Paula Whatley Matabane will be the speaker at the Georgia Genealogical Society’s Annual Holiday Luncheon on December 14 at the Georgia Archives.
The gathering will begin at 10:30 a.m. with a business session, followed by the annual awards presentations and the luncheon. Matabane’s topic is “Genealogy and Lies in a Courtroom Drama Over Ownership of Enslaved Persons.” She’ll discuss how a Georgia State Supreme Court case from 1850, involving the contested ownership of a slave, Minerva Settles, revealed unknown biographical and genealogical information on Settles’ origins and journey through slavery.
Matabane, a retired professor, is director of publications for the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society. The cost to attend the event is $25 for GGS members and $35 non-members. It includes lunch.
The deadline for mailed registration is December 6, and December 10 for online registration via PayPal. Mail a check to GGS at P.O. Box 550247, Atlanta, 30355-2747, or register online via gagensociety.org. For more information, contact Maggie Thomas, education director, at programs@gagensociety.org, or call 678-800-8456. The Georgia Archives is located at 5800 Jonesboro Road in Morrow, south of I-285. It is open Tuesday- Saturday, 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m.
Supreme Court Records
Supreme Court records in any state are great resources for genealogists. Ted O. Brooke’s “Georgia Stray Wills, 1733-1900 (2012)” includes many wills from courthouses that later burned. Had the wills not been in Supreme Court cases, no copies would exist. The Georgia Archives main search room has a computer index to the people who sued each other in Supreme Court cases.
This index, which is not available online, has been enhanced, so it’s well worth checking. You never know what might be there. Other names could be buried within a case, so it’s hit and miss. In the Alabama Archives, I found an Alabama Supreme Court case in which an ancestor sued over a bale of cotton. He was an ordinary farmer. The loose court papers there included many documents about him. To find other states’ published Supreme Court cases locally, you would have to go to a law school library, or search online. The original court case files have been digitized for many states at FamilySearch.org. In Georgia, they are on microfilm at the Georgia Archives, as well.
Family Search Digital Library
FamilySearch.org has expanded its digitizing of published family histories and county histories. So search for “Family Search Digital Library” and see what you can find.
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