Books published by Heritage Books

Marlboro County, located in the northeast corner of South Carolina, was established in 1785 in the Pee Dee region of the state (see Gregg's Early Pee Dee Settlers in the Main Catalog under "South Carolina"). It is believed that the area was inhabited solely by Indians until about 1730. The book presents chapters on the county's early history and settlers; industrial affairs of the early settlers; the American Revolution and the build-up toward it; operations on Pee Dee; Bishop Gregg; members of the legislature; Scottish settlers; the town of Clio; the courthouse; Bennettsville; Brightsville; Blenheim; the "Confederate War"; early ministers; Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian churches; the town of McColl; Adamsville; educational matters; "The Colored People"; 1886; "Down to the Twentieth Century"; and families such as David, Evans, Wilds, Hodges, Irby, Pegue, Rogers, Brown, Magee, Carloss, Mason Lee, Coxe, Townsend, Henagan, Bruce, Kolb, Pouncey, Cochrane, Spears, Vining, Terrell, Thornwell, Gillespie, Ellerbe, Forniss, Pledger, Thomas, Parker, Ammons, Fletcher, Easterling, Ayer, Covington, Eden, Meekins, Wilson, Campbell, McColls, McLaurins, McCall, Hawley, Weatherly, McRae, Hinshaw, McLeod, McLucas, Bennett, Stubbs, Moore, McInnis, Huckabee, Matheson, James, Williams, Bedgegood, Pugh, Breeden and Adams. In the chapter on the "Confederate War" there are rosters listing more than 800 soldiers, and an everyname index lists over 3,200 names. A fold-out map of Marlboro County and a map of the Old Marlborough Court House complement the work.

In this, her third volume of Tennessee newspaper abstracts, Mrs. Eddlemon has again attempted to capture all names of local residents from all types of announcements, ads, and notices. They are drawn from three early Tennessee newspapers, all of which predate the first complete Federal census, and hence, are of great genealogical interest. The material includes lists of delinquent taxpayers, dead letters at the post office, runaway spouses and slaves, and all kinds of sales of goods and services, in addition to the usual marriage and death notices. The papers covered in this volume are: The Jackson Gazette, 1825-1828, The Sparta Review, 1823-1825, and The Knoxville Register, 1821-1822.

The first Englishman to explore the Kanawha Valley was Captain Thomas Batts of Virginia, who went so far west as the Falls in 1671, but permanent settlement did not begin until just over 100 years later. This history deals primarily with the upper valley from its origin near Gauley Bridge west past Charleston to Davis Creek. It provides a wealth of historical and genealogical information on dozens of early families, and is very attractively illustrated with over a dozen drawings. An appendix gives additional genealogies, and military and other lists. A bibliography and a full-name index complete this work.

This is a charming eyewitness account of the battles, marches, and hardships of the 1st and 2nd Brigades of Missouri troops enlisted to serve the Confederacy. Interwoven into the story is a description of how members of these two brigades corresponded with their families back home while blocked from easy, direct communication by intervening Union forces. The mail carriers, one Capt. Grimes and a Miss Ella Herbert, were the major instruments of the "Underground" mail service. Battles mentioned include: Wilson's Creek, Pea Ridge, Corinth, Iuka, Port Gibson, Siege of Vicksburg, Sherman's Georgia Campaign, Franklin, and Nashville. The author includes comments about the brutal, costly, marauder-bandit warfare in Missouri conducted by irregular troops and common criminal elements taking advantage of wartime conditions. A short appendage to the volume gives a history of the Confederate Home in Higginsville, Missouri, and biographical sketches of the people responsible for its establishment. Students of Civil War operations west of Appalachia will find this history fascinating and eye-opening in many ways. The text is attractively illustrated with photos of many of the principals. A new full-name index has been added.

This excellent genealogy traces eleven generations of descendants of Michael Mitchell, born circa 1670. Primarily a male-line genealogy, a few female lines are traced in recent generations. Michael's ancestry is unknown. A brief account of his wife's ancestry is given along with some mention of the origin of the surname and of several Mitchell immigrants. The text is extensively documented, with a lengthy bibliography, a complete full name index, and a chart outlining the family.

This slender volume was compiled primarily for internal use in the National Archives; and, as its title indicates, it is intended to be only a "preliminary" description of the records to which it relates.

Most of the entries in this inventory describe orderly books and company books. These were the two main books kept by each office or unit. An orderly book typically contains War Department General Orders; division, department, and district orders; and regimental and garrison orders (both received and issued). A company book may contain registers of commissioned officers, noncommissioned officers, men transferred out, men transferred in, deaths, desertions, men fined by court-martial, men discharged, men furloughed, men in captivity, descriptive lists of officers and enlisted men; clothing accounts; accounts of arms and ammunition; and accounts of camp equipage and stationary.This inventory has been organized according to geographical command and units of the Army. The geographical command entries are divided into three periods: 1784-1813, March 1813-May 1815, and May 1815-May 1821. The entries for the units are arranged alphabetically by type of unit, and regiment number (if applicable). "Companies seldom issued orders and all companies copied all the orders they received into their orderly books, as did adjutants and inspectors. Consequently, if all companies of a regiment were at the same post, all company orderly books of that regiment generally duplicate each other. In the belief that the searcher would be aided by having theses orderly books grouped in series, even if incorrectly identified, an attempt has been made to assign these books to companies by name when a reasonable choice of name could be made."

Spanish explorer Hernando DeSoto blazed the trails of the Arkansas area in 1541, followed by French explorers Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette. In 1682, French explorer La Salle claimed this wilderness in the name of France, naming it Louisiana. There were many Native American tribes living in this region: The Osage, Caddo, Akansa and the Quapaw. France then ceded this region to Spain in 1762. Spain permitted Americans to settle in the Arkansas area in 1783. In 1801 Spain returned the Louisiana area to France. The U.S. acquired this territory with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, requiring residents to file claims with the government in order to prove legal ownership of the land. Between 1820 and 1906, more than 14,400 entries were filed for the eastern Arkansas counties of Marion, Stone, Baxter, Fulton, Izard, and Cleburne. Land was sometimes available for only $1.25 per acre, or a parcel could be bid upon. This index of land transactions filed with the General Land Office (GLO) is an excellent resource for the genealogist, containing abstracts of land transactions over an eighty-seven-year span beginning in 1820 after statehood. Records are arranged alphabetically by purchaser's last name, and include: first name, middle initial, a legal description and location of the land, the amount of land in acres, the date of purchase, and the county. Contact information is provided in the preface for obtaining access to the original records. This volume covers the following counties: Marion, Stone, Baxter, Fulton, Izard, and Cleburne.