Dear List members, There was a posting to the Greene County, Georgia, list asking about Greene County, Georgia, church minutes/records. i thought that somebody else on this list might be interested in early Georgia Church minutes. Some of these early families migrated over into Clarke County. I have the church minutes of Bethesda Baptist Church, Union Point, Greene County, Georgia, from 1817 down into the early to mid 1900's on microfilm at my home. The address is Union Point but the church is out in the country north of Hwy 44 to Washington and south east of Woodville on the border of the 137th and 140th Georgia Militia Districts. Not very far from the Taliaferro County line. I have only published in 1990 in book form from 1817 to 1865. This was the only church for miles around in the early days of the area. Attracted people from adjoining counties. Lots of people from Greene, Oglethorpe, Taliaferro, and Wilkes Counties. Not many at all from the Greensboro area west. Minutes before 1817 were lost. Church is suppose to go back to 1784-5 as Whatley's Mill. I still have copies available. Better in your research library than my closet! You can get a copy for $25.00 from the church treasurer there in the Union Point area or I can mail you one from Texas for $30.00 including postage and mailing envelope. Paperback cardstock cover stapled and taped. 305 pages including the index. Separate index for slaves, places, and church members. The church is not set up to mail copies, only if you get it in person! This is not an abstract. The conference minutes are transcribed word for word as best I could read the old handwriting. Lots of really interesting stuff! Reading them is like crawling back in time. The 1817 church building is still in use. The rear slave balconey is still there. The black church, Randolph, split off about 1876. I was able to get the minutes to publish because my aunt-by-marriage (now deceased) was the church clerk at the time. My mother, grandparents are buried there. I lived there as a child before I started to school. Attended Sunday School and Bible School there. Visited cousins back there often. Married there. I just married a Texan. I am still a Georgia girl at heart. The originals were in a bank vault in Union Point, the last I heard. I presume the Farmer's Bank. I have not published after 1865. Would publish if there was enough interest. Even though I am the one who published the minutes, I am still connecting up several little gems of information about my lines. Some were real surprises! Others disappointments! All the slaves are indexed. I have proven one marriage by the slave ownership. Really a "gold mine" if your family is listed. There is an early church membership list that has notes by the names going back to earlier than 1817. My Jeremiah Linsey, Jr. was joining the church in 1806. I was looking for the Reynolds and the Durhams, found other family members instead. The Reynolds and Durhams were either "unchurched" or went to Bairdstown. Their minutes do not start until about 1845. Bowles/Booles and Lindseys were members. Vivian Toole Cates, Route #2 Box 52-A, Alto, Texas 75925 1-936-858-3801 http://www.ballistic.com/~vcates