Rockdale County GaArchives Photo Document.....Newsletter-Rockdale County Genealogical Society January 14, 2008 ************************************************ 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 January 14, 2008, 2:03 pm Source: Larry C. Knowles-Editor Photo can be seen at: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/rockdale/photos/documents/newslett15021gph.gif Image file size: 142.5 Kb NEWSLETTER-ROCKDALE COUNTY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY-[Page 2 of 3] Jeans & Genes-[page 3] Rockdale County Genealogical Society Newsletter-February 2008-[page 3] Newspapers-a secondary source As with most published works, newspapers are generally considered to be secondary sources. But, they can be quite helpful, particularly in filling in details about your ancestors. In cases where courthouse fires or floods have destroyed the primary records, they may be your only source. Legal notices, deaths and marriage announcements, in papers near the time of occurrences, are usually pretty reliable. In Georgia, small town newspapers didn't become widespread until early in the 20th century-so you will have to look for papers [the so called "legal organs" for counties]in the nearest large town or city. The earliest newspapers in Georgia were obviously in Savannah, Augusta, Athens, Milledgeville, Macon, Columbus-and much later, Atlanta. Of course, you need to have a pretty good idea about a date before you begin your search. Legal notices were well organized in early papers, but obituaries and marriages are often obscure, in random locations. There are many publications-abstracts from newspapers, available; several here at Nancy Guinn, and others nearby in the Heritage Room at Newton County Library. For all of those check the computer "Pines catalog" for each branch for the subject-"georgia newspapers". The Newton County library has one of the oldest papers, "The Augusta Chronicle" on microfilm(with index)for the years 1786 to 1830! The Georgia Archives has many more books and a fairly large collection of state- and some regional newspapers-on microfilm. But, by far the largest collection of newspapers in Georgia is on microfilm at the University of Georgia, on the lower level of the Main Library. This quote is from the Digital Library of Georgia-"The Georgia Newspaper Project (is)part of the U.S. Newspaper Program that receives support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and (the) Library of Congress, (it)contains 15 million pages of newsprint gathered from every county in Georgia that published a newspaper"-it continues-"The long-term goal of the Georgia Historic Newspaper Digitization Project is to convert every public-domain Georgia newspaper to digital format and to make this resource available as a public, searchable database". The key word there is "long term", to date very few older newspapers have been digitized. After you exhaust your county records, look for the nearest newspapers. If you will pardon another personal item; I recently found an ancestor's legal notice at Nancy Guinn in a book of newspaper abstracts from the Macon(GA)Telegraph by Mary B. Warren-GA-R- 975.8[Bibb/Mac?]. I probably would have never found the item otherwise. "CAUTION: All persons are cautioned not to trust my wife Rena Williamson on my account, as she has forfeited all claims to my protection, and I am determined not to pay any of her contracts. Nathan Williamson, Butts Co."--Macon Telegraph- Nov. 13, 1838 Scheduled Programs Program Chair Claudine Jackson has announced the following speakers for the next three months: February: Walter Freeman will offer a more detailed view of this issue's feature story: DNA, and its use in genealogy research. March: Judge Lillis Brown, Probate Court of Rockdale County, will talk about the importance of Wills.(rescheduled from earlier date conflict). April: Larry Guzy-of the Sons of the American Revolution[SAR]will speak on the Revolutionary War JEANS & GENES -Rockdale County Genealogical Society Newsletter % Nancy Guinn Library, 864 Green St. Conyers, Georgia 30012 President:Chris Zawadzki---Vice President: Gayle Vivian Secretary: Joyce O*Malley---Treasurer: Ellen Trainer Membership: Chair John Barnes---Program Chair: Claudine Jackson Trip / Research Chair: John Brown---Library Liaison: Jackie Smith Newsletter Editor: Larry Knowles-knonga@bellsouth.net Archive Editor: Marion T. Farmer-http://mtf.home.mindspring.com Additional Comments: There have been several minor corrections to the initial published edition. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/rockdale/photos/documents/newslett15021gph.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 5.0 Kb