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This web site was developed to allow anyone interested in
Georgia history or genealogy to trace the origin and evolution
of each county in the state. To accomplish this, individual counties
were scanned from a variety of 19th and 20th century maps --
many originally contained in U.S. atlases of the time. Unfortunately,
some of these atlases were late in showing new counties, changes
in boundaries of existing counties, changes in county seats,
settlement of new towns, and construction of new railroads. Likewise,
some of the maps have a few misspelled county and city names,
or other minor errors. Still, these maps offer a rich source
of information for anyone interested in where people lived and
how county boundaries have evolved over the past two centuries.
Additional county maps are planned for this atlas, particularly
for the period prior to the 1820s and the years between 1915
and 1952. Anyone with state or county maps that would be useful
for inclusion on this web site are encouraged to contact the
webmaster. In any
event, this atlas should be a work in progress for the immediate
future.
Initially, I made a decision to keep maps small in size so
that they would load quickly online. However, small maps don't
show the kind of detail many historians and genealogists need.
So, beginning in 2002, I have been making the maps larger and
including more detailed maps. I try to keep maps under 200 K,
but include optional links to enlarged maps up to 2 MB.
Former Institute computer graphics designer Jessica Mendelson
designed the site's home page and the individual county pages.
Institute research associate Charles Pou maintains the Georgia
Place Names website, that lists over 10,000 place names in Georgia
and includes links to this website showing the location of almost
all of these place names.
Most maps on this site are from my personal collection. In
all cases, including maps from the Library of Congress, I have
spent considerable time and effort cleaning up tears, stains,
and other imperfections. Also, because of their large size, several
of the maps that appear in this site were created as separate
panels. I have taken the different components and united them
in a seamless fashion. While the original map cannot be copyrighted,
the scanned and enhanced image that appears on this site is a
unique image that attempts to show a map as it was to appear
in its pristine state. Also, in some cases, the artisans hired
to hand-color an old map made mistakes in their coloring--and
I have attempted to correct such errors.
Non-commercial linkage to any maps in the Historical Atlas
of Georgia Counties website is permitted without prior approval.
For other usage, please contact the webmaster.
Please do not download maps from this site and then place
them on another website without first obtaining permission. Even
if you credit the map, the Institute is deprived of a record
of how often our maps are used. Also, there is a practical reason
to link rather than download. I am not only adding new maps but
replacing some of the earlier ones with larger images that show
more detail or with better versions of the particular map. I
do not post an announcement when I replace a map, so the only
way to be sure of having access to the best versions of county
maps is to link.
Ed Jackson
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