Harry and Jane Nevin, of Palo Alto, Calif., look through old books trying to trace the history of Mr. Nevin's family in the Augusta area. ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER/STAFF

Genealogical library brims with history

Not every local site is related to golf. This week, we profile the secret places Augustans show guests when they come to town. The Augusta Genealogical Society in downtown Augusta is a treasure chest of family histories where people from all over the world come to search for their roots.

The society, at 1109 Broad St., is in what was once the uptown branch of the Georgia Railroad Bank, built in 1925. Walnut and mahogany teller sections are now used as carrels where people come to trace their ancestors using the society's resources.

Harry and Jane Nevin came from Palo Alto, Calif., a week ago to do research on his great-grandmother who lived in Summerville at Jones and McDowell streets in the 1800s. In the process, they filled in some significant gaps in Mr. Nevin's lineage.

"And we're very happy about it," Mr. Nevin said.

The nonprofit corporation has more than 1,500 members throughout the world and in 41 states, said Carrie Adamson, the chartering president.

The genealogical library, run by volunteers, contains more than 15,000 volumes. The society has published more than 40 volumes on the Augusta area, Mrs. Adamson said.

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The library contains family histories and documents donated from different areas, especially from along major migration paths, including New England, Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

"The fact that three major migration paths came down from the North early on and that the Old Federal Road came out of here early on makes Augusta a major migration city," Mrs. Adamson said. "In the Colonial period, there was hardly anything that could match it.

"In fact, the Great Philadelphia Wagon Road that ended in Augusta is considered one of the major - if not the major - migration routes during the period from 1720 until after the Civil War."

When the settlers got to Augusta, they hit the Old Federal Road and went west, she said.

"Our first year, we made contact with a lot of people in Texas and told them we would do research on their ancestors in the courthouse here if they would send us Bibles and journals and things their ancestors had taken west," Mrs. Adamson said. "And that's why we have so many members from Texas now."

The library's extensive Virginia collection is especially valuable to descendants of the early families who came to Augusta and Wilkes County.

"About 10 years ago, one of our members gave us a wonderful, very generous trust fund to buy Virginia books," Mrs. Adamson said. "So we went on a buying spree and bought everything we could find on Virginia county records in particular and on Virginia in general."

The library received another bonanza from a society member, a bookseller, who donated a set of the Official Records of the War of Rebellion and five other sets of books.

"So we have lots and lots of research material for the Civil War," Mrs. Adamson said. "And we have all of the published pension books of the Revolutionary War that we can get our hands on."

A 40-volume set on the Civil War with three indexes is one of the most useful sets in the library's collection, as is a collection of the Confederate Veteran magazine from 1894 through 1930.

The library also contains Southern Historical Society papers that cover several states, she said.

The Official Military Atlas of the Civil War contains military campaign maps from regular area and local maps printed before 1860. The maps retained the names of the communities and very often the people who lived there.

Chartering President Carrie Adamson pulls books from shelves at the Augusta Genealogical Society library. It has received several generous donations of resource materials from the society's members. The library is run by volunteers and has more than 15,000 volumes. ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER/STAFF

"There's an absolute map of Sherman's March from Atlanta to the sea," Mrs. Adamson said. "It shows the farms that it passed."

The Augusta Genealogical Society has published 13 journals with articles such as Naturalizations in Richmond County Superior Court from the 1790s through 1906, Dothan Church and Cemetery in Edgefield and Baptisms from Saint Paul's Church.

The first 10 journals alone have 65,000 name entries, Mrs. Adamson said.

"We've gotten into computers to do research, but the backbone of genealogical search is still the printed page and contact with other genealogists," she said.

IF YOU GO

The Augusta Genealogical Society is open Monday and Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.; and Sunday, 2 to 5 p.m.

Reach Sylvia Cooper at (706) 823-3228 or sylviaco@augustachronicle.com.

--From the Tuesday, April 8, 2003 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle