Find Spalding County Genealogy

Spalding County genealogy records date back to 1851, the year the county was created from parts of Fayette, Henry, and Pike counties. The Probate Court and Superior Court Clerk in Griffin hold marriage licenses, wills, estate files, land deeds, and court records. Spalding County is south of Atlanta in the Piedmont region, and its courthouse in Griffin has well-preserved records useful for tracing families who lived in this part of central Georgia during the antebellum era and beyond.

Spalding County Probate Court Genealogy

The Spalding County Probate Court at 132 E. Solomon Street, Griffin, GA 30223 is the main source for marriage and estate records. Call 770-467-4340 for help. Marriage licenses date from 1851. The court also holds wills, letters of administration, guardianship records, and estate inventories. Under O.C.G.A. § 15-9-30, the Probate Court has jurisdiction over wills, estates, guardianships, and marriage licenses in Spalding County.

You can visit the courthouse in Griffin during business hours to search records in person. The staff will look up names and give you a cost estimate before you pay. Copies run about $1 per page. Certified copies cost around $11 each. For mail requests, send the full name, approximate date, and record type along with a check or money order for the search fee. The staff will respond with what they find and the total cost of copies.

Spalding County was formed from Fayette, Henry, and Pike counties. If your family lived in the Griffin area before 1851, check those parent counties for earlier records. This is a common step in Georgia genealogy research.

Note: Pre-1900 Spalding County probate records are also on microfilm at the Georgia Archives in Morrow.

Vital Records for Spalding County Genealogy

Georgia started statewide vital records in 1919 under O.C.G.A. § 31-10-9. Birth and death certificates from 1919 to the present are on file at the Spalding County Health Department. For dates before 1919, there are no systematic birth or death records. You will need to use census data, church records, cemetery inscriptions, and family Bibles to fill in those earlier gaps.

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 are more widely available and are the easier vital record to get for genealogy work. The state charges $25 for a birth or death certificate, plus $5 for each extra copy. Order from the Georgia Department of Public Health or the local health department in Griffin.

For death records from 1919 to 1943, check the Georgia Archives Virtual Vault online for free. FamilySearch has Georgia death records from 1914 to 1943 indexed at no cost as well. These are solid starting points for early twentieth-century Spalding County genealogy.

Note: Marriage records from 1952 to 1996 were also filed at the state level, giving you two places to search for records from that time period.

Spalding County Land and Court Records

The Spalding County Superior Court Clerk holds land records, divorce files, and civil and criminal case records from 1851 onward. Land deeds are among the most useful genealogy records because they show where ancestors lived and often name family members. Deed books and plat maps in Spalding County are open to the public under O.C.G.A. § 50-18-70, the Georgia Open Records Act.

Divorce records filed with the Superior Court can list children, property, ages, and birth dates that help confirm family links. Under O.C.G.A. § 50-18-71, copy fees for public records are capped at 10 cents per page for standard documents. Court records may follow different local fee rules, so ask the clerk about costs before placing a large order.

Property tax digests are another good source. They list heads of household with land and personal property values. These are helpful for years when census records are missing. Pre-1900 Spalding County land records are also available on microfilm at the Georgia Archives.

Spalding County GAGenWeb Genealogy

The Spalding County GAGenWeb page is a free volunteer-run genealogy resource. It features cemetery transcriptions, census data, family trees, and other records shared by researchers working on Spalding County family lines.

This site connects you with other researchers tracing Spalding County families. Volunteers post records found at courthouses, libraries, and archives throughout Georgia.

Other free online tools for Spalding County genealogy include FamilySearch, which has 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 Georgia newspapers with obituaries and legal notices. The Virtual Vault from the Georgia Archives has death certificates from 1919 to 1943 for free online searching.

Research Tips for Spalding County Genealogy

Start with what you know. Write down all names, dates, and places for your Spalding County family and work backward one generation at a time. Census records are the best next step once you have basic facts in hand.

Federal census data from 1820 to 1940 is at the Georgia Archives through Ancestry.com, free in the search room. The 1790, 1800, 1810, and 1890 census records for Georgia were destroyed. Use Spalding County tax digests for those gap years. Since Spalding did not exist until 1851, check Fayette, Henry, and Pike county census records for the 1850 and earlier censuses. The 1850 census was the first to list every household member by name and age.

Pre-1900 records are on microfilm at the Georgia Archives at 5800 Jonesboro Road, Morrow, GA 30260. The Archives is open Tuesday through Saturday, 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM, with free access to Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, and Fold3. For records after 1900, go to the Griffin courthouse.

• Check cemetery records when vital records are missing
• Search church records for baptisms, marriages, and burials
• Look at Family Bible records at the Georgia Archives
• Use the Vanishing Georgia photo collection for historical images
• Review estate records when birth or death dates are unknown

Note: County borders changed often in Georgia. Use "Georgia Counties: Their Changing Boundaries" in the Virtual Vault to check which county your ancestors were counted in.

Cities in Spalding County

Spalding County's main city is Griffin, the county seat. All genealogy records for the county are maintained at the Probate Court and Superior Court Clerk in Griffin. No cities in Spalding County meet the population threshold for a separate city page.

Nearby Counties

These counties border Spalding County. Families in this part of central Georgia often moved between neighboring counties, so check these records if you hit a dead end. Fayette, Henry, and Pike counties are the parent counties for pre-1851 research.