If Your Family Came From These 7 Southern States — These Records Reveal Your True Ancestors

Four of these seven states have no 1790 census at all, and it wasn't your county courthouse that lost it. The National Archives says the schedules for Virginia, Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee were apparently destroyed when the British burned Washington in the War of 1812, and the 1800 census for the same four went with them. So how do I keep finding those same families, in those same years? Because the state never stopped writing them down. I'm Margaret Carroll, thirty-eight years in the basement of an eastern Kentucky courthouse with the deed books and the tax lists. In this video I walk you through one surviving record for each of seven Southern states. Virginia's land patents from 1623 and the Lost Records Localities collection for burned counties. North Carolina's 216,000 land grants, free online with the survey and the chain carriers named. South Carolina's state plats, 1784 to 1868, with the neighbors drawn in. Georgia's land lotteries, 1805 to 1833, and who qualified in each one. Tennessee's North Carolina grants and the 1,650 Civil War veterans' questionnaires that asked old men about their fathers. Kentucky's Land Office patents and the annual tax lists that start in 1792. And Alabama's federal patents, the 1866 state census that counted the soldiers who didn't come home, and the 1907 Confederate census with birthplaces. If you've been told the trail goes cold before 1850, start with the state archive, not the county seat. That's where the copy that didn't burn is sitting. WHAT TO DO THIS WEEK (all free) Library of Virginia, land patents and grants: https://lva-virginia.libguides.com/la... N C Land Grants (North Carolina and early Tennessee): https://www.nclandgrants.com/ South Carolina online records index: https://www.archivesindex.sc.gov/ Georgia Archives, land lottery and grant records: https://www.georgiaarchives.org/resea... Kentucky Land Office: https://www.sos.ky.gov/land/Pages/def... BLM General Land Office records (Alabama patents): https://glorecords.blm.gov/ FamilySearch, Alabama 1866 state census: https://www.familysearch.org/search/c... SOURCES National Archives, 1790 census: https://www.archives.gov/research/cen... National Archives, 1800 census: https://www.archives.gov/research/cen... National Archives, 1810 census: https://www.archives.gov/research/cen... Library of Virginia, patents and grants collection: https://www.lva.virginia.gov/node/192 Library of Virginia, Lost Records Localities: https://uncommonwealth.lva.virginia.g... NC Historical Records Online: http://info.nclandgrants.com/ SC Archives, state plats online: https://scdah.sc.gov/news/2021-06/sta... SC Archives, online research: https://scdah.sc.gov/research-and-gen... Georgia Archives, land grant and lottery summary (PDF): https://www.georgiaarchives.org/asset... Tennessee State Library and Archives, early land grants: https://sos.tn.gov/tsla/guides/early-... Tennessee State Library and Archives, veterans' questionnaires: https://sos.tn.gov/tsla/guides/tennes... Tennessee Encyclopedia: https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/ent... Emerging Civil War: https://emergingcivilwar.com/2024/08/... The questionnaires in print, five volumes: https://search.worldcat.org/title/Ten... Kentucky Land Office, patent series: https://www.sos.ky.gov/land/non-milit... Kentucky Land Office, how a patent was made: https://www.sos.ky.gov/land/non-milit... Kentucky Historical Society, tax lists 1792 to 1840: https://kentuckyancestors.org/tax-lis... FamilySearch Wiki, Kentucky taxation: https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/... Kentucky Genealogical Society, courthouse disasters: https://kygs.org/kentucky-courthouse-... FamilySearch Wiki, Alabama land: https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/... International African American Museum, Alabama 1866 census: https://iaamuseum.org/center-for-fami... FamilySearch Wiki, Alabama 1907 Confederate census: https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/... I read every one of these pages before I said a word of this. If one has moved, tell me in the comments and I'll pin the fix. #genealogy #familyhistory #southerngenealogy #landrecords