Forsyth County - Home Page

Welcome to Forsyth County, Georgia! My name is John Salter, the County Coordinator for Forsyth County, Georgia. Enjoy your visit here! If you have any additions, suggestions or corrections for the site, please feel free to email me.

Forsyth County Courthouse (built 1977 on the site of the 1905 courthouse destroyed by fire.)

Donna Parrish
1938 - 2014

Donna was the County Coordinator on this site for many years. She was a genealogist, historian, and author of the highest regard. She freely helped everyone who asked.
Donna also provided much of the information that appears on this site and her family graciously allowed for much of her work to continue here.
She will be missed.

A Brief Introduction to Forsyth County History
Forsyth County was formed when the Act of 3 Dec 1832 divided the Original Cherokee County into ten smaller counties. The previous year the Original Cherokee County had been formed by lands ceded by the Cherokee Nation. The county was named for John Forsyth (1780-1841), a Representative and Senator for Georgia, who also served as Governor from 1827 to 1829. Because of its proximity to the Chattahoochee River and the many gold sources around it, Forsyth County was divided into 40-acre gold lots and was part of the 1832 Gold Lottery.

In 1834 the town of Cumming (named after Colonel William Cumming, 1788-1863, soldier and planter) was laid out and, because of its central location, became the county seat.

In 1857 Milton County (now the northern part of Fulton County) was formed from parts of Cobb, Cherokee, and Forsyth counties. This reduced the area of the county to its current size of 247.4 square miles. The dry-land area of the county was further reduced in the 1950's by the building of Buford Dam on the Chattahoochee River to form Lake Sydney Lanier, which covered nearly 10% of the county.

In 1971 Georgia State Route 400 was opened, allowing easy access from Atlanta to Lake Lanier and Forsyth County. The ease of access to Atlanta now allowed a rapid growth in the county's population to a point where the Forsyth County became one of the fastest growing counties in the United States.

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