Two New Digital Collections Provide Genealogical Coverage to Underrepresented East Central Georgia

As recipients of a service grant awarded earlier in 2021, the Greater Clarks Hill Regional Library System has worked in partnership with the Digital Library of Georgia to release court records dating back to the 1700s and funeral home records from the mid-twentieth century available online. 

These courthouse and funeral home records will serve genealogical researchers looking for information about ancestors from east-central Georgia, a historically underdocumented region of the state, and will provide information about Lincoln County residents dating back to the eighteenth century, and as far forward as the mid-twentieth century. 

The first collection, Lincoln County Courthouse Records, includes court documents that cover a variety of areas such as court cases, assault charges, writs of fieri facias (FIFAs), cases against the state of Georgia, power of attorney documents (POAs), bench warrants, petitions, summons, slander charges, illegitimate children cases, affidavits, animal appraisals, CASAs, debt collections, evictions, and plats) dating from 1700-2020.

The next collection, Rees Funeral Home Records, includes obituaries and other funeral arrangement details for some residents or former residents of Lincoln County, with dates ranging from the 1940s to the 1960s. 

Mallory Harris, a librarian at the Columbia County Librarian, describes the importance of these collections to Georgia residents: 

“The Rees Funeral Home Funeral Records collection contains obituaries from a Lincoln County funeral home. We selected these obituaries because they contain family background and general information about people with ties to the Lincoln County area and can especially help genealogists with discovering research leads.

The Lincoln County Courthouse Records contain legal information from affidavits to summons dating back to the 1700s. We also chose to include the courthouse records because they are excellent primary sources that discuss many kinds of legal proceedings which took place in Lincoln County history and could serve as great evidence in historical research for that area.”

Kathleen Reichl, the staff coordinator for the Columbia County Library Genealogy Club emphasizes: 

“As a genealogist myself, I have personally used these records, as have many of my patrons and genealogy club members. We find them invaluable.”

View the entire Rees Funeral Home Funeral Records collection online 

View the entire Lincoln County Courthouse Records collection online  

About the Greater Clarks Hill Regional Library System

The Greater Clarks Hill Regional Library System aims to provide quality library services and materials to children and adults in the community in order to meet their informational, recreational, and educational reading needs. Visit gchrl.org/

Selected images from the collections: 

Court stray for John Ware. April 12, 1797. Handwritten.
Image courtesy of Greater Clarks Hill Regional Library System
Title (image shown above): Letters, Court Strays-B1-1797-1799, Lincoln County Courthouse records.
Description: Recorded on the front page: 1797 12 April Stray Ware John 1797 11 March Gray James Ware Robert.
Funeral home record for Enos Tate Anthony, who died March 9th, 1956 at the age of 80. Handwritten.
Image courtesy of Greater Clarks Hill Regional Library System
Title: Rees Funeral Home Records. Obituaries. Late 1940, 1950, 1960. Surnames A-C, Rees Funeral Home Funeral Records collection.Description: Rees Funeral home records and obituaries dating from the late 1940s to the 1960s, including the surnames A-C.
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Civil rights-era issues of Savannah’s leading African American newspaper, the Savannah Tribune, are now available freely online

The Digital Library of Georgia, in partnership with Live Oak Public Libraries, has made the Savannah Tribune (1943 to 1960) available for viewing at the Georgia Historic Newspapers website. The site provides access to these newspapers with full-text searching, browsing by date and title, and is compatible with all current browsers. The newspaper page images can be viewed without the use of plug-ins or additional software downloads. The archive is free and open for public use.

Funding for the digitization of this title was provided by the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Council with funds awarded to the University of Georgia Libraries and the Georgia Archives by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).

Founded as the Colored Tribune in 1875 and renamed the Savannah Tribune in 1876, the newspaper has served as one of the longest-running African American publications in the South, with a mission “to promote the cause of education, cooperating with all teachers and workers in that cause, and the moral and material advancement of the colored people.” Reporting from Reconstruction through Jim Crow, the paper featured famed Harlem Renaissance writer James Weldon Johnson as a correspondent from the 1920s to the late 1930s and played an instrumental role in the boycott movement that began in the early 20th century and fueled the Civil Rights Movement throughout the 1960s. To this day, the Savannah Tribune stands as one of the most prominent African American newspapers in the country as it continues to serve Chatham County’s African American community. 

Belle Reynoso, the director of information technology, and Linda Bridges, the genealogy/reference librarian at Live Oak Public Libraries say: “We chose the Savannah Tribune because it’s one of Savannah’s most important African American historical resources. The first edition of the paper, which was called the Colored Tribune, was first published in 1875. It was not published from 1878 to 1886 or from 1960 to 1973. The issues chosen for digitization, October 1943 to September 1960, include much of the developing Civil Rights Movement in Georgia and beyond.

View the entire digitized run of the Savannah Tribune

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About the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Council (GHRAC)

The Georgia Historical Records Advisory Council (GHRAC) promotes the educational use of Georgia’s documentary heritage by all its citizens, evaluates and improves the condition of records, encourages statewide planning for preservation and access to Georgia’s historical records, and advises the Board of Regents and the Georgia Archives on issues concerning records. 

Learn more at georgiaarchives.org/ghrac.

About the Live Oak Public Libraries

Established in 1903, the Live Oak Public Libraries are a consortium of sixteen public libraries in the Savannah and the Hinesville-Fort Stewart metropolitan areas of Georgia. These libraries provide excellent, responsive services for residents of Chatham, Effingham, and Liberty counties, and develop programming that enriches people’s lives, supports lifelong learning, and builds and enhances their communities. 

Learn more at liveoakpl.org/about/mission

About the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC)

The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), a statutory body affiliated with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), supports a wide range of activities to preserve, publish, and encourage the use of documentary sources, created in every medium ranging from quill pen to computer, relating to the history of the United States.

Learn more at archives.gov/nhprc/about

Selected images from the collection: 

Image courtesy of Georgia Historic Newspapers
Title : Savannah Tribune, May 20, 1954, page 1
URL : https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn84020323/1954-05-20/ed-1/seq-1/
Description: The May 20, 1954 front page of the Savannah Tribune reported on the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision that ruled the segregation of public schools in the United States unconstitutional.
Image Courtesy of Georgia Historic Newspapers
Title : Savannah Tribune, May 25, 1957, page 1
URL : https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn84020323/1957-05-25/ed-1/seq-1/
Description: The headline of the May 25, 1957 issue of the Savannah Tribune detailed the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The event closed with Martin Luther King Jr.’s famed “I Have a Dream” speech.
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