The Georgia Archives recently updated its website with a new look and more direct links to some of its most important elements.
The newly revamped website at www.georgiaarchives.org directs viewers via tabs to “Visit” (giving tips on what to know before you come), “Research” (how to find aids and other information) and “Partners” (listing the many groups who help support the Archives, including Friends of Georgia Archives and History, Georgia Genealogical Society and the R.J. Taylor Jr. Foundation).
Up front is the Lunch and Learn monthly programming list and the featured content area with links to the Virtual Vault, where many original records can be viewed — more than anyone has time to search. The book catalog helps you find out what books and microfilm are part of the collection. You can search the catalog by author or subject.
So check out the website and plan a visit. Since its transition to the University System of Georgia last July, the Archives is open four days a week: 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays. It’s located at 5800 Jonesboro Road, Morrow.
Archives history
Some early history surrounding the creation of the Georgia Archives in 1918 can be found in the Winter 2013 issue of Georgia Genealogical Society Quarterly.
The society has reprinted statements by Lucian Lamar Knight, the Archives’ first director. The first article is an address given before the Georgia Historical Association on April 10, 1917, which helped fuel the movement for a state archives. The second article was first published in 1919 with the title, “In Defense of the Department of Archives.” Both are worth reading to see what a struggle it was early on to preserve the records of Georgia.
The society’s website is www.gagensociety.org.
DNA now an option
Both the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Sons of the American Revolution have announced that starting this year they will consider Y-DNA results back to a Revolutionary War-era ancestor as an option for a lineage application.
DNA has to be used in conjunction with conventional documentation. Check with your local chapter registrar or the organizations’ websites, www.dar.org or www.sar.org.
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