In addition to providing reference assistance to reading room patrons, the Georgia Historical Society also offers research services for patrons who are unable to visit the Research Center.

Please submit only one question at a time and wait for a response before submitting additional questions.

GHS reference librarians are able to provide a moderate amount of research as follows:

Ready Reference (Email and Telephone)

Ready reference questions are those that the Research Center staff can answer quickly using secondary sources easily at hand, including the Georgia Historical Society’s online catalog. These searches are free of charge, but are very limited in scope. Patrons may submit ready reference questions by telephone or email. If staff determines that a question is beyond the scope of the ready reference service, a formal written request is required and research fees apply.

For a small fee, our reference staff are able to provide a moderate amount of research (up to an hour) for a prepaid fee. Research requests can be submitted via email or in writing using a Research Request form.

• Fees:
  • Member / $20 per hour (Member No. required);
  • Non-member / $40 per hour

• All research requests are limited to one well-defined individual, topic, or question.
• Genealogical research can be conducted under a research request once specific sources within the collection have been identified. You can identify relevant sources through our library catalog and our archival database. We also have helpful research guides that can provide further instruction. Once you identify the source you would like searched, please further specify the full name of the individual to be searched, the information in which you are interested, and relevant dates and locations.
• A minimum of one hour will be charged for each request.
• Research in excess of one hour will require pre-approval and will be billed in hourly increments. [Up to a limit of 4 hours].
• Fees are non-refundable and search results are not guaranteed.
• Pre-payment is required for research to commence.
• Please allow up to four weeks for processing.
• Up to 25 photocopies of materials will be included free of charge. Additional photocopies can be requested at cost to be determined by staff. Ask staff for current rates. Staff also reserve the right to deny photocopy requests based on condition of material and copyright concerns.
• Photocopying is limited to 50 pages.

The Georgia Historical Society Research Center holds an extensive collection of material useful to genealogists and family researchers. Research Center resources include select vital, land, tax and military records, cemetery indices, and directories. Researchers will find a broad collection of resources for counties throughout Georgia and neighboring states, including histories, published abstracts, historical and genealogical journals, newspapers, and U.S. Censuses.

Search Research Center collections by country, city, or surname. See Additional Resources and Links for several helpful resource guides and other online resources that are useful for genealogists.