Pictured is Griffin Street, McDonough, Georgia. Some of the ante-bellam past lies in the lovely old town of McDonough.
Did you know that during the 1821 Georgia Land Lottery Henry County included 202-1/2 acres in downtown Atlanta? (the 17th district); that is, Marthaville. Henry County had 18 districts which fell into the lottery. Yes, the original county was taken from Dooly, Houston, Monroe and Fayette Counties. That means that the researcher should consider tracing all of those counties, plus Spalding, Rockdale and Fulton Counties.
Georgia had the following lotteries: 1805, 1807, 1820, 1821, 1827 and 1832. All of these, escape the 1832 Lottery, gave 202-1/2 acres of land. In 1832, it was 160 acres, while the gold lots were 40 acres. It is important to use the Lotteries to locate the ancestors. Noticing where the ancestor resided at the time that he drew will take you back to the records of a former home. Actually, it is standard practice to examine the lotteries in order to get a proper guide-line. We use it the same way as the census records, establishing patterns, occupations, acreage, etc.
It is important to notice the acreage because that tells you where the land came from. This is easily discernable in the deeds records as well as tax digest.