Picnic at Georgia Archives will feature info on how to use facility

The Georgia Genealogical Society is hosting its annual “Summer Genealogy Picnic” at the Georgia Archives on June 23 from 9:45 a.m. until 5 p.m.

The event is free and open to the public, with no registration required. A sandwich lunch will be available for a donation. After the registration, the first speaker will be Caroline Crowell, reference archivist, on an “Overview of Records Available for Research at the Georgia Archives” from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Then, at 11:15 a.m. Kayla Barrett, reference archivist, speaks on “Records on Microfilm at the Georgia Archives.” After lunch, at 1:30 p.m., D. L. Henderson will speak on “Finding Harriet: A Journey into the History and Legal Status of Persons of Color in the United States.” From 2:30 to 5 p.m., attendees can do individual research in the library.

If you have not been there, you need to know there are hundreds of books and genealogy periodicals from many southern states, including Virginia, the Carolinas and Alabama. So don’t think you have to have Georgia ancestors to use the Georgia Archives. See gagensociety.org. For directions and more about the Georgia Archives, go to GeorgiaArchives.org.

New book features Joel Chandler Harris, Joseph Addison Turner

“Three Not-So-Ordinary Joes,” a new book by Julie Hedgepeth Williams, is a look at Joseph Addison Turner’s efforts to promote Southern literature, through his own writings and that appearing in his plantation newspaper, “The Countryman.” Turner, of Eatonton, took on Joel Chandler Harris as his printer’s devil and, thus, started the latter’s career in writing and editing. Williams has created a lot of interesting dialogue, so it’s not a historian’s view. But she does create an compelling story for anyone interested in the antebellum south, the dearth of Southern literature before then and the struggles of Turner to get his own writings in print. There are many excerpts from his publications and his diary/journal. There is no bibliography, so one has to read the footnotes to figure out her sources. The author is a journalism professor at Samford University in Birmingham. The book is published by NewSouth Books of Montgomery( see newsouthbooks.com).

Your ancestors’ canceled checks

“Bank Checks and Genealogy” is an interesting article by David Norris in “YourGenealogyToday.” He emphasizes that old checks can be great sources for genealogists.