This is the scene of an old farm in Washington County affected by a tornado. Land Grants were made to Revolutonary War Soldiers in Washington County, but you may be surprised to learn that veterans did not always take up the land grant. The reason may have be in the inconvenience from other family members, or in the sandy soil. In those days, the name of the game was finding rich soil.
When searching for a revolutionary war soldier in Georgia, it is a good practice to search all of the old colonial counties.
Headright Grants were made in Bryan, Bullock, Burke, Camden, Chatham, Clarke, Columbia, Effingham, Elbert, Emanuel, Franklin, Glascock, Glynn, Greene, Hancock, Hart, Jackson, Jefferson, Johnson, Laurens, Liberty, Lincoln, Madison, McDuffie, McIntosh, Montgomery, Oconee, Oglethorpe, Richmond, Screven, Taliaferro, Tattnall, Warren, Washington, and Wilkes counties.
A common experience is not to find your ancestor in the county in which he drew the land grant. Because additional counties sprouted out of the old ones, we should take a map and observe the region more carefully, particularly, the layout of the roads.
Georgia Pioneers is setup whereby one may go from county to county and see the names listed in the wills. This makes it easier to locate and read old documents. Because one no longer has to search through rolls of microfilm, a wider sweep is possible on the website. When the home county of the ancestor is found, it is wise to read all old wills to learn how other families might be related. I frequently discover the names of parents, grandparents, husbands (of the daughters) as well as other relatioships using this method. If one has an ancestor in Chatham County, for example, there is a good chance of finding out where they migrated from, simply by reading the old Wills. The same thing applies to Charleston, South Carolina and any colonial port city.
Remember….people were on the move!