, Ga. 30012 President: Judy Bond Vice President: Rev. Carl Smith Secretary: Beverley Beale Treasurer: Charles Read Program Chairman: Office vacant Editor: MarionT. Farmer 770-483-7180 1500 A. Pine Log Rd. NE mtf@mindspring.com Conyers, GA 30012-4753 http://mtf.home.mindspring.com/ _______________________________________________ Additional comments: This back issue of the Rockdale County Genealogical Society newsletter has been copied with permission from the personal website of editor, Marion Farmer, as his website is nearing capacity. For simplicity the few photos or graphics have not been included here. Websites previously linked from Marion’s site will not be operative here. Sites that are still active may be found by entering their listed URLs. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/rockdale/history/other/rockdale102nms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/gafiles/ File size: 17.0 Kb