Augusta Public Library Local History and Genealogy

Mark your calendars! Brad Cunningham will speak on January 23rd at the Friends of the Library meeting about the extremely interesting history of the Appleby Branch Library, which was once a private home. How did it become a library? Here’s your chance to find out. The program will begin at 6:30 at the Main Library, corner of Telfair and James Brown Boulevard.

Many of you may know Brad from his work on restoring a Greene Street house or from his research work on the Coleman Leigh Warren Cemtery, or even from the Reid Memorial Presbyterian Church where he plays the organ. If you do, you’ll know that he is a meticulous researcher and a very entertaining speaker. Please plan to join us at the Friends meeting!

We’ll be having several new classes in February. The first will be about Researching in Richmond County. It will be at 2:00 on February 2nd. The other class will be in the computer classroom on February 16th at 2:30. It will be about the online Government Land Office. Mark your calendars!

Hello Augustans!

The Georgia Room needs your help! We would like to add some photographs to our historic photographs collection. We already have pictures of the 1888 and 1908 floods. We are in desperate need of historic photographs of old houses and buildings, especially along Broad Street and Greene Street.

We also accept donations of your vintage, well-loved yearbooks!

by Aspasia Luster

Lots of new books in this week! We have early Virginia census books, South Carolina books (including a Union County Deed Abstracts book by Brent H. Holcomb), and a very interesting book about Aftrican American Creeks. They are on display this week.

Mr. Thomas Hill was kind enough to donate Dr. Adam Littleton’s Latin Dictionary to the library. It was published about 1703 in London and bought the next year. The book was owned by Dr. Beverly Allen Henry, who was a physician in Elberton, Georgia, and purchased by his ancestors.

The Friends of the National Archives-Southeast Region will be hosting a webinar this Monday, December 12^th at 7pm. The topic will be “Searching the NARA Website” and the webinar will be hosted by Mary Evelyn Tomlin, who works in Public Programs of the National Archives of Atlanta.

The Friends website describes this webinar: “The National Archives can be difficult to use. Mary Evelyn Tomlin will help us solve the mysteries navigating the site and show us effective search methods.” The NARA website may be difficult, but signing up for this webinar is super easy. You can sign up here: http://www.friendsnas.org/webinarSch.htm.

by Aspasia Luster

Mark your calendars! Barbara Seaborn, the author of “As Long As the Rivers Run,” will be in the Georgia Room on January 14th at 2:00. Her book is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of Columbia County.

Please make plans to join us January 14th. Ms. Seaborn will have plenty of copies of her book available for purchase.

Confederate Invention: The Story of the Confederate States Patent Office and Its Inventors offers a unique look at the short-lived Confederate Patent Office. The Confederate Patent Office was flooded with inventions that would help the South in the war and in everyday life as well. Augusta has a connection to this book: On page 212, Patent #60 was issued for Jacob and William Platt, of Augusta, Georgia for Camp Cots.

And if you visit the Georgia Room you can view the Camp Cots patent in person! Be sure to ask at the Georgia Room desk to see it.

by Aspasia Luster

In honor of those who died at Pearl Harbor, Ancestry.com is allowing the public free access to their World War II collections from December 2-December 7.

by Aspasia Luster