• GA Home
• GA Genealogical Records
  • Census Records
  • Church Records
  • Court Records
  • Land Records
  • Military Records
  • Vital Records
• GA Maps
• GA Archives & Societies
• GA Newspapers
• GA Periodicals
• Search GA Databases
• Blog

Georgia Genealogical Periodicals and Publications

One of the most formidable challenges facing genealogists is finding all the information for a particular ancestor and a specific geographic area of interest—the challenge of comprehensive searching. So much of the success one enjoys—or the frustration one endures—is directly tied to finding and using the widest range of sources. The many different kinds of magazines and periodicals published by individuals and organizations in the field are often overlooked sources of genealogical clues.

With the many thousands of periodicals currently being published or having been published, the task of finding specific geographic and surname data may at first appear daunting. But there are numerous ways of both finding the right periodical and locating the meaningful articles for research. These ways come in the form of directories and lists as well as a wide variety to indexes providing access to the world of genealogical periodical literature.

Because of the limited amount of published materials on most Georgia counties, periodical literature is essential. There are more than thirty-five periodicals published in Georgia by local and state historical and genealogical organizations. The Genealogical Periodical Annual Index and the Periodical Source Index, 1847-1985survey some of these publications as well as articles on Georgia from periodicals done outside the state.

Two historical periodicals include Georgia Historical Quarterly, published by the Georgia Historical Society, and Atlanta History: A Journal of Georgia and the South, published by the Atlanta Historical Society, which has also published general indexes.

A host of periodicals regarding Georgia genealogy is currently being published, including Georgia Genealogical Society Quarterly (Atlanta: Georgia Genealogical Society, 1964- present). The Georgia Genealogical Society will soon issue the past issues of its quarterly in a word-searchable CD-ROM disk. The Georgia Archives and the FHL have copies of these periodicals and others.

Georgia has more than 100 manuscript repositories, many of which have excellent local sources. See Robert H. Warnock, Society, 1995).

The Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscripts Library of the University of Georgia Libraries in Athens and the Georgia Historical Society in Savannah have Georgia’s most extensive manuscript collections.

Leon S. Hollingsworth’s genealogical card file was microfilmed by the R. J. Taylor Jr. Foundation in 1978. Recently refilmed, the 45,000 three-by-five cards in this collection reference people from thousands of original source records in Georgia. Notations include an abstract of the information and citation of the original source. The collection is both a name file and place-name index. The collection is available at the FHL and for purchase from Reprint Co., Box 4501, Spartanburg, SC 29304. Hollingsworth’s research files are only available for use by researchers at the Georgia Archives. The Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscripts Library of the University of Georgia has the similar, but much earlier, James A. LeConte Genealogical Collection on microfilm.

• Search The PERiodical Source Index
• Georgia Genealogical Society Quarterly (Atlanta, Ga.: Georgia Genealogical Society, 1964–present)
• Georgia Historical Quarterly published by the Georgia Historical Society
• Atlanta History A Journal of Georgia and the South published by the Atlanta Historical Society
• Georgia Genealogical Magazine (Easley, S.C.: Silas E. Lucas, Jr., 1961–present)