How to get more from the GA Archive's Virtual Vault

A wonderful website that I've mentioned before is the Georgia Virtual Vault at the Georgia Archive website. There's are a whole lot of free digitized records available online for genealogists.

The amount of content can be a bit of a hindrance though. Many of the records are not indexed, or have only an image of an original index. Finding these records can be time consuming and difficult to find a second time. Well, don't search - save it. Researchers can use the "Favorite" function to save their documents so that they don't have to search for them again. You can even make a webpage out of the documents. Just make sure that your browser is accepting cookies and you're ready to go.

When you find a document, you will see a few options along the top of the image, just above the toolbar. These options include "Add Document to Favorites" and "Add Page to Favorites." In most cases, you'll want to save the page, not the document. If you save the document, you'll have to re-find the image from the entire collection again - and what's the point of that?

Now, view your favorites page, by clicking the link at the top of the page. You can see all of the documents that you've saved and have a few options of what you'd like to do with them. You can create a slideshow, re-arange or remove them, or create a webpage with them.

I saved my documents as a "page source/html" and I simply upload the document to my web host and, voila - I can share my favorite documents from the GA Virtual Vault. See it here. But what is the benefit of a webpage like this?

Well, for me, it's about having all of your documents right there for to find, linked to their original source, in a way that can be presented to others. Sure, I go ahead and download a copy of the image, but sometimes I miss the source information or make a mistake. Or perhaps the file disappears or becomes corrupt. Because I've created these favorites I can go right back to the document with it's original source without having to search for it. Also, I can very easily share my finds with others.

I really think this is a great way for the GA Archive to share their documents in a way that preserves their historical context and help with source citation. I'm looking forward to using this tool more thoroughly in the future.

Some improvements I'd like to see: the ability to rename a document and the ability to organize favorites into folders or sets.

Historic Georgia Maps

As part of the Georgia Virtual Vault, the GA Secretary of State's office has put historic Georgia Maps online. There are maps of 161 GA counties (some no longer in existence) that date from 1866-1935. You can browse a list of maps, or search the database in categories such as title, publisher, year, notes, etc.

The maps are available in high resolution and individuals can use the maps themselves as long as they give credit. For each map, there is a usually a bit of information about it's creation.

Map of Emanuel County, GA, cir. 1886:

Found: Bennie England Craft Jr.

When my Great-Uncle passed away in 2005, there was something surprising in his obituary: mention of a brother that I'd never heard of. According to the obituary, my great-uncle had been, "preceded in death by brothers, B.E. Craft Jr., Marvin Craft and Thomas Craft." But who was B.E. Jr.? I'd never seen another mention of him - and this is a well researched family line.

I'd had no further success researching this new great-uncle - until last night. I was wondering around Ancestry.com's family trees and landed on the page of my great-aunt Mary Frances Craft. On her page was a story, titled "B. E.'s Burial." It read:

"When B.E. died only his sister Mary Frances Craft was able to go because the rest of the family was too sick the the flu to attend. She said the funnal home did a good job cleaning him up and put him in a pine box. - Story told by Mary Frances Craft to Jessica Mica"

Success! Finally, a piece of information proving the existence of my great-uncle. But it sounds like a sad story, and didn't really provide an data or dates. But, it did give me some idea of when B.E. might have died. His sister, Mary Frances, attended her funeral. Frances was born in 1922, and was old enough to attend the funeral on her own and to remember the event. So, he probably died in the late 20's or later.

I decided to check out GA death certificates. The online Georgia Virtual Vault is a great resource for those with GA ancestors. They recently added un-indexed 1928-1930 death certificates that I had not finished looking through. So, I headed over to check it out - no success. But wait! Craft is often indexed as Croft..... success!!! There it was, the obituary of B. E. Craft Jr.

The poor thing was only 8 months old and died of pneumonia.

looking for the death of William L. Barfield

I visited the Hawhammock cemetery down in Swainsboro a few years ago, in search of some Barfield and Boatright ancestors. I found quite a lot of them, including many of the folks in this photo:

William Barfield Susan Frances Boatright Barfield Sallie Ledora Barfield Britt J. B. Barfield

So, I have the birth and death dates for these individuals, as stated on their head stones. I'm particularly interested in William L. Barfield (the father in the photo). I have little information on his parents and would love to be able to extend the line.

• William L. "Bill" Barfield was born on 5 Jun 1872 and died on 22 Jul 1924 according to his headstone.

• The 1880 Census of District 52 (aka District 1208, Emanuel Co., GA lists him as living in the Logue household, (which is his wife's family) before his wife was born. It appears that he and his sister Susen were raised by his to-be grandfather-in-law.

• He is listed as "Bill" on the 1920 Census of Emanuel Co., GA (District 37, page 27A). The entire family is listed.

• In 1930, after his death, his mother, Sarah, was living with his wife, Frances and their children. This is the only information I have on his parents. Sarah Barfield is listed as a widow, although other researchers have suggested that she was never married and that Barfield is her maiden name.

So, in search of more information, I've been looking for his death certificate. I've searched Georgia's Virtual Vault, where death certificates from 1919-1927 are posted, but I can't find William's certificate. He died in 1924 - so it should be there. I've also searched Ancestry.com's Georgia Death Certificates and can't find anything that looks right there either. I don't know if he didn't have a death certificate issued, or if it's filed under a different name... This is the shortest brach on my tree, and I'd love to be able to grow it more.