New collection features over 50 years of digitized African American funeral programs from Evans County, Georgia, and are now available freely online.

Selected by statewide cultural heritage stakeholders and funded by the DLG’s competitive digitization grant program, over 3,000 pages of digitized African American funeral programs from Evans County, Georgia, and other Southeastern towns and cities are now freely available in the Digital Library of Georgia and can be seen online here:

African American Funeral Programs, 1960-2022

The collection of 637 individual programs dates between 1961-2022, with the birth dates of the people represented going back to 1870.

Pharris D. Johnson, former mayor of Bellville, Georgia, chairman of the Savannah College of Art and Design Board of Trustees, and Vice President of the Evans County Historical Society says:

“The Evans County Community Center and African American Archive Museum serves our community in an outstanding manner. They accomplish their mission with a small budget and through dedicated volunteers. As we know, funeral programs provide valuable social and genealogical information.  [These materials from] the Evans County Community Center Archives are an important resource for the residents of Evans and surrounding counties.”

Documenting an underrepresented region of Georgia, this collection provides important information for genealogical research and for understanding African American life during different time periods. 

Funeral programs provide valuable social and genealogical information and typically include a photograph of the deceased individual, an obituary, a list of surviving relatives, and information about the funeral service. Some programs provide more extensive genealogical information such as birth and death dates, maiden names, past residences, accomplishments, affiliations, and burial locations. For marginalized populations, this information can often be difficult to find, as the records of many in these communities were often either destroyed, kept privately, or never created in the first place.

The Evans County African American Archive Museum has collected funeral programs for over twenty years. Since then, residents have contributed to the collection. 

Darin McCoy of the Evans County Historical Society notes: 

“[Our] facility operates within an under-served rural county in terms of digitized African American history. However, the Evans County Historical Society alumni and the Evans County African American Archive Museum leadership team are well-known advocates for the preservation and collection of local African American history and artifacts. Our featured displays, public events, and family presentations are unique and emphasize the historical value of these entities. The vision, collections, and the preservation of artifacts, begun over twenty (20) years ago, have now come to fruition.”

Digitization and access have been made possible through the Digital Library of Georgia’s competitive digitization subgrant program and are displayed and searchable within their online portal. The Digital Library of Georgia has also partnered with local libraries and the Georgia Public Library Service to digitize African American funeral programs for people connected to the Atlanta, Augusta-Richmond County, and Thomas County areas. 

 

About the Evans County African American Archive Museum (Claxton, Ga.)

The mission of the Evans County African American Archive Museum is to provide means for all citizens of Evans County to obtain an excellent quality of life through programs and services. The Archive was the recipient of a 2021 GHRAC Award for History Advocacy. Their Facebook group is: https://www.facebook.com/Evans-County-Community-Center-343942125941003/ 

Selected images from the collection:

Title: Funeral program for Charles L. Bailey
URL: https://dlg.usg.edu/record/eccca_aafp-ec_ecaaam-470
Collection: African American Funeral Programs, 1960-2022
Courtesy of the Evans County Community Center (Claxton, Ga.)
Description: Funeral program for Charles L. Bailey. Date of funeral service: June 18, 2011. Location of funeral service: St. John Missionary Baptist Church, Claxton, Georgia, 11:00 a.m. Birth date: November 19, 1916. Death date: June 12, 2011.
Title: Funeral program for Earlene Harris
URL: https://dlg.usg.edu/record/eccca_aafp-ec_ecaaam-632
Collection: African American Funeral Programs, 1960-2022
Courtesy of the Evans County Community Center (Claxton, Ga.)
Description: Funeral program for Earlene Harris. Date of funeral service: November 4, 2021. Location of funeral service: Beulah Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia, 11:00 a.m. Birth date: April 8, 1935. Death date: October 28, 2021.
Title: Funeral program for Reverend Lee Jones
URL: https://dlg.usg.edu/record/eccca_aafp-ec_ecaaam-402
Collection: African American Funeral Programs, 1960-2022
Courtesy of the Evans County Community Center (Claxton, Ga.)
Description: Funeral program for Reverend Lee Jones. Date of funeral service: June 5, 2008. Location of funeral service: Pittman Park United Methodist Church, Statesboro, Georgia, 1:00 p.m. Birth date: October 6, 1926. Death date: June 02, 2008.
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Family Papers Documenting The Lives Of Enslaved People In Liberty County, Georgia, Dating Back To The 1700s, Are Now Available Online.

Black and white photograph of a young African American boy standing next to a cow in a fenced pasture.
Julia King Collection – boy with cow  https://dlg.usg.edu/record/midm_jkic_682

 

 

In partnership with the Midway Museum, the Digital Library of Georgia has just made the Julia R. King Collection available online.

King (1863–1952) was a descendant of the Roswell King (1765–1844) family of Georgia plantation owners and managers who owned land, property, and enslaved people across Georgia dating back to the 1700s. 

The collection includes essential documents related to slavery, including estate appraisals and inventories that include the first names of enslaved African Americans. It will be of particular interest to those doing family research on people enslaved in Liberty County, Georgia.

Stacy Ashmore Cole, the creator of “TheyHadNames.net: African Americans in Early Liberty County Records, secretary of the Midway Museum Board of Governors, and president of the Coastal Georgia Genealogical Society, describes the importance of these records.

“The Midway Museum’s Julia R. King Collection contains essential references to enslaved people unavailable elsewhere. 

These documents will interest them and others who have not yet discovered their ancestry. 

The study of these enslaver families, including the Kings, is critical to Liberty County African American genealogical and historical research. 

They had a long tradition of keeping enslaved people within their families through inheritance, lending, and gifting, including down the white female lines. Because of this, the only way to trace a particular enslaved person is often through probate and enslaving family documents. 

The small size of the collection and its relative geographical remoteness have made it difficult for academic researchers to prioritize. The Midway Museum is also in an area vulnerable to hurricanes. 

Digitization ensures that we preserve these materials and make them easily accessible for future generations.”

View the entire collection online

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About the Midway Museum

Since its founding, the Midway Museum has been supported by the descendants of the Midway Church members, who have provided 18th- and 19th-century family heirlooms, documents, books, genealogical lineages, and heirloom furnishings, paintings, and artifacts. Many Midway Church descendants still live in Liberty County and coastal Georgia, serve on the Board of Governors, and visit during the Midway Church’s annual Homecoming. Visit themidwaymuseum.org/ 

About the Digital Library of Georgia

The Digital Library of Georgia is an award-winning GALILEO initiative housed at the University of Georgia Libraries. With the state’s cultural heritage organizations, the DLG shares Georgia’s history online for free through its websites. The project supports its partner organizations by offering free and low-cost services. The DLG also serves as Georgia’s service hub for the Digital Public Library of America and as the home of the Georgia Newspaper Project, the state’s historic newspaper preservation project. 

Visit our website at dlg.usg.edu
Facebook: http://facebook.com/DigitalLibraryofGeorgia/ 
Twitter: @DigLibGA
Instagram: @diglibga 
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Selected images from the collection: 

Image courtesy of Midway Museum

Title : Julia King Collection – Man with Hands.

https://dlg.usg.edu/record/midm_jkic_704 

 

Image courtesy of Midway Museum

Title : Exchange of Slaves between Mary Maxwell and Julia R. King, 1842.

https://dlg.usg.edu/record/midm_jkic_282-53

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