The Gilmer County website joins with the American people in mourning the death of Ronald Reagan. President Ronald Reagan was a GREAT AMERICAN. We offer our condolences to Nancy Reagan and all of the members of the Reagan Family. Mr. President, you will be sadly missed. You made the world a better place!
Picture from http://www.whitehouse.gov
NEW! Digging Up Your Indian Heritage by Leslie Barker Thomas! NEW!
NEW! The Wells Family of Gilmer County! NEW
Thanks to Lawrence Wells!
NEW! A chronology of the Gipson/Gibson Family of Gilmer County! NEW!
Thanks to Julia Ingle Schultz
We are Richard and
Kathleen Pettys
, and we are the persons responsible for the Gilmer County pages.
We are always looking for persons with information on Gilmer County and/or
"lookup volunteers" in Gilmer County. If you have information on
Gilmer County that might help others and are willing to provide lookup
services in these sources, please advise us so that we may make this information
available to others. If you have genealogy books that provide information
on Gilmer County and have time to look information up, please let us
know that we may make your information available to others. We
live in the Metro Atlanta area, about an hour and a half from Gilmer
County and will be making trips there for informational purposes.
Please bear with us as we update these pages.
For those wondering why we would adopt a county so far from home, the
answer is quite simple. Richard is the great-great-great grandson of
John Daniel Nelson
and
Comfort Jones Nelson
. J.D. Nelson and Comfort Jones were married at Gilmer County,
and it is believed that Comfort may have been raised in Gilmer County,
if not born there. J.D. Nelson was the maker of the Nelson Rifle
which was the most accurate rifle of its time and was used extensively
by the Confederate armies during the American Civil War. J.D. Nelson
also had a shop at Boardtown in Gilmer County and married his last two
wives (whom Richard's side of the family does not recognize) at Cherry
Hill in Gilmer County, Georgia. Further, Richard is descended of
the Watkins family, also of Gilmer County.
Gilmer County is located in the Northwest region of Georgia. The
county was created from original
Cherokee County
on December 3, 1832, and in 1856, a portion of
Union
County was added to create the current size of Gilmer County.
It was named for George R. Gilmer, an Indian fighter and Georgia's governor
during the gold rush. Early settlements included Mountaintown, Boardtown,
Cartecay, Cherry Log, and Talking Rock, to name a few. The
Gilmer County Chamber of Commerce
may be contacted by mail at 205 Craig Street, East Ellijay, Georgia
30539 or by phone at 706-635-7400 to learn more about Gilmer County.
At present, the county is bounded on the north by
Fannin
County, to the east by
Fannin
and Dawson
Counties, to the west by
Murray
and Gordon
Counties, and on the south by
Pickens
County.
The Gilmer County area was originally settled by
the Cherokee Indians around 1650. The county seat is located in
the city of Ellijay, which bears the same name as a Cherokee settlement
located in the same place, where the Ellijay and Cartecay Rivers come
together to form the Coosawattee River. The word Ellijay means "new
ground place" in the Cherokee tongue.
It is believed that DeSoto and his followers were
the first Europeans in the Gilmer County area, and several missions
were sent to build the Catholic faith in what is now Gilmer County, but
none were successful.
When people think of Georgia's agriculture,
they think of peaches and peanuts. However, Gilmer County is the
apple capitol of Georgia, thus the background.
In addition to Ellijay, and East Ellijay,
there are several recognized communities, including Mountaintown, Boardtown,
Cherry Log, New Hope, Oakland and Tails Creek. We hope to add information
regarding these areas in the near future, eventually listing the surnames
of the people in those towns and cemeteries in the Gilmer County area.
If anyone has this information, please email
Richard
or Kathleen
.
We know of one great resource for Gilmer
County. It is called the Annals of Upper Georgia Centered on
Gilmer County , and is a great source of information. It
can be found in many libraries (the City of Smyrna Public Library has
a copy), and it can likely be ordered and purchased through
Barnes and Noble
, Borders
, Amazon.com
or any bookseller. There are also a couple of great books
published by the Gilmer County Genealogical Society that we will be
posting information about.
Georgia has 159 counties, second most in
the nation for one state, and people often wonder why. The reason
is simple: the early legislature wanted each county seat to be no more
than a day's ride from any part of the county. Prior to the 1970's,
there were 161 counties in Georgia until Milton County was dissolved to
become the northern part of Fulton County and Campbell County was dissolved
to form the southern part of Fulton County.
Our
contributors are the GREATEST! Just
look what they have done now!
Copyright 2002, 2003, 2004 by Kathleen and Richard Pettys