Texas General Land Office

First, please forgive the one day delay in this week's post. I was out of work ill yesterday. Back on my feet today.
The Texas General Land Office was created 22 Dec. 1836. According to James Harkins (Archives and Records, GLO) "the land system initially adopted by the Republic of Texas was essentially a continuation form the Spanish and Mexical rule, with notable changes in the manner of administering the land granting process." The current GLO can be a great resource is you have ancestors who were in this territory, even if it was before it was a Republic or a state. There are 6987 land titles granted in Texas by the Crown of Spain or Republic of Mexico, representing 26.28 million acres of land. In this collection you might find out when your ancestor came to pre-revolutionary Texas, where your ancestor came from, and read interesting correspondence about the settlement of land between various government officials. From the English language records you might find out when your ancestor arrived in Texas and where they settled, if they were married, if they served in the Texas revolution, and how much land they received. One of the best parts about the Texas General Land Office records is they are almost all online. http://www.glo.state.tx.us/archives.html
It is an easy web site to use too. If you're not sure you're doing the search right, just contact them for help. You can even have them do the search for you for only a small fee.

Society of the Cincinnati

The Society of the Cincinnati was founded at the end of the American Revolutionary War by the Continental Officers and the French officers who participated. It was named for the Roman citizen-soldier Cincinnatus who twice left his farm and led a Roman legion to victory, then returned to his farm rather than acquiecse to the push for him to take political office. Ironically, George Washington was the General Society's first president. One of the older books in our collection, published in 1934, is the Sesquicentennial history and roster of the Society of the Cincinnati in the State of Virginia 1783-1933. The book includes the by-laws, signatures of the Parchment Roll signed in 1783, roll of 1783, extracts from the minutes of various meetings, officers of the General Society and the Virginia Society 1783-1933, Sesquicentennial roster of the Virginia Society for that time period, winners of the Virginia Society medals at the Virginia Military Institute, the College of William and Mary, the University of Virginia, and Washington and Lee University, and a list of officers elligible to be represented in the Society in Virginia. If you think you have an American Revolutionary officer in your past come take a look at this source to find out if he was a member of this exclusive society. The book can be found at R Gen 929.3755 HUM.

Some Georgia counties

Milledgeville, GA is the seat of Baldwin County and was Georgia's capital city from 1806 to 1868. This county was created in 1803 and 1806 from the Creek Cessions of 1802 and 1805. It was named for Abraham Baldwin who signed the U.S. Constitution for Georgia and who is considered the Father of the University of Georgia. Between it's founding and 1856 land in this county was given to Jasper, Jones, Morgan and Putnam counties, and land was taken from Hancock, Jones, Washington and Wilkinson counties. If you have any ancestors in the central Georgia region during the period 1820 - 1972 you should take a look at the new 12-volume set Milledgeville, Georgia newspaper clippings by Tad Evans.  They include such interesting extracts as the naming of the new postmaster at Savannah, lists of those seated on a grand jury, persons whose property was in a Sheriff's sale, and the usual announcements of births, deaths, and marriages. We have many of Mr. Evan's works and they are all high quality publications. This particular one can be found at R Gen 929.3758573 EVA.

How to Use Heritage Quest

For those of you who enjoyed our program with Tresa Tatyrek in January here's your chance to learn from her again. She will be presenting a program on How to Use Heritage Quest on July 17 at the W.O. Haggard Jr. Library in Plano. 10:30am - 12:30pm. This is a program sponsored by the Genealogy Friends of Plano Libraries, Inc. The Haggard Library is on the West side of Coit between Park Blvd and Parker Road.

Closed July 4 & 5

The McKinney Public Library System will be closed Sunday, July 4 and Monday, July 5, 2010 in recognition of Independence Day.