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.  

The Slowly Growing 1812 Pensions

   I periodically check in to see how the War of 1812 Pension Files database is growing on Fold3.com.  It was recently updated and I was able to search for my 'G' surname ancestors, which is actually just one guy: Michael Garman.

     I am really excited about this project and the information that it can provide about my ancestors.  For Michael, I had seen a lot of information in online family trees but, as is often the case, didn't see any sources.  There was actually a lot of information available on the previously available index cards... but who doesn't always want to see the actual record?  Who trusts an index anyway?  Here's some of the information that I found in Michael Garman's pension file:

• That he was drafted
• When, where and with whom he served
• When and where he was discharged
• His wife's name and when(ish) and where(ish) they were married
• That he did not see action
• That he received a surgeon's discharge for a disabled shoulder
• That he had received 80 acres of bounty land but had "legally transferred and disposed of it" and wanted more land
• That he claimed not to have sided with the Confederacy (I say ha! to that)
• He claimed to have aged really quickly! (65 in 1850, 80 in 1855 and 100 in 1871)

     And how I said there was a lot of information on the index?  Yeah, you can't trust the index card.  It said that Michael and his wife, Polly (Mary?), were married in 1812.  The actual records states "he was married on the __ day of __ 180(before the war began) in the State of South Carolina.   I read that to say that he was married in eighteen oh-something, whereas the indexer read it to mean when the war began in 1812.  

     This pension records provides a lot of dates and places, as well as tidbits of randomness that hint at more.  I'm going to take those tibits and hopefully find even more information about Michael Garman... while waiting patiently for P, R, and maybe other surnames to be added to the database.

     But if I really want to hurry things along, I can take a more active role in the process. Anyone can make a donation to Preserve The Pensions Project and, thanks to Ancestry.com, each donation will be matched to make an even bigger impact.