The Hancock County Courthouse in Sparta has been rebuilt and is scheduled to reopen this week (see hancockcountyga.gov).
The historic 1883 courthouse burned on Aug. 11, 2014, with a great loss of many original records. While the restoration and reconstruction of the building can be commended, the records are still lost.
Luckily, there are microfilm copies of many of the earlier records up to around 1900, and later 20th century copies of some in a digital format. But, there are gaps.
Some original material was deposited earlier with the Georgia Archives, where the largest set of microfilm records is found. Local libraries in the region have copies of some of the microfilm.
More on Hancock records
The Georgia Genealogical Society Quarterly for Winter 2015 contains an article by Robert S. Davis, “Sifting the Ashes: Advice on Research in the Surviving Records of Hancock County.”
Davis references the microfilm at the Georgia Archives, as well as manuscript materials both there and at other locations. He includes a bibliography (list of books) of published records and sources on Hancock County, but does not include the four published court minute volumes by Kenneth Brantley, a must for Hancock County research.
A second article by Elizabeth Snow, the quarterly editor, lists and describes all the Hancock County records on microfilm at the Georgia Archives. These can be seen via a Family History Center, with some digitized on familysearch.org and ancestry.com.
The quarterly is at most genealogy libraries or can be ordered for $12 postpaid from the Georgia Genealogical Society, P.O. Box 550247, Atlanta, GA 30355.
Genealogy workshop
The annual Family History Workshop at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 3355 Sugarloaf Parkway, Lawrenceville, will run 9 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Aug. 20.
There will be four sessions per hour, with four lectures each session. Topics include basic genealogy, British genealogy, Colonial Georgia records, DNA, using maps, inheritance laws and computer sessions.
The workshop is free, with reservations for the computer lab required at genresga@hotmail.com. For further information, contact Terry Manning at 770-564-8822 or temanning@aol.com.
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