Georgia officially was founded as a colony Feb. 12, 1733 (New Style dating) when James Edward Oglethorpe brought settlers, who had first landed at Charleston in the ship “Anne,” in small boats to what became Savannah.
The 114 colonists included men, women and children — both families and some single men. The ship’s captain and crew returned to England. Georgia was the last of the original 13 colonies, with Jamestown and the Virginia colony having been founded more than a century earlier in 1607, as well as the Pilgrims in 1620 in Massachusetts.
Georgia’s settlement was well-covered in the London and Charleston newspapers of the day, as well as in the many records kept by the colony’s Trustees in London, who managed the colony until the 1750s.
The Georgia Historical Society in Savannah holds an annual observance, the Georgia History Festival, and georgiahistory.com lists the many activities to be held this week. They are hoping other communities around the state will start more activities and educational initiatives to honor Georgia's founding.
On the society’s website are many items for school teachers about Georgia history. The society’s journal, the Georgia Historical Quarterly, often has carried scholarly articles about various aspects of the founding since its inception in 1917.
Georgia was a unique undertaking, an effort to help those applying as colonists (mostly from the Greater London area) to seek a new life. They faced a great unknown, but, as one descendant told me once, “If my ancestor had been doing well in London, he would have never gotten on the boat.”
Digital textbook on Georgia studies
Georgia Public Broadcasting has launched a Georgia studies digital textbook for teachers, accessed at gpb.org under "education." It is available for iPad, the Web and on Kindle. GPB offers teacher training via its website.
First Wednesdays in Cobb
The Georgia Room at the Switzer Library in Marietta (Cobb County's central library) has started a series of First Wednesday evening research and refreshments genealogy discussions. For the 7-8 p.m. session March 2, the topic is preservation of photos and papers. See cobbcat.org and then look under "calendar" for future topics, or email georgia2@cobbcat.org.
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