Category: New Partners

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Digital Library of Georgia (DLG) awards three Competitive Digitization service grants to Georgia cultural heritage institutions across the state

ATHENS, Ga. — Three institutions are recipients of the seventh set of service grants awarded in a program intended to broaden partner participation in the DLG. The DLG solicited proposals for historic digitization projects in a statewide call, and applicants submitted proposals for projects with a cost of up to $7,500.00. DLG staff will provide free digitization, scanning, and hosting services so that more of Georgia’s diverse history can be found online for free. This subgranting program was presented the 2018 Award for Excellence in Archival Program Development by a State Institution by the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Council (GHRAC). 

The recipients and their projects include: 

Lee County Library (Leesburg, Ga.)

  • Digitization of the Lee County Library Local History Collection which contains print material dating from 1784-2000 that includes church histories, local Lee County history, and documentation of the 1994 Southwest Georgia flood.

Saint Paul’s Church (Augusta, Ga.) 

  • Description and hosting of the handwritten vestry minutes, parish and marriage registers, and commemorative materials of Saint Paul’s Church, Augusta’s oldest congregation founded in 1750.

Hargrett Library, University Archives 

  • Digitization of the University of Georgia’s Pandora yearbooks dating from 1965-1974, which include the aftermath of desegregation, the beginnings of the black student, the women’s liberation, the gay liberation, and the campus free speech movements.

Preference in the selection process was given to proposals from institutions that had not yet collaborated with the DLG. Saint Paul’s Church and the Lee County Library are both new partners for the DLG. Sheila McAlister, director of the Digital Library of Georgia notes: “Our latest slate of projects includes two new partners, a public library and a church archives. The projects document the history of Lee County, the activities of one of the oldest churches in Augusta, and student life at the University of Georgia during a period of enormous social change. With each new project, we’re able to illuminate more of the state’s history.” 

About the Lee County Library

The Lee County Library is a public library serving the Lee County, Georgia area. Learn more on their website at leecountylibrary.org/.

About Saint Paul’s Church 

Saint Paul’s Church is a community of people committed to the service and worship of Jesus Christ in their current location for over 250 years.  With their roots deeply embedded in the city of Augusta and the surrounding area they “seek and serve Christ in all persons.”  They are also rooted in their Anglican (Church of England) heritage and are an integral part of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia. Visit their web site at www.saintpauls.org/.

About Hargrett Library, University Archives

The University of Georgia Archives preserves over two centuries of the University’s history in the form of official records, images, plans, publications, and artifacts. Their mission is to acquire, organize, preserve, and publicize such materials and to assist researchers in their use. Visit them at libs.uga.edu/hargrett/archives/.

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Church record book from Harris County covering the years 1828-1915 now available online in the Digital Library of Georgia

Record book of the Sardis Church of Christ
A record book covering the years between 1828-1915 of the Sardis Church of Christ is now available in the Digital Library of Georgia. The Sardis Church of Christ, associated with the Primitive Baptist Church, was one of the first churches to be established in Harris County, in west-central Georgia. This resource belongs to the Chipley Historical Center of Pine Mountain, Georgia, and has been made available online thanks in part to the DLG’s Competitive Digitization grant program, a funding opportunity intended to broaden DLG partner participation for statewide historic digitization projects.
 
The record book and descriptive information are available at:
 
 
Harris County was established in 1827, carved from Muscogee and Troup Counties, and from lands ceded by the Creek Nation in the 1825 Treaty of Indian Springs, and reaffirmed in the 1826 Treaty of Washington. A year later, in 1828, the Sardis Church of Christ was formed.
 
For the most part, the Sardis Baptist Church of Christ records follow a predictable format of when a meeting was held, who preached at the meeting, and that an invitation was given. The records also contain names of those that joined by declaration or by letter, and those that left by their own choice.
 
The Sardis Church also had African American members. Before the Civil War, these members are often listed only by their first names and are often denoted as “property of,” indicating their status as enslaved individuals. After the Civil War, the notations change to “colored” or sometimes “freedman” and their last name was often included. However, no matter what race, the Church always referred to a member as Brother or Sister.
 
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the church minutes in the record book become shorter and shorter for each meeting, and membership declines. This is probably due to the establishment of other churches nearby and the increased reliability of roads and transportation.
 
Although the Sardis church no longer exists, the church record book is a valuable tool for both those researching Primitive Baptists in regions other than the wiregrass region of Georgia or for those researching very early Georgia churches.
 
Malinda Brooks, a member of the board of directors of the Chipley Historical Center, notes:
 
“Personally, I have used the Sardis minutes in preparation of two published family genealogy books…Researchers are excited to find out when their family members entered and exited the Sardis membership, including the death dates of some members. These death dates, especially those that have not been found elsewhere, are treasures to researchers. Most recently, a woman researching her family for her Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) membership application was able to find ancestors in the Sardis record book which helped strengthen her DAR research, especially given that the DAR was unable to track the correct ancestor.”
 
About the Chipley Historical Center of Pine Mountain

The Chipley Historical Center is located in Pine Mountain, Georgia next to City Hall in the original city hall building, built just after the turn of the twentieth century, and still contains the original jail cells. Learn more at the Chipley Historical Center’s web site at chipleyhistoriccenter.org.

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