Not sure how to search for resources on Ancestry LE, Fold3, Family Search, or Heritage Quest? Join the Heritage Room for tips and tricks on how to navigate the largest genealogy databases.
Did you just get a Genealogy DNA kit? Not sure how to research records to search for family members?
The Athens-Clarke County Heritage Room welcomes you to this free, informal session online via Google Meets. Getting Started with Genealogy will introduce you to the many resources available to you when researching your family history, no matter where your family might have originated or be today. The best part of Getting Started is our modern take using traditional genealogical skills. Heritage Room staff will introduce the basics of genealogical research, the resources available, and how to start your family tree project!
All attendees receive an information packet with resources and opportunities to ask questions during the session. Be sure to bring a pencil!
Search the Archive!
Through a partnership with the Digital Library of Georgia, many items in the Heritage Room’s collection are now viewable and searchable in our new archival catalog!
Since 1992, the Heritage Room has collected archival material related to the Athens-Clarke County area, such as Civil War era photos of soldiers, city engineering records related to the emergence of local sewer and water systems, photos of downtown homes taken by Charles Rowland (owner of the Beechhaven property) and many more!
Enjoy exploring our physical collections and our digitized materials in the archival catalog. Need help finding something?Email heritageroomref@athenslibrary.org or call (706) 613-3650 ext. 350. We’ll offer a free class on navigating the catalog at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 15, 2021. Mark your calendar and reserve your spot here.
Participate in the Archive
Are you keeping a journal of your experiences during the coronavirus pandemic? Did you post a photo on social media of empty shelves at the grocery store? Whether you’re writing in an old school diary or recording voice memos, everyone's experience is unique. The Heritage Room at Athens-Clarke County Library wants to help preserve our community’s story of this unprecedented time in our collective history. Our goal is to collect stories and vignettes of community members’ daily lives in an archive to share with future students, historians and researchers.
We are interested in stories from everyday people. We want to know how you are keeping in touch with your friends and family during this time of social distancing, along with the challenges of working from home with no childcare. Have you or others lost income or employment? No story is too small! How you collect your thoughts is up to you: write in a journal, take photos or videos, record voice memos or even save social media posts. Full details are available here using a Google account. If you don't have a Google account, use this link.
Online Tutorials
Interested in learning more research skills? Check out our tutorials on Youtube!
Athens City Directories on DLG - This resource helps to find names and occupations of former residents of historic addresses.
Accessing Sanborn Maps - Sanborn maps were made for the purposes of insuring properties, researchers can learn many things about the structures built in Athens, Georgia.
Join Athens Anti-Discrimination Movement for this celebration and vigil to remember the freeing of the 5,000 slaves in Athens on May 4, 1865, the Day of Jubilee. A "libation" ceremony will be held outside of Baldwin Hall to honor the enslaved people whose unmarked remains where unearthed during construction near Baldwin Hall in 2015. The vigil will be followed by a march to the Arch and City Hall, performances, and speakers.
The Athens Historical Society is pleased to announce its collaboration with the May 7, 2021 rededication of Athens’ “Moon Tree” located at 120 West Dougherty Street--"From theCrescent Moon to the Classic City". This tree - a Loblolly Pine - was grown from a seed flown to the moon and back in February 1971.
50 years after the Apollo 14 mission which took the tree to the moon, Athens-Clarke County Landscape Management in partnership with the Athens Historical Society is rededicating it with an event held on May 7 – National Space Day. By showing what is possible when environmental science reaches for the stars, these groups feel that the tree is a unique inspirational asset in our already exceptional city.
The event will begin at 10:00 am after which Rosemary Roosa, daughter of Apollo 14 astronaut Stuart Roosa, will deliver virtual remarks at 12:00 . To register for the virtual talk, click here: https://zoom.us/.../tJAocOGqrDoqH9R7HICZf0bF2xTQQEStMCOO
Questions about the event should be directed to AthensHistorical@gmail.com
When: Friday, May 7, 2021 starting at 10am, virtual talk at 12pm
Where: 120 W. Dougherty Street and Zoom
Contact: athenshistorical@gmail.com
The Athens Historical Society presents Gary Doster's new book, Athens Streets & Neighborhoods with foreword by Vince Dooley. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing at the T.R.R. Cobb House front porch for $28.95 (all forms of payment accepted)
When: Saturday, May 15, 2021, 11am-2pm
Where: T.R.R. Coob House, 175 Hill St., Athens, GA
Contact: athenshistorical@gmail.com
Making Space: Fighting for Inclusion, Building Community at UGA
In 1961, Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter became the first Black students to enroll at the University of Georgia. Facing down adversity, they succeeded in desegregating the campus and winning a battle in the broader struggle for civil rights. However, the process of integration and building a more inclusive university continues today. Making Space: Fighting for Inclusion, Building Community at UGA explores the stories of these trailblazing students and those that followed them in shaping the campus.
The exhibit considers the ways that Black and LGBTQ+ students have cultivated spaces for themselves at UGA since the 1960s, finding agency and building safe spaces. It will highlight their activities - how they gathered, lobbied, and protested for acceptance and change. It will consider the people and places that offered support to these students, as well as those that put up barriers to block the path forward.
Today, the university recognizes that each student is made up of many identities. The intersection of these different identities shape the perspective of each student and their experience on an ever-changing campus. Making Space will serve as a timely guide for thinking about and advocating for continued progress not just on one college campus, but within a nation that so often looks to its past as a roadmap to its future.
“Charged with Treason: The Roswell Mill Workers” presented by Michael Hitt
The program for the May 6 (2021) regular meeting of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, TRR Cobb Camp #97, will be provided by Michael Hitt. Roswell, Georgia, in 1864, was an important textile town to the Confederate government supplying cotton and wool materials to the Quartermaster Department in Atlanta. During the Atlanta Campaign, the mill employees were expected to help defend the industries at Roswell if attacked. In July of 1864, Federal Cavalry was sent to capture the Roswell Bridge spanning the Chattahoochee River, setting in motion events that would lead to treason charges being leveled against most of the citizens of Roswell. Two French flags were flown in defiance by the town, as well as other defiant acts, at the woolen mill which would cause the deportation of 400 men, women, and children. Who was the person behind the idea of flying the French flags and what happened to the mill employees once in prison? Their physical abuse, at the hands of the prison doctor, has to be understood by understanding who the doctor was. The ordeal this contract surgeon experienced, prior to being charged with the prisoners’ care, will be looked at. These two important points will give a greater understanding of the Charged with Treason incident. The meeting is open to the public. This presentation is part of the Sons Confederate Veterans Camp #97 monthly series of historical talks about the South, the War Between the States, the Confederacy, and other historical aspects of the era, and is provided as a public service. The talks are presented by authors, historians, and researchers. The meeting is held at 7:00 pm, the first Thursday of each month, at the Smith House, 1760 Old Epps Bridge Road, Athens, 30605. Because of the increase in corona-virus in Georgia, and that we have many members in the ‘at-risk’ group, social distancing will be practiced and masks are strongly encouraged. Masks and hand sanitizer will be available at the door. For more information, please contact Lowry Harper, lowry.harper@gmail.com (706-769-9770).