The 1832 Cherokee Land Lottery

Tips by Jeannette Holland Austin

Early settlers to Georgia were busy drawing in the land lotteries, the last one being for land in Cherokee County which was divided into ten counties, viz: Cass (renamed Bartow), Cherokee, Cobb, Floyd, Forsyth, Gilmer, Lumpkin, Murray, Paulding, and Union. This was the region known as “land of the Cherokee Indians”. 160 acres was offered to those who qualified. Afterwards, in 1849, Cherokee County had 19 districts!

If you are searching for Indian ancestors, all of the above counties in North Georgia need to be researched. Before departing, the Indians hid their gold and silver mines and drew maps of the locations. We know this because about 1914 a wagon train of Indians from Oklahoma visited North Georgia. They had maps to assist in retrieving their valuables. There was an attraction by white settlers for gold, especially around Dahlonega (Lumpkin County) where a number of producing mines operated during the up through the mid-1900s. If you lost an ancestor, he might found somewhere in one of these counties. An excellent resource is county tax digests. Georgia Pioneers has put images of the 1849 Tax Digest on its website (available to members). This is where to search for elusive ancestors. Unfortunately, other tax digests for Cherokee County did not survive.

We all seem to have elusive ancestors. However, a more intensive study of the tidbits and what was happening “back in the day” should provide more fertile clues.