Georgia's Virtual Vaults

This post is a follow-up to yesterday's announcement from FamilySearch regarding the death certificates that are viewable online. I explored the state of Georgia's Digital Vault noting that there is more information that you might find worthy of your time. Please note that images of the documents are available to view at no charge. Below is a list of the various items that can be viewed at this site.

# Ad Hoc Collection
# Chatham County Deed Books
# Colonial Will Books
# Colonial Wills
# Confederate Enlistment Oaths and Discharges
# Confederate Pension Applications
# County Records from Microfilm
# District Plats of Survey
# Georgia Power Photograph Collection
# Headright and Bounty Plats
# Historic Postcard Collection
# Leo Frank Clemency Application
# Touring Georgia

One other link that you might find interesting is the "Vanishing Georgia" link. This link provides you with nearly 18,000 photographs covering approximately 100 years of Georgia History. I browsed through the collection and the pictures available for viewing include not only street scenes and home but also people with some identified and others not. If you are lucky you might find a picture of one of your relatives in this collection.

I must say that the Georgia Virtual Vault site is designed to be user friendly with the exception of the side tool bar. At first glance it looks clean and neat but once you click on one of the links to search the database, the black type changes to white and almost disappears against the light gray background used in the tool bar. If any change could made on this site it should be changing the link colors. I tried clearing the cookies for this site on my computer to see if this would affect the side tool bar but it did not. The better choice (from a visual ease standpoint) to browsing the collection would be to click on the "Collection List" on the tabs going across the top of the page. By clicking on the top tab for "Collection List" you get the same list of databases as listed on the side tool bar but they are larger in print and easier to read even after visiting the link.

If you family from Georgia, this site is worth the time to research the databases. If you would like to view this collection click Georgia's Virtual Vault and you will be directed to the home page for the Vault. Another site that you might want to visit is Georgia State Archives. This site informs you regarding Georgia's plan for future installment of images online as well as indexes that are currently open for searching online. Have fun!