Genealogy Databases to help locate your Ancestors and their Origins

Notes from Jeannette Holland Austin:

The southeastern United States played a major role in the European migration of families to America. Religious persecution of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries was a driving force that sent the largest population of English, Scottish, Irish, and German families to America! The early port cities were Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Charleston. After crossing the Delaware River, the old wagon trail took thousands of families south and southwestward. The first regions in the southeast to be colonized were Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Kentucky, South Carolina, and Georgia.

As a result, Americans lay claim to this important heritage, and this is where to begin your research.

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Just before Tomichichi died on October 5, 1839, he asked General Oglethorpe to be buried in the city square. A pyramid of stones marked the grave. In the 1880s, few people in Savannah, Georgia, believed that Chief Tomichichi had been buried in Wright Square. The debate was in the local newspapers. Finally, in 1899, the site was excavated, and the bones of the old chief were discovered. Thus, to honor the legacy, a large granite boulder with a copper plate was installed on the southeast corner.

While archaeologists speak of Indian “burial grounds,” old Indian maps reveal a network of villages across America. After the Indian Removal Act of 1833, there is no mention of Andrew Jackson ordering the villages destroyed. It is assumed that the large, red clump of dirt was a burial site. Also, it is assumed that the Indians could not speak English. Yet, Cherokee Indians published a newspaper in Cartersville, Georgia, before the removal.

The true history of Oglethorpe’s friendship with the Creek Indians has long since been forgotten. It is assumed that the Indians were the “bad guys.” Yet, there are so many stories that will surprise the reader. You simply have to find them through personal research.

The point of this story is that people forget, and time goes on. It is the genealogist who scans old records, asking questions, and seeking details of events. Because all possible surviving records are reviewed, this type of research is intensive and often lasts a lifetime! Cudos to those who preserve the research and pass it on!

The real heroes of the past are your ancestors. Remember that! Source: Old newspapers at Savannah Historical Society in Savannah, Georgia.

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Georgia

County Records: Wills, estates, distributions, guardianships, marriages.

Bibles, cemeteries, military, Georgia Obituaries (database) 1740-1935, traced families, obituaries, etc.

Kentucky

County Records: Wills, estates, distributions, guardianships.

Bibles, books, military, deaths (selective), wills, estates, guardianships, distributions, Irish prisoners, American-Irish Society Notes, Ulster Plantation Notes, marriages for counties: Shelby, Pulaski, Mercer, Mason, Harrison, Fayette, Clarke, Boyle, Barren

North Carolina

County Records: Wills, estates, distributions, guardianships.
Bibles, books, Quakers, Wills, estates, distributions, Palatines (1709-1710), Obituaries (Greenville News), Genealogy Research Notes, Colonial Wills 1677-1722, biographies, Cherokee removal (1838); marriages to 1799 in counties of Alamance, Ashe, Bertie, Brunswick, Burke, Caldwell, Carteret, Caswell, Chowan, Gates, McDowell, Mecklenberg and Pasquotank Counties. Genealogy Research Notes of North Carolina Families and genealogies.

South Carolina

County Records: Wills, estates, distributions, guardianships.
Bibles, French Protestants, cemeteries of St. Michael's Church and Huguenot Church in Charleston, deaths in the South Carolina Gazette (1732-1774) and (1766-1774), Marriage Settlements 1775-1835 (includes Revolutionary War participants), Obituaries and Marriages in the Abbeville Banner (1847-1848), Notes, Origins

Tennessee

County Records: Wills, estates, distributions, guardianships.

Virginia

County Records: Wills, estates, distributions, guardianships.

Genealogy-Books

A valuable collection of out-of-print books published during the 19th and 20th centuries that contain genealogical databases, family information, biographical sketches, cemeteries, and historical data. Includes England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Wales, and Scandinavian countries.

Special Collections

Miscellaneous: 1. Confederate Dead Database 2. Austin Collection, 2 vols. (traced families by Jeannette Holland Austin, for clients, et al, in most US States). 3. Genealogy Vault (5000-6000 traced families).