Atlanta Journal digitized, searchable at GenealogyBank

The Atlanta Journal began in 1883 and the back issues from then through 2001 are now available for research online at GenealogyBank.com.

The website has many other newspapers from other parts of Georgia and all over the country. Don’t confuse this with the back issues of The Atlanta Constitution online at Newspapers.com. The Journal and The Constitution were two different newspapers until they merged in 2001. Researchers should always check every newspaper published in a city for information on their ancestors, as articles aren’t always exactly the same. I have found obituaries with additional information, depending on the date of publication and whether they were in the morning or evening edition. The Atlanta Journal, which carried news from all over the state, might even have information on your South Georgia ancestor. You can’t predict. GenealogyBank is a fee-based site. An annual subscription is $58.90. For other Atlanta newspapers, see UGA’s Digital Library of Georgia’s Georgia Historic Newspapers, Metro Atlanta.

Free African Americans in the American Revolution

Paul Heinegg has just published “A List of Free African Americans in the American Revolution: Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware.” Heinegg is noted for his research on free African Americans. The very detailed and documented biographical sketches in this publication are arranged alphabetically by state, with a full name index at the end of the book. Besides the Revolution, he includes people connected to the earlier French and Indian Wars, and some Native Americans. This is the first of its kind that I know about and is a landmark work. It took years to compile the research. It is available for $25 plus shipping from Clearfield Press, c/o the Genealogical Publishing Co. of Baltimore, via their website genealogical.com or call 800-296-6687.