History and Genealogy

September 23, 2017 - Locating the land of an ancestor can uncover a wealth of knowledge. Presenter J. Mark Lowe demonstrates how platting a property tract map may help identify many important features of a community, including ferries, mills, cemeteries, trails, historic homes and many other landmarks. With the aid of a few inexpensive tools, researchers can construct their own plats of land tracts as described in deeds, wills, court records or land grants.

Record of Ex-Soldiers in World War I, Tennessee Counties, 1917-1919 is a digital collection that consists of the compiled service records of over 130,000 soldiers and sailors from Tennessee who served in the First World War.

Consists of receipts, correspondence, legal documents, and ledger scraps, spanning the period 1848-1920. Chesley Williams and two of his sons, J.C. and R. E., amassed these documents throughout their lives and careers.

Composed of two scrapbooks containing newspaper clippings related to Georgia Tann and the investigation into the Tennessee Children’s Home Society initiated by Governor Gordon Browning. It is unknown who collected the materials. The newspaper clippings all date from 1950. The majority of clippings are from Tennessee newspapers including: Nashville Tennessean, Memphis Commercial Appeal, Memphis Press-Scimitar, Knoxville Journal, Nashville Banner, Chattanooga Times, and Knoxville News Sentinel. There is one newspaper article from The New York Post and one from The New York Times as most of the children were placed in New York and California.

Addition to the first Claybrooke and Overton Papers (1747-1894) consists of around 60 original items, including correspondence, accounts, receipts, obituaries, family histories, family trees, biographical sketches, land records, surveyor’s notes, legal documents, poems, memorials, instructions for tax collectors, photographs, newspaper clippings, a historical sketch, an Edinburgh newspaper, an indenture, and directions for building a new cotton cultivator. Most items relate to the Claybrooke family of Williamson County, Tennessee, and Louisa County, Virginia.

Vietnam – Geared Towards High School. The Vietnam War was a costly conflict between the communist regime of North Vietnam and its southern allies, the Viet Cong, and South Vietnam, allied with the United States from 1961 until 1973. The Vietnam DocsBox focuses on the Christopher D. Ammons Vietnam War Collection at the Tennessee Library & Archives to explore the experience of one American soldier during this conflict using primary sources, Vietnam-era reproductions, and more.

Cotton – Geared towards Elementary and Middle School. Explore how Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin served as a catalyst for changes in the way cotton was manufactured in the United States. Through an investigation with primary sources, raw cotton bolls, and hand carders, students will examine cotton production and its role in the Industrial Revolution.

Starting this year, the Tennessee State Library and Archives is offering a DocsBox program to Tennessee schools in all 95 counties. These six DocsBoxes are educational resources that provide hands-on original and reproduction materials and historical primary sources that supplement the Tennessee social studies curriculum standards.

July 22, 2017 - In January 1952, Brock left behind his Van Buren County home to undergo rigorous combat engineer training. He was then assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division in the vicinity of the Iron Triangle and the 38th parallel in Korea. This collection documents his time in Korea as well as his visits home. Darla Brock, Library and Archives manuscripts archivist and daughter of Brock, conducted the workshop featuring her father's photographs and oral history in the broader context of the Korean War.

These two volumes contain records of the U. S. Provost Marshal General’s Bureau at Camp Carthage in Carthage, Tennessee, during the Federal occupation from 1863 to 1865. The Cumberland River town was seized and held by troops under the command of Brig. Gen. George Crook in May 1862. The bulk of the Provost Marshal’s bond book contains lists of hundreds of men and women who took the oath of allegiance to the United States between October and December 1863. The record identifies most people as soldiers or citizens. The majority was from Smith, Jackson, and Putnam counties, though residents of Macon, White, Overton, Cumberland, and Wilson counties are among them. The second item is a leather ledger book containing lists of “Prisoners confined in Prison at Carthage, Tennessee.” It contains two lists, one dated December 23, 1863, and the other dated February 25, 1865.