Can someone suggest a way to find out the answer to this question? MY ANCESTOR RITTER DORSEYA/A IS LISTED ON THE CENSUS 1850 IN TROU[P COUNTY GA. SHE WAS LISTED AS A FREE BLACK WITH HER CHILDREN. HOW CAN I FIND DOCUMENTS ON HER. I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW IF SHE WAS BORN FREE OR GIVEN HER FREEDOM. PLEASE LET ME KNOW HOW I COULD SEACH FOR THESE DOCUMENTS AND WHERE I MIGHT LOCATE THEM. THANK YOU VERY MUCH AND HAVE A NICE DAY.

Here are some of the records described in the GA State Archives: Ordinary/Superior Court Records. [Please note: Many of these records are found in either the Ordinary (Probate) Court or the Superior Court, depending on the county.] Apprenticeship/Indenture Registers, 1800-1930: These records primarily document freedmen, but also document whites. Available for 34 counties: Baldwin, Campbell, Carroll, Chatham, Chattooga, Cherokee, Clay, Clinch, Coweta, Dooly, Glascock, Haralson, Jackson, Laurens, Liberty, Lincoln, Madison, McDuffie, Meriwether, Mitchell, Monroe, Morgan, Oglethorpe, Polk, Pulaski, Putnam, Sumter, Taliaferro, Terrell, Thomas, Washington, Webster, Whitfield, and Wilkes. Free Persons of Color Registers, 1780-1865: Registers usually include name, age, occupation (sometimes), property, and white sponsor. Available for 21 counties: Appling, Baldwin, Camden, Chatham, Clarke, Columbia, Elbert, Emanuel, Hancock, Jefferson, Jones, Liberty, Lincoln, Lumpkin, Morgan, Pulaski, Richmond, Screven, Taliaferro, Thomas, Warren, and Wilkes. There might also be Freedmen's bank records that could possibly have a sponsor mentioned. Depending on when Ritter died, her children's names may need to be looked up instead in order to find some link or record tying these Dorseys to a white family. If there were no other Dorseys in the vicinity (white Dorseys), it could make record searching more difficult. If all of her children were also formerly owned by a white, I would think that to free them all at once would be a pretty big deal, so she could have been free since she was much younger. Did government officials need to officiate over the freeing of slaves, or at least make some note of it during assembly proceedings? I would think it might be difficult for a former slave to move around at that time period due to fears of being taken back into slavery by others disregarding their free papers. So there is probably a pretty good chance that Ritter Dorsey didn't move far from where she was living if she was with a white family, and that all the neighbors knew that she was free and knew her "sponsor" family. Sounds like a great quest with lots of possibilities to hunt down.

When a bondsperson is freed, the slave owner writes out a document, much like a deed record, and gives it to the slave. Depending on the laws of the state, usually nothing more is done. Sometimes, the freedom paper has to be filed in the court house, because the county wants their taxes, free blacks usually had to pay extra taxes. I believe in the state of North Carolina, a free person could not stay longer than 30 days in the state. Therefore, the Georgia court houses may not have any kind of record. I have yet to find any "freedom" papers in Glynn County. The only documents I have found here regarding slaves are deeds of sale and estate records. I have only found one actual slave purchase document and that record was in the possession of the slave owner descendants and not the court house. I would also suggest getting a book on tracing Af.-Am. Ancestors to find out the different slave laws in the states and how one would obtain freedom, etc. Firstly though, are you sure they were black and not of another nationality? I did find a 40 year old Mack Dorsey in Atlanta in 1870 with a daughter named Ritter. The 1850 Troup census had a 21 year old Mat Dorsey, which could have been an "auditory" error on the enumerator's part; they may have said Mack and the enumerator heard Mat. There is a Freedman's Bank record from 1873 for Mack Dorsey but he has absolutely no information. Another Mack Dorsey was in Point Pleasant, Louisiana, his record is from 5 April 1870 and he lists his father as Sampson Dorsey deceased. The 1870 Troup census had a Samford Dorsey age 12. This Mack had a mother named Patsy who was also deceased and his siblings were Sam, Sy, and Patsy. Good luck! -----Original Message----- From: gagen-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:gagen-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Virginia Crilley Sent: Monday, July 23, 2007 1:00 PM To: gagen-l@rootsweb.com Subject: [GAGEN] Free Blacks ?? Can someone suggest a way to find out the answer to this question? MY ANCESTOR RITTER DORSEYA/A IS LISTED ON THE CENSUS 1850 IN TROU[P COUNTY GA. SHE WAS LISTED AS A FREE BLACK WITH HER CHILDREN. HOW CAN I FIND DOCUMENTS ON HER. I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW IF SHE WAS BORN FREE OR GIVEN HER FREEDOM. PLEASE LET ME KNOW HOW I COULD SEACH FOR THESE DOCUMENTS AND WHERE I MIGHT LOCATE THEM. THANK YOU VERY MUCH AND HAVE A NICE DAY. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to GAGEN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

I would suggest looking for estate/will records and the deed books in Troup Co. to start. If she was given her freedom then it was most likely recorded in one of those type records but that doesn't mean it couldn't have been from another county. Debra -----Original Message----- From: gagen-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:gagen-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Virginia Crilley Sent: Monday, July 23, 2007 6:00 PM To: gagen-l@rootsweb.com Subject: [GAGEN] Free Blacks ?? Can someone suggest a way to find out the answer to this question? MY ANCESTOR RITTER DORSEYA/A IS LISTED ON THE CENSUS 1850 IN TROU[P COUNTY GA. SHE WAS LISTED AS A FREE BLACK WITH HER CHILDREN. HOW CAN I FIND DOCUMENTS ON HER. I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW IF SHE WAS BORN FREE OR GIVEN HER FREEDOM. PLEASE LET ME KNOW HOW I COULD SEACH FOR THESE DOCUMENTS AND WHERE I MIGHT LOCATE THEM. THANK YOU VERY MUCH AND HAVE A NICE DAY. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to GAGEN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message