Newton County Genealogy Search

Newton County genealogy records go back to 1821, when the county was formed from Henry, Jasper, and Walton counties in the Georgia Piedmont. The Probate Court in Covington holds marriage licenses, wills, estate files, and guardianship records from that year. Land deeds, court cases, and divorce files are at the Superior Court Clerk office. Newton County is east of Atlanta along the I-20 corridor, and its courthouse records document the farming families and communities that built this part of the state over the past two centuries.

Newton County Probate Court Records

The Newton County Probate Court is the main source for marriage and estate records. Marriage licenses date to 1821. Wills, letters of administration, guardianship papers, and estate inventories are also held here. Under O.C.G.A. § 15-9-30, the Probate Court has jurisdiction over wills, estates, guardianships, conservatorships, and marriage licenses.

You can visit the courthouse at 1132 Usher Street in Covington to search records in person. The phone number is 770-784-2000. For mail requests, include names, approximate dates, and a check or money order for the search fee. Staff can check for specific names. Certified copies cost more than plain copies but are needed for legal purposes. Call ahead to confirm fees and hours.

Estate records in Newton County are some of the best genealogy sources. Wills name heirs. Inventories list property and personal items. Annual returns track estate management over time. These files often hold family details you will not find in other records, especially for the early 1800s.

Note: The Court of Ordinary handled these matters before 1974. All older records were moved to the Probate Court.

Newton County Superior Court Genealogy

The Superior Court Clerk holds land records, divorce files, and court cases from 1821 to the present. Deed books show property transfers. Plat maps show parcel locations. These records place your ancestors on the Newton County landscape and reveal neighbors and family connections.

Divorce files are a strong genealogy source. They list children, property, ages, and birth dates. Under O.C.G.A. § 50-18-70, most court records are open to the public. You can request copies in person or by mail.

Civil case files can also help. Lawsuits over property, estate disputes, and guardianship cases often name multiple family members. Tax digests list property owners each year. Georgia lost the 1790, 1800, 1810, and 1890 federal census records, so Newton County tax records are essential for those gaps.

Vital Records for Newton County Genealogy

Georgia started statewide vital records in 1919 under O.C.G.A. § 31-10-9. Birth and death certificates from that year forward are available from the Newton County Probate Court or the Georgia Department of Public Health. Certified copies cost $25 for the first and $5 for each extra copy.

Under O.C.G.A. § 31-10-26, certified birth certificates are restricted to the person named, parents, grandparents, adult siblings, adult children, spouses, or legal guardians. Death certificates have fewer limits and are easier to get for genealogy work. For records before 1919, check the Probate Court, church records, cemetery inscriptions, or Family Bible records.

The Virtual Vault has death certificates from 1919 to 1943 online for free. FamilySearch also has Georgia death records from 1914 to 1943 indexed at no cost. These are good starting points for Newton County genealogy.

Newton County GAGenWeb Genealogy

The Newton County GAGenWeb page is a free volunteer-run genealogy resource. It has cemetery transcriptions, census data, family trees, and documents shared by researchers working on Newton County families.

Volunteers post records from courthouses, libraries, and archives. You can add your own findings too. The site connects people tracing the same Newton County family lines.

Other free resources include FamilySearch with Georgia marriages from 1754 to 1960, probate records from 1742 to 1990, and death records from 1914 to 1943. The Georgia Historic Newspapers archive has over one million pages of old newspapers with obituaries and legal notices.

Research Tips for Newton County

Start with what you know. Write down names, dates, and places. Then work backward one generation at a time. Census records from 1830 to 1940 are at the Georgia Archives through Ancestry.com (free in the search room).

Newton County was formed from parts of Henry, Jasper, and Walton counties in 1821. If your ancestors seem to vanish from Newton County records, check those parent counties. They may not have moved. Borders just shifted. The Virtual Vault has "Georgia Counties: Their Changing Boundaries" to help you track jurisdictions.

The Georgia Archives at 5800 Jonesboro Road, Morrow, GA 30260 has pre-1900 Newton County records on microfilm. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Free access to Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, and Fold3 is available in the search room. You can also use the E-Access to Court Records system to search from home. Under O.C.G.A. § 50-18-71, copy fees are capped at 10 cents per page.

• Check cemetery records when vital records are missing
• Search church records for baptisms, marriages, and burials
• Review Family Bible records at the Georgia Archives
• Use tax digests for years when census records were destroyed
• Look at the Vanishing Georgia photo collection for local images

Cities in Newton County

Newton County includes Covington, Oxford, Porterdale, and Newborn. All genealogy records are maintained at the Newton County Probate Court and Superior Court Clerk in Covington. No cities in this county meet the population threshold for individual pages.

Nearby Counties

These counties border Newton County. If your ancestors lived near county lines, check neighboring records. Georgia counties have shifted borders many times, so a family could appear in different counties over time.