Many times, an ancestor appears to have fallen off the family tree, never to be found again.
Some people simply left, perhaps abandoning their families and starting over elsewhere. Others may have met an untimely death, but their remains were never found.
A website called Genealogy Trails includes a section where those who were legally executed by local governments are listed. Go to genealogytrails.com and, in the middle of the home page, see Visit Our State Sites and select the state.
Free information is posted for each state. For Georgia, there is a list of executions. The source given is Rob Gallagher's website, Before the Needles, which can be found at capitalpunishmentuk.org/links.html, along with lots of similar sites.
At Genealogy Trails, the 950 Georgia executions are in chronological order from 1735 to 1964. You can search by county and by personal name. For each person, their age, race and occupation is given, if known. It’s a wealth of information for genealogists, historians and other researchers.
There are other sources in print listing executions, but this one is free. The Genealogy Trails website contains other information, and for Georgia includes Georgia Baptist biographies, a slave insurance policies register and a lot other records.
Oral history
Doing our own oral histories is the subject of the July 21 Lunch and Learn seminar at the DeKalb History Center in the old courthouse on the square in Decatur. Fred Mobley, archivist, will discuss how to work with people to obtain stories and how to best record them. There are many family and local stories that need to be recorded before they are lost forever, so this is a good chance to learn.
The event is at noon and is free; bring your own lunch. For further information, call 404-373-1088, Ext. 23, or go to dekalbhistory.org. Their archives are open by appointment 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Free census records
Free access to U.S. census records is being offered at mocavo.com. The census records can be searched, with a link to the original images. The site contains a lot of free research material, but there also is the fee-based Mocavo Gold section.
