I took a trip to Auburn University yesterday and found quite a few
interesting documents on microfilm. I was unable to make photocopies, but I
thought someone on the list might be interested in at least knowing that
these documents are available.
The item that sticks out most in my mind is a slave import register from
Richmond Co., GA during the years 1820-1821. But, there's a whole series
with plantation records, correspondence and other documents that were
apparently donated to certain libraries over the years. This particular
series of microfilm deals with records of antebellum Southern plantations
from the Revolutionary War through the Civil War.
I found several other interesting items, such as the 1835 census of Cherokee
Indians East of the Mississippi. I only looked through the records for 4
states (AL, GA, TN, NC), so I don't know exactly what the entire microfilm
covers. The writing was very faint, but still readable.
As far as I know, none of the records I found are online. At least, they
aren't available through the Archives or through any of the county sites I
looked at. Most researchers probably don't even know these records are
available, nor would they even know how or where to look for them.
Many of the microfilms were published by the National Archives, and are
probably available at other large Univeristies. Auburn has a WebCat, which
is their online catalog. Surely other Universities do, too...perhaps several
researchers could make a coordinated effort to sort through these records and
get them online, one record/plantation at a time???
I plan on going back to Auburn soon (before Christmas) and will probably
photocopy parts of the 1835 Cherokee Census mentioned above to put online.
If anyone is already working on this (or knows someone who is working on it),
please let me know.
Meanwhile, I did manage to photocopy 1850 slave schedules for Union, Gilmer
and Rabun Counties, as well as the 1860 Agricultural Productions Schedule for
Rabun County. I will make them available online as soon as I finish putting
the rest of the Stephens Co., GA marriage books in the Archives...four books
down, three to go!
I'm also sending this e-mail to the GAGenWeb county list, so if you get two
copies of it, just ignore one of them. :-)
Sincerely,
Dawn Watson
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/region/southeast/
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ridge/3398/