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by Grace Gillam Davidson (Compiled by)
In these two volumes are abstracted some of the oldest and richest genealogical records of Wilkes County extant, spanning the period from 1777 to the 1830s. Included among these crucial records are Minutes of the First Court, 1779; First Marriage Book, 1792-1834; Deed Books AA through GG (perhaps the oldest on record for Wilkes County); a legion of will abstracts and indexes to wills; minutes of the Inferior Court; land lottery records; and more. In all, the two volumes identify more than 20,000 early inhabitants of Wilkes County. Two sets of transcriptions require special mention: (1) Original Papers, 1777-1830, constituting nearly a third of Volume I, represent a collection of previously uncatalogued manuscripts rescued from the county courthouse by Sarah Quinn Smith and here transcribed and arranged by Mrs. Davidson in alphabetical order according to the Wilkes County subject of each paper; and (2) the Land Court Journal to Ceded Lands, 1773-1775, which records the names of several hundred North and South Carolinians and Virginians who came to Georgia during these formative years.
