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Following is a brief explaination of the procedure followed in obtaining a headright or bounty grant and some information concerning the grants:
A person desiring a headright or a bounty grant would appear before a land court consisting of several Justices of the county in which the desired land lay. Here he took an oath as to the size of his family. If any minutes exist of the land court proceedings they should appear in the county records.
I am not aware of any applications for headright grants having been found, but if they exist they might be found in the loose records collection of the Georgia Archives or the special collections of a library or university. They do exist for bounty grants but the ones I have seen contain no genealogical information.
After taking the oath, a warrant of survey was issued directing the county surveyor to lay out the land. Two copies of the survey plat were made, one for the surveyor's office and one was sent to the Surveyor-General of the state.
After living on the land for a year, the person would apply to the Governor for a grant and, after paying any fees required, the grant would be issued. The grants contain no genealogical information, however the size of the grant in acreage could be an indicator of the size of the family. The legislative Act governing headright grants provided up to 200 acres for the family head and 50 acres for each family member but no more than 1000 acres.
Bounty grants were for militiamen of the state, men who had served in militia battalions, refugees who had served in militia companies outside of the state, and citizens who had not molested their neighbors. These followed the same procedure as outlined above but with one exception. They had to provide some evidence of their service or an affidavit stating that had not molested their neighbors. Many of these original documents are in the loose records section of the Georgia Archives where they may be viewed upon application to the Archives staff. They are filed alphabetically by name so a specific name will be required. A printed index is available to determine if the person has a file. These documents have no genealogical content but do provide evidence of service in the Revolutionary War where applicable.
The grants and survey plats are on microfilm at the Georgia Archives. Bounty grants have the words "On Bounty" written on the grant but there is nothing in the grant that indicates military service.
After the grant was issued the state was no longer involved, and any transaction involving the land was a county matter.
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