Rabun County, Georgia Genealogy

Guide to Rabun County, Georgia ancestry, genealogy and family history, birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, family history, and military records.

Description
The County was named for William Rabun. The County is located in the northeastern area of the state.

County Courthouse
Rabun County Courthouse 25 Courthouse Square, #7 Clayton, GA 30525-0925 Phone: 706-782-3615 Rabun County Website Probate Court has marriage and probate and court records. Clerk Superior Court has divorce, court and land records.

History Timeline
Rabun County is located in the Northeastern corner of Georgia.It is a mountain community and very rural.Its towns are small and friendly. The mountains are covered with forests, there are rivers and streams, and several lakes.

When Rabun County was settled, many of the new residents merely crossed the river from South Carolina to the new county and state.They would go back across the river to visit family members and friends. The town in South Carolina was closer than the town in Georgia to purchase supplies. When the Civil War started many men from Rabun County enlisted in South Carolina with their relatives. The geography of the area rather than lines drawn for states determined where events took place and where records were kept.

Cemeteries
The following web site may have additional information on Rabun County cemeteries.


 * Interment.net Georgia cemetery records

Land and Property Records
Land records in Rabun County are incomplete. Many of the land transactions were not recorded at the county seat. Land was traded between family members and neighbors for generations without official records being kept. In 1911, Congress passed the Weeks Law which authorized the purchase of timbered land on a large scale. Some of this land was located in Rabun County, Georgia. Officials were sent into Rabun County in 1912 to start purchasing land. Proposals of sale were secured and surveyors were sent to locate lands on which options had been secured. Their reports were turned over to title examiners who had to pass on the deeds before the lands could be purchased. The titles to most of the lands were so poor that proceedings of condemnation were taken before the Federal Court before good titles could be obtained. A Federal Court was established in Clayton for that purpose.

The condemnation process required that an attempt be made to locate all parties who might have an interest in or claim to the land in question.Advertisements were placed in the local paper listing the descendants of the last clear land owner in order to find anyone who might have claim to the land. Sometimes this was the first land owner when the county was created.Therefore every known descendant was listed down to the time the land was condemed. Over 6,000 names arranged in up to six generations of family genealogies are listed in these court cases. The data this process produced in invaluable to the researcher.Information was accumulated that has not been found in any other records to date. Both the maiden and married names of many female family members can be found.The addresses of those who had moved away also offer possible migration locations for family members. The exact method by which the names were compiled is not known. It is likely they were acquired in many ways, including deeds, newspaper advertisements, personal interviews, and other public records available at the time.

The original court case files are located at the National Archives, East Point, Georgia. The original land acqusition files are located at the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest Office, Gainesville, Georgia. These groups of records have not been organized or microfilmed. In 2001, Susan Lewis Koyle published Genealogy Extracted from Forest Service Court Cases in Rabun County, Georgia that gives the genealogies in many of these cases and has a name index. This book is located in the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. It is available for purchase through Heritage Books, Inc.

Local Histories
Sketches of Rabun County History by Andrew Jackson Ritchie. Located in Family History Library in Salt Lake.

Rabun County Georgia and its people, vol. 1 &amp; 2, 1992.

A Pictorial History of Rabun County by Cuba and Archie McKay, 2003.

Maps and Gazetteers

 * Maps of Georgia (1758-1932)

Military Records

 * Georgia USGenWeb Archives Project

Civil War 

Online Records
 * 1861-1865  at FamilySearch — index
 * 1861-1865  at FamilySearch — index
 * 1861-1865 U.S., Confederate Soldiers Compiled Service Records, 1861-1865 at Ancestry — index (free)
 * 1861-1865 U.S., Union Soldiers Compiled Service Records, 1861-1865 at Ancestry — index (free)
 * 1867-1868  at FamilySearch — index
 * 1879-1920  at FamilySearch — index


 * - 24th Regiment, Georgia Infantry (Confederate), Company E
 * - 52nd Regiment, Georgia Infantry (Confederate), Company F

(Many men in Rabun County joined units in South and North Carolina.)


 * Ledford, Karen Ann Thompson. These Men Wore Grey Genealogical, Military, and Interment Records of Confederate Soldiers. (Toccoa, Georgia: K.T. Ledford, c1998-c2001), 7 Volumes. Each volume contains bibliographical references and full-name index. Contents: v. 1. Franklin County -- v. 2. Habersham County --v. 3. Stephens County -- v. 4. Rabun County --v. 5. White County -- v. 6. Banks County -- v. 7. Jackson County. Book found at and Other Libraries.
 * Franklin County (Georgia). Superior Court Clerk. 1964. Confederate roster, 1862-1865. Salt Lake City, Utah: Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah.
 * Blakely, Duchess B., Judy H. Hulsey, and Vivian B. Young. 2011. Remembering Franklin County Confederate soldiers &amp; others --: 1861-2011. Lavonia, Georgia: United Daughters of the Confederacy. Lavonia Chapter no. 1216.
 * Georgia. Court of Ordinary (Rabun County). 1963. Confederate pension rolls, 1891-1919. Salt Lake City, Utah: Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah.

World War I
 * 1920-1929 at FamilySearch — index and images

Newspapers
Early newspapers published in Rabun County, or for the benefit of its citizens:


 * The Clayton Argus, published in 1894 by R. E. A. Hamby.
 * The Tallulah Falls Spray, published from 1896 to 1898 by J. B. Young and Walter Hunnicutt. In early 1898, Mr. Hunnicutt turned the paper over to T. A. Robinson.
 * The Clayton Tribune, first published in January 1898 by J. A. Reynolds.
 * The Clayton Telegraph, published in 1898 by A. B. Sams.
 * Echoes from Tallulah Falls, published in 1899 and possibly into 1900 by Walter Hunnicutt and William Berrie.

Of those periodicals, there are few extant issues. Only two issues survive for the Argus, and those are available on microfilm through the University of Georgia's newspaper project. A good portion of issues are extant for the Spray from 1897 and into the early part of 1898, but only one issue has been microfilmed; the remainder are available as a bound volume from the Rabun County Historical Society. Issues of the Tribune are available from 1899 (the first half of the year through the Historical Society, and the last on microfilm, although not all issues for that year are extant), 1902, 1903, and 1905. No issues are known to survive for either Echoes or the Telegraph. L. P. Cross' article on early newspapers as published in Sketches of Rabun County History by Ritchie contains some errors which have been corrected here by verification through the newspapers themselves.

A compilation of Rabun County's early newspapers was published in May 2012, Rabun County, Georgia, Newspapers, 1894-1899, covering extant issues of newspapers published in Rabun County during that time period.

Other Records
Voting Records 
 * 1867-1868  at FamilySearch — index

Probate Records
Online Probate Records


 * 1742-1990  at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1742-1992 Georgia Wills and Probate Records 1742-1992 at Ancestry — index and images ($)
 * 1826-1839 Testator Index: Minutes 1826-1839
 * 1838-1859 Testator Index: Wills, Inventories and Appraisements, 1838-1859
 * 1849-1866 Testator and Guardianship Index: Official Bonds, 1849-1866
 * 1850-1860 Testator Index: Minutes, Inventory &amp; Appraisement, 1850-1860
 * 1857-1867 Index to Wills 1857-1867 Georgia Pioneers ($)
 * 1857-1867 Wills, 1857-1867 (digital images). See list of testators.  Georgia Pioneers ($)
 * 1860-1868 Testator Index: Minutes of the Ordinary, 1860-1868
 * 1862-1888 Testator Index: Will Book B, 1862-1888
 * 1863-1888 Index to Wills 1863-1888 Georgia Pioneers ($)
 * 1869-1912 Index to Administrators Bonds, Guardians Bonds, 1869-1912 Georgia Pioneers ($)
 * 1870-1888 Testator Index: Records of Letters of Administration and Guardianship &amp; Wills, 1870-1888
 * 1878 Testator Index: Administrators, Estates, Guardians &amp; Trustees, Wills, 1878
 * 1881-1929 Testator Index: Will Book C, 1881-1929
 * 1885-1930 Index to Wills 1885-1930 Georgia Pioneers ($)
 * 1891-1900 Index to Letters of Administration, Guardianships, Wills, 1891-1900 Georgia Pioneers ($)
 * 1932-1959 Testator Index: Will Book D, 1932 - 1959

Tax Records
Extant tax records for Rabun County begin in 1836, but are largely incomplete until about 1872. The Georgia Department of Archives and History houses tax digests (or copies of) from that year up until the 1960s. More modern tax records may be found at the Tax Assessor's office in Clayton. The Rabun County Historical Society also has various tax digests, including two volumes from the 1930s and 1960s respectively.

The 1836 tax digest is held at the Georgia Department of Archives and History. The 1861 and 1862 tax digests are located in the Probate Court at the county courthouse in Clayton. The Probate Court also has road tax records from 1909 through about 1919.


 * An index to the 1836 tax digest for Rabun County is located online at USGenWeb Archives
 * An abstract of the 1861 tax digest for Rabun County is located online at USGenWeb Archives
 * A transcription of the 1909 road tax record for Rabun County is located online at USGenWeb Archives

Marriage
Marriages were first recorded in Rabun County in 1820, and are maintained by the Probate Court at the Courthouse in Clayton.

The first five marriage books have been microfilmed. Digitized versions of the microfilm copies of those volumes is available online, for free, through Georgia's Virtual Vault in the "Marriage Records from Microfilm" database.

The first three marriage books, covering the years 1820-1884, have been transcribed and placed freely online through the Rabun Co., GAGenWeb Archives. Some of the names were transcribed incorrectly, and so the original records should always be referenced. A book-length compilation of Rabun County's marriage records, as transcribed from official marriage records held by the Probate Court, for the years 1820 through the 1940s, is now underway.

The Georgia Department of Archives and History holds original marriage licenses for the years 1896 to 1920.


 * 1560-1993 Georgia, United States Marriages at FindMyPast — index ($)
 * 1699-1944 Georgia Marriages 1699-1944 at Ancestry — index ($)
 * 1754-1960  at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1785-1950  at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1787-1962  at FamilySearch — index
 * 1808-1967  at FamilySearch — index
 * 1820-1884 Rabun County Marriage Books A thru D Index 1820-1884. Batch  at FamilySearch
 * 1828-1978 Georgia Marriage Records from Select Counties 1828-1978 at Ancestry — index and images ($)
 * 1884-1895 Rabun County Marriage Index 1884-1895. Batch  at FamilySearch
 * 1885-1886 Marriages from Newspapers Georgia Pioneers ($)

Death

 * 1914-1927  at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1919-1998 Georgia Deaths 1919-1998 at Ancestry — index ($)
 * 1928-1942  at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1933-1998  at FamilySearch — index

Societies

 * Rabun County Historical Society PO Box 921 Clayton, GA 30525-0921 Phone: 706-782-5292 Website

Websites

 * Rabun County, GA History, Records, Facts and Genealogy
 * Georgia Genealogy Network Community on Google+
 * Georgia Genealogy Network Group on Facebook
 * USGenWeb project May have maps, name indexes, history or other information for this county.
 * Rabun Co., GAGenWeb
 * Rabun County, Georgia Genealogy and Family History (Linkpendium)
 * Georgia Pioneers ($)
 * - The FamilySearch catalog contains descriptions and access information for all genealogical materials (including books, online materials, microfilm, microfiche, and publications) in their collection.  Use Historical Records to search for specific individuals in genealogical records