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Upson County Enumeration Lists

LAND LOTTERY LISTS

In 1805, 1807, 1820, 1821, 1827, and twice in 1832, the state of Georgia gave away, in land lots, former Indian lands by means of state lotteries. For more complete information see. Many persons who later lived in Upson County were in the state to participate in these lotteries.

TAX LISTS

For many Georgia counties there are available Tax Lists and Land Lottery registrations that genealogists use to gain additional information.
A TAX DIGEST was taken within the year that UPSON COUNTY became a County....1825. These are available on LDS microfilm

Summary of what Tax List may contain

Contributed by John L. German,C.G. Tax lists usually include:
  • name of taxpayer
  • amount of poll tax or a column indicating he was subject to white poll tax
  • number of colored polls or amount of colored poll tax
  • value of real estate or number or acres or amt of real estate tax
  • value of personal property or amt of tax (if it was levied) Usually each white poll is listed separately as a named taxpayer. A man might pay real estate tax but no poll tax because he either was not residing in the jurisdiction or more commonly because he was over the age on which poll tax was levied; usually 45 to 50 was the upper limit. A young man still at home with no property will usually still be listed if he was old enough for poll tax.
    A poor man over poll tax age with no taxable property may not appear on the list at all even though he lived there.
    Having a good run of annual taxlists is better than the census for estimating an ancestor's birth if you know the upper age for poll tax and can see when he was no longer assessed poll tax.
    Sometimes inferences can be made about missing deeds or death and inheritance if the land is described and the owners' name changes from one list to the next.
    Delinquent tax lists are often evidence of when somebody has moved out of that jurisdiction. (I was able to follow my ancestor around 3 townships over 20 years. He moved about every 3 years and owned no land - conclusion: he was born about 1796, owned taxable personal property [a horse] and was an itinerant tax dodger, by result if not by plan, in his constant movement.)
    The appearance of a woman in tax lists is unusual unless she has property and is a widow or an adult unmarried heiress.

    SALT LISTS

    Resource Book: Georgia Salt Lists by Sherry Harris, (1993)
    (Also available at GA Archives; LDS microfilm SL#1,704,744)
    Around the time of the Civil War, salt was a necessity for curing meat (since there was no refrigeration) This was important not only for individual families, but for their abilities to sell their meat.
    Their farm animals (as well as the CSA ones) needed salt to survive. It was used as well in setting dyes and in curing leather for shoes.
    Most of the salt had previously come from Europe and with the war blockade, salt had to be found in: 1) salt springs 2)mines of rock salt Gov. Brown offered $5,000 reward for the discovery of salt springs that could produce 300 bushels daily.
    To assure a just distribution of the valuable salt, Gov. Brown instructed the Justices of the Inferior Courts of each county to create lists of those eligible (these men also had to advance the $ to pay for it!)
    Distribution was by 1/2 bushel to:
    Careful use of the lists may reveal the change of status from wife to widow. Lists are arranged alphabetical by county; then by category of need. They contain name of woman, county of residence.

    Military 1863 Census

    < Gov. Brown in his zealousness to protect Georgia and his people ordered a military census of all males - children & adults. These records included: name, age in yrs and months, whether they owned a rifle/shotgun; whether they owned a horse/tack. These are arranged by Georgia Military District (GMD) and can be found on Microfilm Series 245 reel - alphabetical by county) in the Georgia State Archives.

    We NEED to put this one on-line! Can anyone help out?

    AGRICULTURAL CENSUS

    We have the 1860, 1870, and 1880 Agricultural Census on-line. Click here.

    STATE CENSUS

    Archives Page on State Census
    Lists all State Census Records available.

    FEDERAL CENSUS

    Federal Census are available from 1830-1910. Indexes in book form can be found in most libraries for 1830-1870.
    The Upson County Historical Society has typed up the census in book form. There are copies of these in the Thomaston Archives. Census for Upson County (1830-1900)

    Census 1840

    Searchable typed listing of residents!

    Images of 1840 Upson County Census

    by Mark Grace.([email protected]) These require a "tiff viewer", and are slow to load, but provide an excellent image with "zoom" capabilities.

    Errors in 1850 Upson County Census

    D.B. and Margie Dickens have compared the 1850 Tax Lists to the 1850 Census. View their resulting data.

    In the Georgia Index for 1850 there is an error with 1055 names listed as being in Richmond County when they are actually recorded in Upson County on the written pages. Janis Franklin has provided the names of these individuals.
    See this very helpful list.

    1870 Census on-line (in progress)

    Using the Federal Census in Georgia Good information on what each census contains!

  • Census available for: 1850-1880
  • 1890 Census burned. (Only Muscogee County available)
  • Tutorial on using Federal Census
  • 1900-1920 (with SOUNDEX)
  • 1930 Census Information Using the SOUNDEX System

    Soundex Rule

    Soundex Rule you may need: "that if two or more equivalent key letters appear separated by an h or w, the two or more letters are encoded as one letter, i.e., by a single number."

    Example: Ashcroft correctly encoded is A261, NOT A226 produced "by Soundex rules which omit the unknown rule."

    Another example given was for the surname SCHKLAR...Correct Soundex code is S460, not S246....last example: ACHZEHNER is A256 not A225.

    According to the article, even the NARA Soundex machine does not use this rule.

    Original vs Copied Census

    "Although original schedules were ultimately intended for federal authorities, enuerators in some census years prepared duplicate copies for state and county use. Especially for the four censuses of 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880, the researcher may find federal, state and county copies of the schedules, each of the three copies being official and in some sense an original. Further, these copies frequently differ from each other in small particulars."
    ---SOURCE: -From: NC Genealogical Research, ed. by Helen F.M. Leary and Maurice R. Stirewalt, 1980, NC Genealogical Society

    Soundex 1880

    "The index, however, is not to every name in the census schedules, but only to those entries for households in which there was a child, or children, aged 10 or under. The cards give the names, ages, and birth places of all members of such households; and there is a separate cross-reference card for each child aged 10 or under whose surname is different from that of the head of the household in which he is listed. The letter at thebeginning of the Soundex code is the first initial of the last name of the head of the household, the number a phonetic code for hte name, and the letter in ( ) is the first initial of of the first name of the head of the household."
    ---SOURCE: -From: NC Genealogical Research, ed. by Helen F.M. Leary and Maurice R. Stirewalt, 1980, NC Genealogical Society
    Converting your Surname to Soundex
    Soundex for Dummies

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