Jefferson County, Georgia, Superior Court Minutes, Volume I

The Georgia General Assembly created Jefferson County on February 20, 1796, from parts of Burke and Warren counties, making Louisville the seat of its new government. The Superior Court of the county had jurisdiction over all criminal matters, civil cases involving title to land, appeals from Inferior Court decisions, divorces, grand juries, and registration of land deeds. This volume of Superior Court minutes begins October 11, 1796, and continues through May 5, 1800. The transcription comes from the microfilm photographed by the Genealogical Society of Salt Lake City, Utah, and available at the Georgia Department of Archives and History in Morrow. The transcription maintains the general format of the minutes but presents the case citations and lists of jurors and witnesses in a standard and consistent format. In all, compiler Michael Ports has identified between four and five thousand inhabitants of Jefferson County--judges, jurors, plaintiffs, defendants, witnesses--during this period of investigation.