Hello to all! My name is Richard Pettys, Jr. I have recently been appointed the Regional Coordinator for the Coastal Georgia Region of the GAGenWeb Project. Ware County is one of the counties in the Coastal Georgia Region. For those who don't know, we have a great webpage on Ware County in the GAGenWeb Project which can be found at http://www.rootsweb.com/~gaware/. The Coastal Georgia Regional Page may be found at http://www.rootsweb.com/~gagenweb/coastal.html. We are in the process of drafting an extensive history of the Coastal Region of Georgia because it is so rich in history (Georgia's roots are in the Coastal Region where James Edward Oglethorpe established the colony of Georgia at Savannah on February 12, 1733). Please feel free to contact out County Coordinator, Sharon Wright or myself with any information or suggestions which you have that will make the Ware County Page a better page. Sharon's email is shadri@perry.gulfnet.com, and mine is rpettys@smyrnacable.net. I can not stress enough how open we both are to your comments about this page, as our goal is to provide you with the information you need to trace your roots. A second project with which I am involved is the Georgia Maps Project. The Georgia Maps Project is designed to show the changing faces of Georgia and her numerous counties over the past five hundred-plus years (did you know that many Spanish Missions were established in Georgia from about 1526 to the late 1600's and that Georgia was established as a border to protect the other colonies from the Spanish?). The Georgia Maps Project can be found at http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/maps/georgia/. If anyone has old, rare and historical Georgia maps or copies of them, I would very much appreciate it if you could scan them and email a copy of the scan to me. Of course, it would be best to email them directly off the list so as to not clutter the email boxes of everyone else. Finally, we are always looking for two things. We are always looking for data to post for others like you to review and help them find their roots. And we are always looking for volunteers. If you don't have the time to serve as a County Coordinator, perhaps you have the time to transcribe a census or walk through a cemetery or transcribe records or to serve as a lookup volunteer. There are so many things that we can all do to help make the GAGenWeb Project a great and free resource for everyone to use, and it doesn't even require money! Should you ever have any questions, thoughts, comments or concerns, or, if you would like to help with either the GAGenWeb Project or the Georgia Maps Project, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you, Richard Pettys, Jr.