State Archives Online -- Georgia to South Carolina

Georgia – Georgia’s Virtual Vault is the online site for Georgia’s Archives. With this online site the researcher has access to photographs, maps, government records and manuscripts held by the archives. Some of the varied topics and dates online for Georgia include Death Certificates 1919 to 1927 (note – with some covering 1914 to 1918), Pre-Indexed death certificates for 1928 to 1930, historical postcards, Spanish-American War military service cards, Colonial Georgia Will Books, Civil War Confederate Georgia enlistments, discharges and pension applications, Bounty Plats 1783-1909, Georgia County Maps, Marriage Records, Letters/documents/posters/ government papers, Land Survey 1805 – 1833 and County Tax Digests from 18th and 19th century. Comment: The online Georgia records, photos and documents are very extensive and a wonderful resource for the researcher. The numerous photographic collections are very impressive. The state does continue to add to their ‘Virtual Vault’.

Iowa – The State Archives for Iowa are maintained and operated by the State Historical Society of Iowa. Unfortunately, the Historical Society has not placed their collections (newspapers, oral histories, censuses, government records, and birth-marriage-death records) online to date. They do have an online catalog of their holdings from which a researcher can then contact the society’s library for further information. Comment: No future date provided of if or when any state information, records, photos or document will go online.

Missouri – The Missouri State Archives have placed a good portion of the state’s photos and documents online at their Missouri Digital Heritage site. With a searchable database using name, county or date, the Missouri Archives offer Death Records from 1910 to 1959, Civil War records, Maps, Postcards, newspapers, Native Indians, African-Americans, Birth Records since 1910, state and federal census records from 1830 – 1930, Naturalization records from 1816 to 1955 and Military Records 1812 to 1919. Comment: A good selection of Missouri documents and records are online.

Ohio – The State Library of Ohio holds census records, birth and death records, cemetery, newspapers, pamphlets, military records and numerous county documents. It is the Ohio Historical Society who offers online their collection catalog. The search engine on the site allows the researcher to cover all the collections or narrow it to just those in the newspaper collection. If a name or location is found, there is no image of the actual record, only an index. The best section is the Ohio Death Index 1913 to 1944 which locates any death certificates issued during that time period in Ohio and provide the death date, county, volume and certificate number. Any actual copy of the certificate can then be ordered. Comment: Not much online for the family history researcher from Ohio.

South Carolina – The South Carolina Department of Archives and History has a section titled Online Records Index. The selection of indexes which are searchable include Will transcripts for 1782 to 1855, Confederate Veterans’ records for 1909 to 1973, Criminal Court Records, Land Grants 1784 to 1868, Record Series 1675 to 1929, School Insurance Photographs 1835 to 1952, and others for a total of some 308,580 items. Comment: The On-Line Records Index does also include many actual images, all of which are easy to search for and very readable.