A+ for Meriwether Co.

A reminder to those of you who are submitting stories for the Meriwether County Heritage Book: The deadline is now about a month away, so get your family info together and send it in before it's too late. All the information on submissions is on the Meriwether County GenWeb page, if you missed it in my earlier column. If you don't have access to a computer, send a letter to the Meriwether County Heritage Book Committee, 135 Stovall Rd., Greenville, GA 30222, and they will send you a brochure. I hope this book is a huge success. Meriwether County was formed in the 1820s and is so very rich in Georgia history.

And, while I'm on the subject of Meriwether County, I'd like to give the county courthouse offices another A+ for their research facilities. I finally was able to get back down to Greenville and do some research on deeds.

While wills and estate records are located in the office of the probate judge, deeds are in the offices of the superior court judge, right down the hall from the probate office. Although the clerks can't help you search, they do point you in the direction of the records you need and are very cordial.

The setup is similar to the probate records in that the whole right wall is dedicated to the grantee and grantor index books, from 1827 to the present. This is the first place you should go. The grantee books list the persons who purchased land and from whom; the grantor books list the persons who sold land and to whom. The books are in alphabetical order and contain a wealth of information alone.

They give the name of the grantee, the name of the grantor, the date of "instrument," that is, the date they actually sat down and made the deal, the date the deed was recorded and filed (in most cases the same day), the number of acres sold, and the land lot and district numbers (location). They also indicate the type of deed and, of course, the deed book and page number where the original deed may be found.

What is different about the records here, is that you cannot view the original books. But never fear, it is still all there in that room. They have copied all the pages from the original books and bound them into smaller books for ease of handling and research, and to protect the integrity of the old records. And, another plus, since these are copies, you can make copies of the deeds to your heart's content (25 cents per copy on the honor system).

Once you locate a deed record which interests you, then find the deed book, find the page, and, voila! There you go.

Researching deeds is very time-consuming, however, so be prepared to go early and stay a long time (they close at 5 p.m.) and possibly to make several trips, if you have several ancestors or families to research. Also be prepared to stand a long time as there is no place to sit.

I was looking for Boyds and Owens and only got the Boyd grantee index listing done (I had to hand-copy the names and info) and was able to then make copies of several Boyd deeds. This took two days (actually half-days ... I am not an early riser.) I still have to get the Boyd grantors and all the Owens grantees and grantors.

However, I did get a bonus in that one of the Boyd-Owens deeds was the same. That one about blew me over when I learned that my mother's great-great-grandfather and my father's great-grandfather made a land deal in 1843. Martin Owens sold 50 acres of land to Hugh Boyd, who was his neighbor. The two families then went their separate ways (after 1850), my mom's going to Carroll and my dad's going to Fayette, Campbell and Cleburne (Alabama), before their descendants both moved to East Point in the 1930s and my mom and dad met. Weird, huh?

When I told this story to Mom (always the doubting Thomas), she wanted to know how I knew it was the same Hugh Boyd and the same Martin Owens. This is where the info on the deeds comes in handy. All the deeds are witnessed and this one was witnessed by William Boyd, Hugh's brother. As for Martin Owens, well, there was only one that I have been able to find and the land he sold was in the area in which he lived (mentioned in his estate papers). So there are usually double-checks to help you make sure you are on the right track.

As a courtesy to the clerks, be sure and tally up your total for copies before 4:30 since they close out their books for the day at that time. I'm afraid I inconvenienced one gracious lady who had already done her total. She took my money anyway, made change, and gave me a receipt, all in a very pleasant manner. I promised her I would do better next time.

And what did I learn? Well, one thing was that my Boyd ancestor was in Meriwether County as early as 1833 (when he bought the land described in his will seven years later), and that his sons were there two years earlier than that. Martin Owens was there as early as 1842, when he bought his first tract of land from a Matthew Harris.

My conclusion from this is, since Martin was in the 1850 Meriwether census, any children born between 1842 and 1850, were probably born in Meriwether County (including my great-grandmother).

Many items of genealogical interest may be obtained from a simple sale or purchase of land.

I hope this may help some of you who haven't ventured into this area. Like everything else in genealogy, it is fun, fun, fun!

If you have an interesting genealogy story about a south metro Atlanta family, send it to The Citizen, Drawer 1719, Fayetteville, GA 30214; E-mail jkilgore@thecitizennews.com or jodiek444@aol.com.

Until next week, happy hunting!

(Judy regrets that time does not permit her to do personal research for others.)