research guide
These are links and explanatory guides to finding record sets naming both enslaved and free African Americans in Liberty County in case you want to browse through the record sets yourself. To see the record sets that this site has transcribed, abstracted, or listed, and made searchable, please click on “Using This Site” in the header menu.
If you are beginning your research of enslaved people, please read this comprehensive article by David E. Paterson of Afrigeneas describing what kinds of records are available in Georgia: http://www.afrigeneas.com/library/slaves_georgia.html
The documents he is talking about are mostly available online now. In particular, click below on “Mortgages/Deeds,” “Probate,” and “Court Records.” The first two of these sections also contain a guide to using the record set online.
When these records have been abstracted, transcribed or listed on this site, a link has been provided.
1790 Census
The 1790 U.S. Federal Census for Georgia was burned by the British during the War of 1812.
1800 Census
The 1800 U.S. Federal Census for Georgia was burned by the British during the War of 1812.
1810 Census
The 1810 U.S. Federal Census for Georgia was burned by the British during the War of 1812.
1820 Census (not divided by District)
Ancestry
FamilySearch
1830 Census (not divided by District)
Ancestry
FamilySearch
1840 Census (not divided by District)
Ancestry
FamilySearch
1850 Census
FamilySearch (not divided by District)
Ancestry (divided by District)
District 15
Ancestry
District 16
Ancestry
District 17
Ancestry
Walthourville
Ancestry
1860 Census
FamilySearch (divided by District)
District 15
District 16
District 17
District 1132
Ancestry (divided by District)
District 15
District 16
District 17
District 1132
1870 Census (divided into subdivisions)
Controversy surrounding the 1870 Liberty County census and reason for noting the enumerator and number of pages beside each link.
FamilySearch
“Liberty County, part of” (Holcombe) (36 pages)
Subdivision 78 (Holcombe) (247 pages)
Subdivision 176 (John E. Martin) (30 pages)
Subdivision 177 (J.S. Fleming) (20 pages)
Subdivision 178 (John S. Norman) (24 pages)
Subdivision 179 (A.J. Quarterman) (18 pages)
Subdivision 180 (Robert Q. Baker) (55 pages)
Subdivision 181 (W.S. Norman) (56 pages)
Ancestry
Not Stated (Holcombe) (277 pages)
Subdivision 78 (Holcombe) (4 pages)
Subdivision 176 (John E. Martin) (28 pages)
Subdivision 177 (J.S. Fleming) (20 pages)
Subdivision 178 (John S. Norman, 23 pages)
Subdivision 179 (A.J. Quarterman) (18 pages)
Subdivision 180 (Robert Q. Baker) (52 pages)
Subdivision 181 (W.S. Norman) (56 pages)
1850 U.S. Federal Census – Slave Schedules
Ancestry
District 15
District 16
District 17
Hinesville
St. Catherines Island
Walthourville
FamilySearch
Liberty County (all)
1860 U.S. Federal Census – Slave Schedules
Ancestry
District 1132 (2 pages)
District 15 (52 pages)
District 16 (3 pages)
District 17 (19 pages)
FamilySearch (couldn’t find it)
Liberty County Superior Court deeds & mortgages from 1777 to 1920 have been digitized and placed online at the Ancestry.com (subscription) and FamilySearch.org (free) websites. Unfortunately, these are only images, and they are not searchable. However, the Court’s index for these records, covering the period from 1777 to 1958, was also digitized and put online. It also is not searchable, but it is in alphabetical order and you can page through it to find records.
All Liberty County deeds & mortgages from 1785 to 1865 have been abstracted and are available on this site. Use the search bar in the header to search for your person of interest.
Click here to find a guide for using the indexes to find these digitized records.
Finding African Americans in Liberty County Deeds & Mortgages
It may seem counter-intuitive to look for African Americans in deeds and mortgages from before the Civil War. Why look there, when they could not own property? Because the hard truth is that they were considered property themselves, so transactions involving them were recorded in the court system. This includes bills of sale, deeds of gift, marriage settlements, and use as collateral to secure loans. In fact, these are some of the most useful records available online for finding information on African American ancestors before (and during) the Civil War.
Because any “property” involved must be described, the records include their names and often their ages and even relationships. Sometime relationships can be guessed, as when a man, woman, and children of the right ages to be a family are listed.
There are two strategies if you are looking for African American ancestors: one for before the Civil War, and one for after. Here’s the problem: the index only includes the name of the grantors and grantees. So, while many people — black and white — will be mentioned in the records, only the names of the primary participants in the transaction will be in the index. Before the Civil War, because enslaved people could not own property, these participants will be exclusively white.
After the Civil War, African Americans were of course buying and selling property, and their names may be found in the indexes using the guide mentioned above.
Because these records are not searchable, discovering records that name someone who is not a primary participant is tedious. I am going through these records page by page, starting with the period just before the Civil War, and recording on this site all names involved in records that name African Americans, so you can try searching this site for names, but this is a slow process and there are many names not yet recorded. You can also page through all the records yourself looking for names, which is very time-consuming and involves scanning the old handwriting for names.
Here’s another method, and there’s just no way around it: if you want to find records involving your African American ancestor from before the Civil War, you are going to have to identify their enslaver so that you can look for his or her name in the index. (An added complication is that women did hold property but could not hold it in their own names, so a trustee would be appointed, and often the trustee’s name is the one in the index.)
The guide assumes you have either identified the enslaver, or you are looking for someone who bought or sold property after the Civil War. Of course, this method also works for someone who is seeking a white ancestor who was involved in a property transaction prior to the Civil War.
Liberty County Court of Ordinary probate documents, beginning with post-Revolutionary War period, were microfilmed in 1958 by The Genealogical Society of Salt Lake City, Utah, and the Georgia State Department of Archives and History, and are maintained online at FamilySearch.org and Ancestry.com. Liberty County was fortunate enough not to have its courthouse burned during the various wars, so its records remain extensive. Online they are divided into lists of record sets and can be accessed here:
All Liberty County deed records from 1786 to 1865 (and some after that) that name enslaved people have been abstracted and placed on this site. Use the search bar above to search for your person of interest.
FamilySearch.org: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G93L-P9R2?owc=9SYT-L2W%3A267679901%3Fcc%3D1999178&wc=9SYT-PT5%3A267679901%2C268032901&cc=1999178
Ancestry.com: https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/usprobatega/
I have gone through all of these records and have constructed a finding aid. Because the records are not searchable, I have included hyperlinks to each record set and within each record set to the typed or handwritten indexes. The indexes usually include the page number of the record within the original record book, and you can use it to find the record in the online record set. (A more detailed guide to doing this is in preparation.) You can access the finding aid here:
https://theyhadnames.net/liberty-county-probate-documents/
If you have any trouble using the finding aid, please feel free to contact me! I created it for my own use, and am putting it online in hopes of keeping someone else from having to page through all those thousands of pages. Feedback and suggestions are much appreciated.
For an excellent guide on using estate inventories to do African-American genealogy, see Robyn’s blog post here: https://www.reclaimingkin.com/examining-slaves-in-inventories/.
Midway Congregational Church
What remains of the original Midway Church records have been digitized and are online at FamilySearch.org at these links:
https://www.familysearch.org/search/film/007578449?cat=137339
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89XF-2CWB?i=18&cat=137339
The Midway Church records were also transcribed by workers from the Federal Emergency Relief Administration in Savannah in the 1930’s. Their works was revised by Ola M. Wyeth, Librarian of the Savannah Public Library, and Dolores Floyd, Branch Librarian, Hodgson Hall, both of whom did a great service to descendants of African American church members. That transcript is also digitized and available online at this link: https://www.familysearch.org/search/film/007578447?cat=137339. The typed transcript includes an index of names that includes both white and black members and is contained within images 6-116 of the typed transcript link above. [NOTE: Because the transcripts were prepared by people unfamiliar with the names, please be sure to check the transcribed name against the original record.]
James Stacy compiled the records into his “History of the Midway Congregational Church, Liberty County, Georgia, but he only included the records related to the white members and the general history of the church. His book has been digitized and is available at this link: https://archive.org/details/historyofmidwayc00stac.
Liberty County Inferior Court and Court of Ordinary Minutes, 1799-1871
County Court minutes, 1882-1891
Liberty County Superior Court Equity Proceedings, 1877-1889
Liberty County Court of Ordinary Minutes, 1820-1940
Liberty County Superior Court Proceedings, 1826-1922
Liberty County Superior Court Minutes, 1784-1935
Liberty County Superior Court Divorce Records, 1787-1898
Free Persons of Color, 1852-1864 (in the middle of a set of unrelated records)
Liberty County Plat Records (but record set not labelled as such)
The FamilySearch.org Wiki pages are excellent resources for finding databases to search for your ancestors. Below you will find the Wiki pages for Georgia and for Liberty County.
Georgia FamilySearch Wiki page
Liberty County FamilySearch Wiki page
Marriages of the formerly enslaved were recorded at the Liberty County courts, as follows:
The Southern Claims Commission was established after the Civil War to evaluate the claims of Union sympathizers living in the South for reimbursement due to property confiscation. Liberty County had an unusual number of enslaved African Americans who were allowed to own property, and the Union soldiers were equal-opportunity foragers, so many Liberty County African Americans filed reimbursement claims. These records are outstanding sources of information about not only the claimant, but also the witnesses.
There is a master index to all the claims, and a record set containing the allowed claims and one containing the disallowed claims. Both are equally useful in researching your ancestors.
For PDFs of the three versions of the questions asked in the Southern Claims Commission process, click here and scroll to the bottom of that page. (The questions are not normally included in the filled-out claim forms, so knowing them can be useful in understanding the answers.)
To find the master index and the actual claims:
The following links are on Ancestry.com and require a paid subscription; however, many libraries provide free Ancestry access:
To search the “Southern Claims Commission Allowed Claims, 1871-1880” documents, including Georgia, use the search form here. The same link will allow you to browse the claims by state and county.
To search the “Southern Claims Commission, Disallowed and Barred Claims, 1871-1880” documents, including Georgia, use the search form here. The same link will allow you to browse the claims by state and county.
To search or browse the Southern Claims Commission Master Index, 1871-1880, click this link.
Original images of the 1864 State Census for Re-Organizing the Militia are available at the Georgia Digital Vault. These provide the names of White men eligible for the military and identifying information. Find them at: