Georgia Day tomorrow marks 1733 founding of colony by Oglethorpe

Tomorrow, Feb. 12, is Georgia Day, which commemorates the founding of the colony in 1733 with the landing at Savannah of the first 100 or so settlers with James Edward Oglethorpe as their leader. Every year or so, new scholarship is produced adding new information or looking at old information in a new light to help study Georgia’s founding.

This year, a new book, “James Edward Oglethorpe, Father of Georgia” by Michael Thurmond, DeKalb County CEO, has been published by the UGA Press. To learn more about the founder, there will be many opportunities around the city to hear Thurmond speak about Oglethorpe.

Georgia’s founding was closely followed in the newspapers in London and in Charleston, South Carolina. A new article in the Georgia Historical Quarterly’s 2023 Issue No. 4, “Nebulous Neighbors: The Shifting Relationship Between South Carolina and Georgia as seen through the ‘South-Carolina Gazette’” by Julie Anne Sweet, is worth a read, and her footnotes highlight many of the important sources on early Georgia.

Georgia did not have its own newspaper until 1763. The earliest settlers were handpicked and vetted by the Trustees who founded the colony as a corporation, which they ran until 1752, via the charter from King George II — the colony’s namesake — that prohibited slavery, lawyers and Catholics. These first settlers came from downtown London and had quite an adjustment when they arrived at the barren Georgia frontier at Savannah.

You can read online important documents from these early days in the University of Georgia’s Digital Library of Georgia, such as the writings of the Earl of Egmont, the lead trustee, who kept their minutes. The UGA Press has reprinted many of the important books about the founding and early years of the colony that are available in book or online formats.

RootsTech conference Feb. 29

RootsTech, the largest genealogy conference, will be held Feb. 29 through March 2 in Salt Lake City and online. Go to Rootstech.org for details.

Photographs that show love

Maureen Taylor — the Photo Detective and the leading expert on identifying family photos by age, costume, and other details — is seeking copies of photographs that exhibit love or the one you love the most. See maureentaylor.com for details, blogs and podcasts.

NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY James Edward Oglethorpe founded the colony of Georgia in 1733 when he landed at Savannah with the first 100 or so English settlers.