On June 9, 1825, Governor George M. Troup signed into law the authorization for a lottery of former Creek Indian lands ceded to the United States earlier that year. Two of these, the Fifth and Sixth Land Lotteries, were ultimately conducted (in 1827 and 1832, respectively), and the parcels acquired by the lucky lottery winners were all situated in the newly surveyed Georgia counties of Carroll, Coweta, Lee, Muscogee, and Troup. The records of these Jefferson County lotteries are available on microfilm at the Georgia Department of Archives and History.

The lottery rolls themselves identify both the persons eligible to participate in the two lotteries and the names of the “Fortunate Drawers,” the persons who actually won title to the former Indian lands. The arrangement of the lottery records themselves is according to the old Jefferson County Militia Districts, and thereunder by the names of militia officers. Mr. Ports has included a useful history of the lotteries–including eligibility requirements, fee structure, average lot size, etc.–and a 1952 map of the Jefferson County Militia Districts to aid researchers in more precisely locating the origins of potential ancestors. In all, this indexed work identifies about 2,000 people who took part in the Jefferson County lotteries.