The Young Family of Georgia

	The Young Family of Georgia by AC Felton
Augustus C. Felton was a Young from his mother’s side and probably the first to take our genealogy seriously. Way back before tracing your family roots was popular. So dedicated was Felton that he wrote a book called, The Young Family of Georgia which was published through a vanity press. Vanity presses were such that the author paid for the publishing costs in hopes that the book would catch on and sell.
I doubt that A.C. Felton ever imagined his book being on the New York Times best seller list but he knew there were a lot of people related to him with the Young last name. The first printing of his book was done in 1953 and was 65 pages. I know because I was able to find a copy from a used book seller and purchased it. I scanned each page and put it in a form which enables readers to see it today.
Be forewarned that there are many mistakes in this book being the first edition. I would venture to say that at least fifty percent of the information in that first book is in error. But to his credit, he published a second edition which amended most if not all of those mistakes. I have not read it since I don’t have a copy but was told by a cousin in Austin, Texas that it is over 200 pages and that edition contains photographs.
The way he amended it was either by word of mouth or some ads in maybe newspapers etc. he asked for anyone of the Young heritage that had any “sourced” information that would correct his data to send him that proof. In return he gave each participant a copy of the new edition when it was published. This I have by word of mouth also. It makes sense but I can’t say that it’s gospel.
Whatever criticism the mistakes might draw I would offer in his defense that considering there was no Internet and research was very slow and likely costly, he did a marvelous job of researching and publishing the family history of the Young family in Georgia.
A couple of things to help you navigate the book. First, when you are on the index pages (There are two) you can click on a name or on a page number and you will be taken to whatever you chose. Second, at the bottom of each page there are links to the next page in succession and to the previous page by choosing that link. Between them there is a link to get you directly back to the first index page which you can navigate as you please. When I scanned these I did so with software that is way outdated and some of the images of pages are a higher resolution than others which means they will be larger on the screen. If you have trouble seeing them and you dont have a zoom on your mouse and/or keyboard, hold the Ctrl key down while rolling the mouse wheel toward you (shrinks the picture on the monitor) or away from you ( makes the image larger) depending on whether you want to zoom in or zoom out. And lastly, the images are scanned from a book that was printed on what appears to be low grade paper in 1953. Sixty-three years as of this writing. Easy for me to remember since that was my birth year as well. The point is that the images are somewhat faint. But if you keep the image as large as you can and still see it, you should have no problem.

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