Primary Sources
This section is still under construction. This section will provide a links and lists of published primary sources related to the Wiregrass Region.
Pre-1870 Deed Records:
The abstracting of these records is part of a project to create a highly detailed map of the Wiregrass before the Civil War to about 1870. In addition, abstracting these deeds will help make the deeds related to enslaved people available.
Georgia:
Baker County:
Berrien County: Complete. Every deed from up to December 1873 has been abstracted.
Brooks County: Complete. Every deed from up to December 1873 has been abstracted. Every deed book has been searched up to 1947.
Calhoun County:
Charlton County: Complete. Every deed from up to December 1873 has been abstracted. Every Deed book has been searched up to 1916. Several deeds that were recorded in Camden County have been added as well.
Charlton County Headright Grants. Complete. Every headright grant from the creation of Charlton County in 1854 to the present has been abstracted. As many headright grants that could be identified from the area that was previously Camden County have been abstracted.
Clay County:
Clinch County: Re-recorded deed book in progress
Colquitt County:
Decatur County:
Dougherty County:
Early County:
Echols County: Complete. Every deed book searched up the 1930s.
Irwin County: Complete. Every deed abstracted up to December 1872 has been abstracted. Every deed book searched up to 1896.
Lowndes County Deeds: Every deed book has been abstracted up to the end up deed book E, which ends January 1881. Deeds from the 1870s and before have been sought from deed book F forward. The index book for Lowndes County deeds only includes the recorded dates of deeds and not the date of the instrument. This means there is not an easy way to find earlier deeds that were recorded later, other than searching every page of every deed book. We have made a diligent effort to find deeds for lands that we know were not recorded in the earlier deed books. If you know of a deed from the 1870s and before for Lowndes County that we have not recorded, please contact us so we can add the information to the spreadsheet. We have found a deed from 1854 recorded in 1940, so most likely there are a few deeds that we have missed. In addition, we have been able to reconstruct over 800 pages of the deed books that were destroyed in the 1858 fire at Troupville, GA. Many of those deeds were re-recorded in the various counties that split off from Lowndes County in the 1850s (Berrien County/Brooks County/Clinch County/Echols County). We have also abstracted the Lowndes County Superior Court minute books up to 1877 for property-related records. We have also abstracted Lowndes County Will Books for wills that mention property from before 1877. There are 250 deeds covering the area that became Lanier County in 1920. There are 96 related entries for people who were enslaved. Many of those entries mention the names of multiple people.
Miller County:
Mitchell County:
Pierce County:
Ware County: Every deed up to December 1878 has been abstracted for deed book A to deed book Z. Pre-December 1878 deeds from deed book AA to deed book ZZ have had the grantor/grantee and dates abstracted.
Wayne County: Deed Book C in progress.
Worth County: Complete. Every deed book searched up to 1911.
A Brief Explanation of the Coding Used for Deed Abstracting:
The deed record abstracting spreadsheets use abbreviations to code the original survey county for each deed. There will be some deeds for areas that use the metes and bounds system instead of the land district and land lot system. Land in those areas was granted through the headright system. When those deeds appear in the abstraction of deed records, the county code will represent the county where the headright was originally granted. The spot normally reserved for land district numbers will have an HR (for headright). The spot for the land lot number will have the name of the person who was issued the land, the year surveyed/or the year granted, and the acreage of the original grant.
The county codes for land in the land lot and headright counties are:
A - Appling County [Land lot only]
B - Baldwin County [Baldwin County is both a land lot county and a headright county.]
Bn - Banks County [Headright only]
Bl - Bulloch County [Headright only]
Br - Burke County [Headright only]
Ca - Carroll County [Land lot only]
Cm - Camden County [Colonial grant and headright]
Cr - Charlton County [Headright only. The section of Charlton County surveyed as land lots was originally Wayne County.]
Ch- Chatham County [Colonial grant and headright]
C_ - Cherokee County [Land lot only]:
C1: Cherokee County: First Section
C2: Cherokee County: Second Section
C3: Cherokee County: Third Section
C4: Cherokee County: Fourth section
Cl - Clarke County [Headright only]
Cb - Columbia County [Headright only]
Co - Coweta County [Land lot only]
D - Dooly County [Land lot only]
E - Early County [Land lot only]
Ef - Effingham County [Headright only]
Eb - Elbert County [Headright only]
Em - Emanuel County [Headright only]
F - Fayette County [Land lot only]
Fr - Franklin County [Headright only]
Gk - Glascock County [Headright only]
Gl - Glynn County [Colonial grant and headright]
Gr - Greene County [Headright only]
Gw - Gwinnett County [Land lot only]
Hb - Habersham County [Habersham County is both a land lot county and a headright county.]
Hk - Hancock County [Headright only]
He - Henry County [Land lot only]
Hl - Hall County [Hall County is both a land lot county and a headright county.]
Ht - Hart County [Headright only]
Ho - Houston County [Land lot only]
I - Irwin County [Land lot only]
Ja - Jackson County [Headright only]
Jf - Jefferson County [Headright only]
Jo - Johnson County [Headright only]
La - Laurens County [Headright only. The land lots for this county were all originally Wilkinson County.]
L - Lee County [Land lot only]
Lb - Liberty County [Headright only]
Ln - Lincoln County [Headright only]
Ma - Madison County [Headright only]
Md - McDuffie County [Headright only]
Mc - McIntosh County [Headright only]
Mo - Monroe County [Land lot only]
Mu - Muscogee County [Land lot only]
My- Montgomery County [Headright only. Wheeler County was created from Montgomery County in 1912 from an area that was surveyed into land lots; however, those lots were all originally Wilkinson County.]
Oc - Oconee County [Headright only]
Og - Oglethorpe County [Headright only]
R - Rabun County [Land lot only]
Ri - Richmond County [Headright only]
Sc - Screven County [Headright only]
Tl - Taliaferro County [Headright only]
Tt - Tattnall County [Headright only]
T - Troup County [Land lot only]
Wl - Walton County [Land lot only]
Wr - Warren County [Headright only]
Ws - Washington County [Headright only]
Wy - Wayne County [Wayne County is both a land lot county and a headright county.]
Wk - Wilkes County [Headright only]
Wi - Wilkinson County [Land lot only]
Colonial grants are treated similarly to headright grants. The spot normally reserved for land district numbers will have a CG (for Colonial Grant). The spot for the land lot number will have the name, the year surveyed, and the acreage of the original grant. Georgia had a parish system in the colonial period instead of a county system. Grants will give the parish where the land was at the time of the survey. The codes for the parishes are:
CP - Christ Church Parish
AP - Saint Andrew Parish
DP - Saint David Parish
GP - Saint George Parish
JP - Saint James Parish
OP- Saint John Parish
MP - Saint Mary Parish
HP - Saint Matthew Parish
PP - Saint Patrick Parish
UP- Saint Paul Parish
IP - Saint Philip Parish
TP - Saint Thomas Parish
Other County Records:
Abstracted Colonial Grants for St. David, St. James, St. Patrick, St. Thomas, St. Mary Parish:
The surviving colonial grants for the parishes south of the Altamaha have been abstracted. We are working on locating the current county of those grants and trying to locate those tracts on modern maps.Lowndes County Grand Jury Reports Abstract: Complete up to May 1930. The information mentioned in the grand jury reports related to the county and district courthouses, the county jail, the county poor farm, schools, bridges, and roads has been abstracted.
Biographic accounts:
The Journal of Thomas Spalding. A description of an attempt to survey the Florida-Georgia line in 1827.
Thannie Wisenbaker's View of Valdosta 1863. Written by Thannie Smith Wisenbaker in 1933, she describes her youth during the Civil War.