History/Geography question about locating US ancestors

Question

I tend to have difficulty locating people in the US before the 1850 US census.  It's partly because my knowledge of historical geography is limited, and of course, pre-1850 census info is just harder to find.

For example, one of my husband's ancestors was theoretically  born in Georgia around 1804-1806.  Did Georgia encompass a different geographical area in the early 1800s than it does today? Should I be searching for this person's records in one of the other surrounding states because the territory shifted and the records (if they exist) might be held in an adjacent state -- or at least be recorded that way at FamilySearch.org?.

Does a Wikitree project  or other website exist that would help me with this type of geographical/historical research? Does anyone have any other thoughts about ways to sneak up on these pesky ancestors so they can't keep eluding me?

I'd like to learn better ways to conduct pre-1850 US research in general,--  but would also be grateful for any help with locating this specific family before 1850.  (The 1850 census table is shown on the profile page for John Griggs: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Griggs-1833

Thanks in advance,

Reba

Comments

The problem dealing with the south is that a lot of records were destroyed during the civil war. If you can keep track of counties that he lived in you might find him mentioned in the histories of those counties.

In 1850, John and his wife Mary were in Fayette County, Alabama. At least 9 of their children were born there:  https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MHP1-GGN

The History of Fayette County, Alabama might be a good place to search.

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Thank you, Saundra,

I'll try that.  I am trying the "sideways" approach (researching the children's families) in hopes that I'll stumble into clues about their family history.  So far it hasn't worked, but I'm still hopeful that I'll run into something.  

I'll look into the History of Fayette County, Alabama next.  That's a really good idea.

Reba

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I found a Genealogy of the Griggs Family:  https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89067279091;view=1up;seq=7

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Thanks, Saundra.

I do recall seeing this book in the past, but back then I hadn't learned enough of the family names/details for it to do me any good.  The book is very poor about placing people in any particular location and very few dates.   

I'm reviewing it again in case I see any "likely suspects" among the names.  (I am still going through it.)

I appreciate the help!

Reba

Answer 1

In regard to your question about historical geography, you might find the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries helpful - it is hosted on the Newberry Library website.

So if you have a Georgia county in question in 1900..and wanted to know what the county looked like in 1830, you could track the changes.  If the county boundaries changed during that time, there could be documentation in any of those counties it encompassed or neighboring counties.  You may be dealing with burned courthouses and reconstructed documentation but possibly provided in a neighboring county.

http://publications.newberry.org/ahcbp/

Comments

Thank you!  That's the kind of link I was fishing for.  I'll take a look and bookmark it.  It should help with similar types of questions in other states also.

Answer 2

We are also currently working on a spreadsheet for the states.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jlRaiRtaMEpsPdeuRLS2ids4HAXJyGVCKiQyEMh4NNE/edit#gid=667189750

This is more for STATE lines than county lines and it is not yet complete.

Meghan's link along with other tips are also available under the "INFO" tab on that sheet.

Comments

Thanks, Steven!  In this case, state lines IS what I need, since I don't have any county information (yet) for Georgia, which is the state I may need to research (unless it's not.)

Again, this is the type of information I am looking for.  I haven't checked it out yet, but if it helps me figure out where the boundaries were, it may help me be more sensible when I'm searching for records.

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ok, well, when you find the entry that is nearest your timeframe just follow the link and it should take you to a wikipedia article covering that state and it's boundaries during that time. Georgia actually looks fairly stable as far as the state itself after 1787. It may have gotten smaller on the country map but seems to have covered at least the present state boundaries.

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I am just beginning to look at that spreadsheet you linked to -- and WOW!  There's a lot of information there I don't think I ever could have found on my own, that looks useful for -- well, almost everything!  

Thank you so much1

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Barry Sweetman and I are collaborating on this. Once it is done it will move to his permanent location. So if you want to bookmark it, follow the link to "Return to historical north american place names" in the top left corner. It will go there when finished and the Canadian provinces one is already there.