The Georgia Open History Library launches today!

Cover of Hubert B. Owens' book Georgia's Planting Prelate

Today, October 15, the Digital Library of Georgia is thrilled to announce the Georgia Open History Library launch from our partners at the University of Georgia Press. 

The collection is now available in our Georgia portal and through other public outlets, including: 

The Georgia Open History Library is an open-access selection of single-authored scholarly titles and two multivolume series and primary documents going back to the founding of Georgia as a colony up to statehood and beyond.

It is important to note that new forewords written by contemporary historians were commissioned by UGA Press for each volume in this collection, adding important current scholarly context to these materials.

44 individual volumes focusing on the colony and eventual state of Georgia cover the following topics:

UGA Press Director Lisa Bayer notes: “As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary in 2026, these online resources about the thirteenth colony will help students, teachers, and all citizens to better understand the diversity and complexity of our early national history.”

Funded by the NEH Humanities Open Book Program, the Georgia Open History Library is a project of the UGA Press in partnership with the UGA Libraries, Georgia Humanities, the New Georgia Encyclopedia, the Georgia Historical Society, the Digital Library of Georgia, the Willson Center for Arts and Humanities at UGA, and the Atlanta History Center.

About the University of Georgia Press:  

Since its founding in 1938, the primary mission of the University of Georgia Press has been to support and enhance the University’s place as a major research institution by publishing outstanding works of scholarship and literature by scholars and writers throughout the world. The UGA Press is the oldest and largest book publisher in the state, currently publishes 60–70 new books a year, and has a long history of publishing significant scholarship, creative and literary works, and books about the state and the region for general readers. To learn more about the UGA Press and its publications, authors, and events, visit www.ugapress.org

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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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