Sources: Where to Find What
This list is intended to give examples of the types of records and resources you should use
and where you can probably find them. The list is not comprehensive.
I.
Home Sources
A. Oral tradition - family stories, lore
B. Interviews - relatives and people who lived near them
1. Personal
2. Telephone
3. Written - E-mail, fax or U.S. Postal Service
C. Diaries, letters, family bibles - ask about any kind of family papers
D. Photographic images (in future we will need to ask about family Web pages,
Facebook pages, etc.)
II. Local Sources – check your local public library to see what they have. Most libraries
now have online catalogs so you can see what they have before you go. Please ask staff for
assistance so you do not miss resources that do not have titles that tell you what the book is
about.
Check PINES http://gapines.org for materials you may find useful in other public libraries in
Georgia. For a list of libraries in the PINES system go to
http://gapines.org and click on find a library near me.
A. Public Libraries – types of materials listed below can be print, CD,
microform, or online
1. “How to do” books
2. Indexes, abstracts, transcriptions, and other compilations of records - deeds,
marriages, taxes, wills, estates, court minutes, and many others.
3. County histories
4. Family histories
5. Cemetery books
6. U.S. Federal Census population schedules
7. Print indexes and Soundex/Miracode for Federal population schedules
8. U.S. Federal Census non-population schedules – mortality, manufacturing,
social statistics, agricultural, and more
9. Newspapers – microform, hard copy, and online
10. Directories - city directories, telephone books, organizational and school
directories
11. Bibliographies – including by topic or by location
12. Guides to research: for states, for ethnic genealogy, and for other countries
Laura W. Carter
Heritage Room Librarian, Athens-Clarke County Library
Piedmont Regional Library System Staff Development Day November 2011
Page 1 of 5
13. Periodicals, magazines, and journals from historical, genealogical and
hereditary organizations
14. Online databases - free and those the library purchases - Ancestry Library
Edition and other databases depending on the library. GALILEO has many
great databases available that can assist with genealogy and historical
research.
15. Various government records relevant to the area (on microform or in other
format)
16. Local city and county records – deeds, wills, estate records, tax records,
etc., usually on microform
17. Interlibrary loan – borrowing materials from other libraries, usually free or
nominal charge
B. County courthouses, city halls, local government offices and local
government archives
1. Birth and death records
2. Marriage and divorce records
3. Wills and estate records
4. Deeds and land records
5. Tax records
6. Court cases
7. Newspapers that were legal organs
8. Apprenticeship records
9. Guardianship records
10. Lunacy records
11. Permits and licenses – “pistol toting licenses,” dentists, doctors, etc.
12. Variety of other local records
III.
Resources that may be nearby
A.
LDS FamilySearch Center
Search catalog (free from home) of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah
https://www.familysearch.org/#form=catalog to find microfilm of records needed.
1. Microfilms of records from all over the world can be rented and sent to your
closest FamilySearch Center. These come from the Family History Library in
Salt Lake City.
2. Access to online subscription databases that are available in FamilySearch
Centers for free.
B. Academic libraries
(Example: University of Georgia Libraries http://www.libs.uga.edu/)
Publicly funded university and academic libraries are open to the general public for
use.
http://gil.usg.edu/gilhome/libs/index to find University System of Georgia libraries and
Laura W. Carter
Heritage Room Librarian, Athens-Clarke County Library
Piedmont Regional Library System Staff Development Day November 2011
Page 2 of 5
links to search their catalogs online through GIL (GALILEO Interconnected Libraries)
1. History books, United States and international
2. Newspapers, periodicals and journals – online and hard copy
3. Directories – city, telephone, business, organizational, topical and other
types
4. Manuscripts, family papers and records, documents
5. Government documents - state and United States, available in some
libraries
6. Dissertations and theses
7. Online databases – Ancestry Library Edition and other databases
depending on the library. GALILEO has many great databases available
in academic libraries that are not in GALILEO in public libraries.
IV.
Morrow, Georgia Resources (Morrow is south of Atlanta in Clayton County)
With both state and national archives next door to each other it is sometimes called
“Georgia’s Research Mecca”
A. Georgia Archives (our State Archives) http://www.GeorgiaArchives.org
1. Central location of many county records, see list above under II. B. County
Courthouses, … Often these county records are on microfilm
2. City and other directories
3. Church Records
a. Christening
b. Marriage
c. Burial
d. Minutes
e. Church histories
4. Confederate soldiers from Georgia
5. Confederate Pension records
6. Poll Tax lists
7. County histories and other compilations
8. Genealogical periodicals
9. Maps
10. Other local and state government records, documents, and publications
11. State Laws
12. Finding Aids to various collections
13. Usually the repository for all permanently valuable records from various state
agencies, legislative, judicial, and executive branches of government.
B. National Archives at Atlanta. Formerly called Southeast Regional Archives aka
NARA Southeast Regional (National Archives) http://www.archives.gov/southeast/ This is one
of three National Archives and Records Administration facilities in the Atlanta area.
Laura W. Carter
Heritage Room Librarian, Athens-Clarke County Library
Piedmont Regional Library System Staff Development Day November 2011
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Serves Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and
Tennessee.
“The National Archives at Atlanta is a center for the study of the history of the South, a diverse
region rich with family tradition. Native Americans were living on the land when the first settlers
arrived. African slaves were then brought over, and later came Irish, English, Italian, Russian, and
Cuban immigrants. Their stories, told in the seemingly incongruous records of the federal
government, provide evidence of the universal human drama that is American family life. Records
in the National Archives tell the story of southern families and communities, technological
advances that changed lives, and social and economic forces that shaped the makeup of our
society.”
For a brief overview of the National Archives at Atlanta, go to
http://www.archives.gov/southeast/. Examples of information found there:
1. Federal population censuses for all States, 1790-1930; indexes for the
1880, 1900, 1910, 1920 and 1930 censuses (indexes are not available for
all census years and all states)
2. Federal census, non-population schedules for southeastern states
3. Selected compiled military service records and indexes
4. Selected pension and bounty-land warrant applications
5. Indexes to selected passenger arrival records for Eastern and Gulf Coast
ports
6. Indexes to selected naturalization records processed through Federal
courts throughout the Southeast
Microfilm Research Room and Archival Records Research Room. Much in this facility is on
microfilm, for most of which, the textual records from which the films were made are housed
at another repository. Records housed at National Archives at Atlanta include materials
(documents, maps, photographs, architectural drawings) dating from 1716 to the 1980s most
of which are textual. Many of the records are federal records for the states served by Nat.
Archives at Atlanta.
Examples include:
 Selected records relating to Native Americans and African Americans
 Tennessee Valley Authority Records, NASA records are examples
There are records housed at Atlanta (Morrow) that are for the entire country, including:
 World War I Draft Registrations
 Railroad Retirement Board Records
V. Internet Research
A.
Check online catalogs for libraries, archives, historical and genealogical
societies, and other repositories to see what you can find near where you
live.
Laura W. Carter
Heritage Room Librarian, Athens-Clarke County Library
Piedmont Regional Library System Staff Development Day November 2011
Page 4 of 5
B.
Check the online catalogs for libraries, archives, historical and genealogical
societies, and other repositories in the area where your ancestor was when
last documented.
C.
Use online databases, both free and paid subscription. These will have images
of actual records, compilations, transcripts and abstracts of records, documents
and papers, photographic and other illustrative images, family trees, and more.
Laura W. Carter
Heritage Room Librarian, Athens-Clarke County Library
Piedmont Regional Library System Staff Development Day November 2011
Page 5 of 5