The War of 1812 at the Georgia Archives

     Last weekend I attended a symposium on the War of 1812 hosted at the Georgia Archives, along with some of my fellow DAR ladies.  First off, a shout out to the Friends of the Georgia Archives for the yummy snacks and all that they do for the Archives.  Also, thanks as well to all of the wonderful speakers.  I didn't realize that I really didn't know anything about the War of 1812, but now I have a good understanding of the events, the causes and the longterm repercussions of the war.

     One of the main reason I went was to find out how I could find out more about my ancestors and their participation in the war.  The Archives staff gave an overview of the resources that they hold that would be of interest to genealogists.

     They started off by talking about the history of the collection and how much of the provenance of the holdings are lost.  Back in the early days, the original organization of collections was not important.  If a researcher requested a certain record, the archivist pulled it and the record was never returned to its original location.  Many of these loose records have been reorganized into a collect called File II.  These documents are organized by names, subjects and counties.  They consist of both primary and secondary records.  Those files organized by name are searchable online.

     Other records include:

• General Name File
• Governor's Records
• Executive Minutes
• Governor's letter Books 
• WPA Transcription Project
• GA Military Affairs, 1775-1842
• GA Military Record Books, 1779-1839
• Creek Indian Letters, 1705-1839
• GA, FL and Yazoo Land Sales, 1764-1850
• Public Officer's Commissions
• Land Lottery Records (books & microfilm)
• Personal tip: start with Paul Graham's "Georgia Land Lottery Research"

     And they're not part of the Georgia Archives, but don't forget about the free War of 1812 Pensions that are available online at Fold3.com.  They've gotten partially through the 'M's so far.