Finding Your Folks

By JUDY FOWLER KILGORE
jkilgore@thecitizennews.

I was pleasantly surprised earlier this week when I dropped in on my mom for my regular Tuesday-after-work visit and she commented on how much she enjoyed the column on land lotteries.
Mom asked me a question — one I couldn’t answer — and that gave me the idea for this column. I still don’t know the complete answer but maybe some of you do. She wanted to know how the counties were named. Not who they were named after, but who actually chose the names for the counties. “Did the people have anything to do with it?” she asked.
Of course I went to my most complete resource (the Internet) and did a general search for “county formation in Georgia.” There are some excellent Web sites and, while I didn’t find the absolute answer, the sites allowed me to come to a temporary conclusion, which is: the counties were named by members of the Georgia Legislature. There is an excellent article written by Ed Jackson on the University of Georgia’s Web site (www.cviog.uga.edu/Projects/gainfo/countyhistory.htm) called, “A Brief History of Georgia Counties,” which gives a wealth of information on how counties in Georgia came to be. Once again, information on county formations is crucial when you are searching for your ancestors.
Georgia, as most of you know, has 159 counties, second only to Texas (254) in the number of counties in any one state. Here is how those 159 counties came into being.
According to Mr. Jackson’s article, the first attempt to form counties in Georgia was in 1741 when the Trustees decided to divide Georgia into two colonies: Savannah and Frederica. But war with Spain took everybody’s mind off the county concept and the idea died.
When Georgia became a royal colony, the Church of England became the official church, and Georgia (what little there was) was divided into eight parishes. All this was done by a legislative assembly and the parishes functioned as they did in England, giving support for the clergy and other religious expenses. But, unlike England, Georgia’s parishes also functioned as governmental districts and handled elections, taxes, vital statistics, and maintained roads.
In 1765, the colonial assembly added four parishes south of the Altamaha River and, in 1773, added a large area of land ceded by the Indians north of Augusta. This, however, was not designated as a parish.
After the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, Georgia adopted a new constitution, and revamped the existing 12 parishes and the ceded land into eight “counties.” Except for Liberty County, they were all named for prominent Englishmen sympathetic to the cause of the colonies.
After the revolution, the hoard of settlers coming into Georgia pressured the Indians to give up more and more land and, by 1800, Georgia had 24 counties. By 1827, there were 53, and by 1832, with the division of many of the original counties and the addition of “Cherokee” county (the big one), the number jumped to 89 — and all the land in Georgia was now used up.
Not satisfied with the status quo, Georgia counties kept dividing and by 1875, the number was up to 137. A new law froze that number in 1877, but laws can change.
In 1904, the law was amended and eight more counties were added. We were now at 145. In 1906, another county was added and, in the next 20 years, 15 more. By 1924, Georgia had 161 counties. The merging of Milton and Campbell into Fulton County in 1932 brought the number down to 159, and there we have stayed for the past 71 years.
All this growth and division was handled by Georgia legislators through constitutional amendments and legislative acts. And, I would imagine, when all this growth was occurring and new counties were being formed, the legislators were the ones who decided on the names. Every county is named specifically “for” someone or something and these can be found in each county’s history book and on the county Web sites.
Fayette, of course, was named for the Marquis de LaFayette, the French officer who did so much for the colonies during the Revolutionary War; Coweta was named for a tribe of Indians who once inhabited the area; and Campbell was named for Col. Duncan G. Campbell, one of the negotiators of the Indian Springs Treaty of 1825. I do not know if the people in the counties suggested names to their legislators or if it was strictly a state-lawmakers-only deal. Of course, in the case of the earlier counties, there were no people living there to suggest anything, so the names must have come from the state legislators. If someone has specific information on this topic, I’d love to hear from you.
There is one more thing I’d like to mention and that is why some of the counties divided and got smaller.
The original counties were absolutely huge and, since all county business (registering of deeds, wills, marriages, paying taxes and other such official stuff) had to be conducted at the county “seat” (sort of like the capital of the county), the large distances that had to be traveled put a hardship on the residents and counties were made smaller to alleviate this hardship. It is said that the county seat was required to be no more than one day’s ride by horseback or carriage from the farthest point in the county. I have absolutely no factual basis for that but have read and heard it many times. And it sure makes sense.
There is an excellent map available at the Coweta Genealogy Library in Grantville which shows all the Georgia counties and in which order they were created (by years).
If you have a genealogy story about a south metro Atlanta area 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.)

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