Wilkes County, Georgia was one of Georgia's earliest colonial counties. One of Wilkes County's earliest Will Books, Book "DD" (1779-1792) was lost in a fire at the office of an attorney who had borrowed it, with the loss of a tremendous amount of priceless genealogical information. The book "Early Records of Georgia" by Grace Gilliam Davidson indicates that this Will Book "DD" contained approximately 167 wills or other estate papers of Wilkes County residents whose descendants subsequently settled throughout Georgia and the rest of the United States. This book stated: "The loss of this book is nothing short of a tragedy." Then, on a recent trip to the Georgia Archives, I overheard an interesting conversation. The speaker stated that while the Will Book had indeed burned up, many, (if not most), of the original wills from which this Will Book had been copied had in fact survived and had shown up in a cache of personal papers that had been donated to the Archives! And the existence of these documents had not been recorded in the Archives' catalog of documents! I contacted the administration of the Archives, who confirmed the existence of these documents, although they would neither confirm nor deny that this collection contained the original wills. And they told me that these documents have been in the Archives' possession since 1978! The explanation that I was given was that while the documents were donated to the Archives for safekeeping, the heirs of the owner of the documents refused to sign over title of ownership to them. Because the documents are very old and in deteriorated condition, it was felt that just unwrapping them could lead to significant damage to them, and the Archives could not risk damaging the documents without clear title of ownership. However, (possibly in response to the prodding of my relentless inquiries,) one of the archivists has told me that she thinks that she has a new strategy for gaining title to the documents that she thinks will work. She refused to give a time frame on this, but she believes that it will be soon. This matter also begs the larger question as to what other treasures might be in the Archives' holdings that have not been recorded in their catalog of documents. Sadly, the archivist that I have spoken with estimates that they probably have a good "handle" on about 75% of the documents in their holdings. In conclusion, for those of us with an interest in Wilkes County genealogy, it is possible that we will one day soon be receiving a bonanza of information never before available. (Which may include my own possible ancestor, John Armstrong.) I'll keep you posted. Jeff Armstrong

In reference to a posting about Wilkes Co old wills I think the following information might shed light on archives operations. For each year he was in office, the last governor asked each department to CUT their budget by 5%. Positions at the GA Archives were not filled when vacated. Microfilming of documents was outsourced so now they are at a virtual standstill. They are backlogged about 5 years in microfilming. When taxpayers want their taxes cut the services get cut. Lynda