Circa 1870 Georgia Property Maps

The goal of this series of maps is to accurately depict the Wiregrass region at a land lot level as it existed before, around, and immediately after the Civil War. These maps are being generated from a number of sources. From these maps, one should be able to locate where a family farm was within about a mile.

Surviving tax lists are the main source of the information depicted in these maps. Several counties do not have surviving tax lists from before 1870. Furthermore, many of the tax lists from before 1870 did not routinely, fully record property information on tax lists. They would often record what land district the person owned property in and how many acres, but not the land lot number. Land ownership did not change too rapidly after the Civil War. Tax records from 1870 and before will be used for creating the map. When owners of land for these records were not in the county before the Civil War, their land lots will be marked blue. Land owned by Freedman will be marked brown. Red land lots will be used to represent the lands where the owners most likely remained the same from the before the Civil War. Yellow land lots will denote land whose ownership is documented in the 1850s or earlier, but appears to have changed by 1860.

1870 was chosen as the data to represent due to the abudance of quality tax list records by that year and due to being able to check those records against the real estate amount listing for the 1870 census.

Land deeds also help with reconstructing the landscape. Many early land deeds no longer survive due to records being destroyed during disasters at courthouses. Fortunately, many people had their deeds re-recorded after such disasters.

Land surveys are very valuable when reconstructing property boundaries in Wiregrass Georgia since on a few occasions the boundaries of land lots did not meet the ideal square lots due to poorly conducted surveying when the region was first surveyed. Later surveys can help one figure out when land lots have non-typical boundaries.

Sheriff sales can be used to document land ownership around the time of the sale. These sales were advertised in papers across the state and can be one of the few surviving records documenting land ownership before fires.

Problem Counties

There are some counties which will be nearly impossible to map out. A map of the following counties would need to be created from deeds re-recorded after the destructive fires and other accidents.

Miller County's earliest surviving tax list is from 1871. It suffered fires in 1873 and 1974. No deeds survived the 1873 fire. It was created in 1856 from Baker  County and Early County. Baker County does not have deed books from before 1866 and its earliest surviving tax list is from 1845. Early County does have an 1850 tax list

Worth County's earliest surviving tax list is from 1874. It suffered fires in 1879, 1880, 1893. Land owners do appear in the 1830-1832, 1839, 1841, 1842 tax digests for Irwin County, Georgia, and many deeds from before the county was formed appear in Irwin County deed books. Some deeds were re-recorded after the courthouse fire in 1893. Parts of Worth County were previously part of Dooly County. Dooly County suffered a courthouse fire 1847. An 1851 Dooly County tax list does exist and covers the area that would become Worth County in 1853.

The chart below shows the availability of antebellum land records for across the state of Georgia.

Antebellum Land Records

 How to Best Use These Maps:
The map above map from 1895 shows the land districts in South Georgia. To make full use of the following maps, having an idea of what original survey county and what land district within that county is essential. A large copy of it can be found at the Georgia Archives here.

 Due to the limitations of Google's MyMaps and the online version of Google earth, the Wiregrass region is depicted in a series of maps. Each map in the series will have as many land districts as possible depicted. Searching different maps in the series might lead you to an unexpected discovery, such as where an ancestor owned land between censuses or close relatives of a person who lived a mile away, but just on the other side of a county line.

When searching for a name, try searching by the surname, and variations upon the spelling of the surname. We have tried to keep spellings of surnames somewhat standard for counties, but keep in mind that both "Dorminey" and "Dorminy" were seen as correct spellings, likewise for Willcox and Wilcox. Surnames that are also first names will be difficult to search, as both will show up, ie Thomas, Lee, etc.

If no county is given in the record cited, the person lived in the county where that land was located at the time the deed was enacted. For example, Isaac Curry is listed in the 1844 Lowndes County tax list as having paid tax on land lot 117 of land district 10. That area soon became part of Coffee County and eventually part of Atkinson County. That 1844 tax list record is just given as "Isaac Curry. 1844 tax list. 490 acres."

If you know the landlot and land district you are looking for, you can search directly for that. For land lot 301 land district 11 of old Irwin County, first go to the appropriate map, and then type "LL 301. LD 11." into the search bar. You will be taken right to that land lot. There are only two times this will not work.
1. If that land lot was eventually consolidated into a very large plantation with a long chain of title. The amount of words for each item on the map is limited. After a certain amount of characters, words start getting cut off. This had happened unfortunately for the plantation that was eventually owned by Samuel Day Fuller in Wilcox County. Searching for "LL 70. LD 1." in that map will not pull up the land that it became part of. If you see an instance like that and would like to know if we have earlier deeds for part of a plantation that got cut off, please get in contact with us.
2.  If that land lot was already part of a very large trek of lots. For example, the Catholic Church-owned LL 265, LD 6 in modern Tift County, along with 34 other adjoining land lots.

These maps work best when viewed from a desktop computer or Mac, but can be viewed from mobile devices.

The maps are a work in progress and information is still being added to them. For the detailed progress of these maps, see the "Mapping Progress" section further down the page.

Old Appling County: Appling County was initially surveyed in 1820 and includes most of the area of non-coastal South East Georgia. The following maps are planned:

Old Dooly County: Dooly County was surveyed in 1821. The following maps are planned:

Old Early County: Early County was surveyed in 1820. The following maps are planned:

Old Irwin County: Irwin County was  surveyed in 1820 and includes most of the area of South Central Georgia. The following maps are planned:

Old Wayne County, Glynn County, and Camden County: Wayne County was established in 1803 and includes a strip of land in southeast Georgia bounded by what was Indian Territory on the west and Glynn and Camden Counties on the east.

Mapping Progress:

Old Appling County (counties in existence as of 1870):

Old Dooly County (counties in existence as of 1870):

Old Early County (counties in existence as of 1870):

Old Irwin County (counties in existence as of 1870):

Old Wayne County, Glynn County, and Camden County (counties in existence as of 1870):