This book contains the admission record for the first 888 patients admitted to the Central State Hospital in Milledgeville, Georgia. The hospital, the state's first mental institution, was authorized in 1837 and opened to patients at the end of 1842. Each patient record begins with a list of basic facts, with their name, county of origin, age, marital status, and other facts depending on the particular patient. The introductory information is followed by a description of symptoms that led the patient to the hospital, along with possible causes of illness. Records end with dates of admission then those for elopement (escape), dismission, or death. The number by each individual is the sequential patient number given in early admission records.

This book documents the earliest numbered patents issued by the United States. From the first patent act in 1790 through the summer of 1836, patents were not given a reference number. Instead, they were referred to solely by the name of the inventor and the date of issue. The practice of patents being numbered sequentially began in 1836, with patent number one issued in July. The sequence is still in place today: utility patent 7,000,000 was issued in 2006. In addition to utility patents, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office also designates design and plant patents. Design patents began in 1843 and plant patents began in 1931. The purpose of this book is to provide a record of the number, issue date, inventor, and title of the first 10,000 numbered patents, issued from July 1836 to September 1853. All of the information was abstracted directly from the published patent, rather than using a compiled patent index. The book includes a name index to inventors.

Few places in the United States feel the impact of courthouse disasters like the state of Georgia. Over its history, 75 of the state's counties have suffered 109 events resulting in the loss or severe damage of their courthouse or court offices. This book documents those destructive events, including the date, time, circumstance, and impact on records. Each county narrative is supported by historical accounts from witnesses, newspapers, and legal documents. Maps show the geographic extent of major courthouse fires. Record losses are described in general terms, helping researchers understand which events are most likely to affect their work.

The 1805 Georgia Land Lottery was the first experiment of its kind in the United States. Partly in response to the Yazoo and Pine Barrens Land Frauds of the 1790s, the people of Georgia decided to distribute newly acquired lands using a lottery, thereby minimizing opportunities for corruption. Land lotteries had been used previously on a limited basis, but the distribution of public lands on a mass scale by lottery is unique to Georgia. New land was surveyed into square lots using public funds and then distributed by chance to eligible citizens. Widows and orphans, classes typically disadvantaged under the headright system, were specifically allowed to participate in the land lottery. As the first of eight Georgia land lotteries, the 1805 Land Lottery served as the operational model for those to follow and established districts and land lots as the foundational units of Georgia's survey system (over the township, range, and section). The purpose of this book is to document the record of title transfer from the State of Georgia to an individual for each land lot distributed through the land lottery process in 1805. The information contained in this book was compiled from a variety of sources, primarily the List of Persons Entitled to Draws, the grant books, and the Numerical List. Sources used that relate to specific events and requests include the Executive Department Minutes, records of the Georgia General Assembly, and three series of land lottery documents. In addition, the List of Fortunate Drawers, the Proceedings and Ledger of Fractions Sales, and the Index Leading to Page were used for verification purposes.

Researchers studying the people and land of east Georgia should always have a ready map reference to watercourses and militia districts. Those two features are used to identify the location of land and residences, where streams often serve as property boundaries and tax and census records are arranged by militia district. This atlas is a functional research aid, with fifty individual county maps encompassing the entire region granted under the headright land system.