Book Review: Passports of Southeastern Pioneers
                        by Jack Sanders
                         9 April 1990
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    Researchers with roots in the Southeast will welcome 
    ``Passports of Southeastern Pioneers,'' just republished. As 
    many who've studied these states know, much territory was 
    under Spanish or Indian (War Department) jurisdiction for long 
    periods. Passports into and across these lands are often the 
    only clues to the pioneers into the Mississippi Valley.

    Author Dorothy Williams Potter spent eight years researching 
    records of the War Department, State Department, state 
    archives, plus Spanish and British records of West Florida, to 
    compile this well-documented, fully indexed 449 page record. 
    It covers passports issued by the State and War Departments, 
    including those issued by the Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and 
    Cherokee Indian Agencies, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, 
    Georgia, Tennessee, and Kentucky.

    Covering the period from the 1770s to the early 1820s, the 
    book is not merely a list of people, but gives the pertinent 
    texts of passport letters. For example, one issued at Cusseta 
    in the Creek Nation Dec. 3 1797 states: ``John White exhibited 
    his pass of the 2nd of November 1797 from Edward Price, acting 
    for the Agent of War. He is of Green County, and State of 
    Georgia, and on being asked his business in the nation, 
    answered, to see a brother of his who he was informed lived on 
    Tombigbee.'' One can see how tidbits within these letters can 
    be important genealogical leads. Extensive notes and 
    references by Ms. Potter often add more clues.

    When the boook first came out in 1982, a reviewer called it 
    ``the most useful single source book for the pioneers from 
    Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Mississippi, Virginia, North and 
    South Carolina...This is one of the finest reference books we 
    have ever seen.'' Indeed, one wishes there were more books of 
    such scholarship available in more areas of genealogy for more 
    parts of the country.

    If it's not yet in your local genealogical library, ``Passports
    of Southeastern Pioneers 1770-1823'' can be obtained directly
    from Genealogical Publishing Company, Dept. SM, 1001 North
    Calvert Street, Baltimore, Md, 21202-3897 for $32.50 plus $2.50
    postage and handling.                 --JS

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