How to Search Cherokee County, GA Land Records Online

Yay! Genealogists with Georgia ancestry are in luck. We can search Cherokee County Georgia land records online and (hopefully) bust through some brick walls. Here’s how to get started: Intro to Searching Cherokee County, GA Deeds Online You’ll arrive at a page with two search engines: The search engine on the left (“Index Book Series”)

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Buffalo Bill Cody

Letter from George W. West to Paschal West, 1887

I’m thrilled to finally be able to transcribe and publish another one of the letters from the late 1800’s my cousin Ron West sent to me. These letters are from my West ancestors and are true treasures! The other two I’ve already transcribed can be found here: A Letter from Jennet Cowen West, 1888 A

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Of Smothering in the Most Beauteous of Counties

Upon doing some light Sunday evening reading in the 1850 U.S. Federal Census Mortality Schedule, I was delighted to discover this little gem about my home county, Cherokee County, GA. These notes are written by the census taker beneath the schedule of people who died between June 1,1849 and June 1, 1850: Transcription: There has been

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Lightner West and the Horrors of War

Yesterday I inadvertently had a War Movie Day. I happened to be at my mom’s while she watched Monuments Men, and then I went with my dad to see the new Brad Pitt WWII tank movie, Fury. Strangely enough, I had just hours earlier been perusing the Compiled Civil War Service Records for my 3rd

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Behind “Farm Laborer”: A Peek at Working Whites of the Old South

If you’re like me you’re grateful when you find a relative in a census or other source holding an occupation anything – ANYTHING – other than “farmer” or “farm laborer.” …But a book I’ve been wanting to read for over a decade and somehow finally just procured has me realizing that – like with just

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How to Greet a Lady or Gentleman (When You’re in 1849)

After doing so much research in Forsyth County, GA (where old newspapers are few and far between), I was delighted to discover that the Keowee Courier from Pickens County, SC has been printing almost continuously since 1849. Yay! This little gem comes from the Keowee Courier’s very first issue on May 18th, 1849. Tl;dr “Take

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