Organization Information

The Huguenot Society of Georgia was founded on June 26, 1971, by Mrs. William Lawton Brannen at the Willow Lake Country Club, Metter, Georgia. Our Organizing Members are Miss Anna Pearl Bird, Mrs. Joe H. Bird, Mrs. W.L. Brannen, Mr. W. L. Brannen, Miss Susan Elizabeth Burdett, Mrs. Grover Clyde Dekle, Jr., Mr. Grover Clyde Dekle, Mrs. Harry Linton Dickey, Mrs. J. P. Foy, Miss Lucile Hodges, Mrs. A. V. Holloway, Mrs. Alice Bird Johnson, Mrs. Green W. Johnson, Mrs. Nathan M. Johnson, Mr. James Maryon Jones, Mrs. Perry Kennedy, Mrs. Karl Denham Sanders, Jr., and Mrs. George Carvey Snell, Jr.

Honorary State Presidents

2009-present - Bill Daugette
2007-2009 - C.B Upshaw, Jr., M.D.
2005-2007 - Mr. Todd B.D. Frary
1999-2005 - Ms. Sarah E. Upshaw Crittenden, Esq.
1997-1999 - Mrs. Marion Bird Martin
1995-1997 - Mrs. John Ellis Rountree
1993-1995 - Mr. Michael Everett Collins *
1991-1993 - Mrs. William Franklin Chastain
1989-1991 - Mrs. Harry L. Dickey
1987-1989 - Mr. Charles Pack Daniel
1985-1987 - Mrs. Harry L. Dickey
1983-1985 - Mr. Charles Pack Daniel
1981-1983 - Mr. Walter Stallings Guerard
1979-1981 - Mrs. John Henry Singleton, Jr.
1977-1979 - Mr. Elliott N. Lawton *
1975-1977 - Mr. John Parham Rabun, Jr.
1973-1975 - Dr. William Mercer, Jr.
1971-1973 - Mrs. William Lawton Brannen *
*deceased

The Brannen Room
Statesboro Regional Library

The Huguenot Society of Georgia enjoys a special relationship with the Statesboro Regional Library, Statesboro, Georgia. In 1981, William Lawton Brannen, a Charter Member of the Society, announced that he intended to make the collection of genealogical books of the late Mrs. Brannen available to the public in the name of The Huguenot Society of Georgia, which was founded by Mrs. Brannen in 1971. He suggested the Statesboro Regional Library as the repository of the collection. This site was approved by the Society on April 11, 1981.

LeRoy-Upshaw Memorial
Endowment  Fund

Through the generosity of Dr. Charles B. Upshaw, Jr., an endowment fund was established in 2002 in memory and in honor of his mother, Belle Porcher LeRoy Upshaw (1891-1982), arid of his early Huguenot ancestor in this country, Pierre Philippe LeRoy (1754-1829). Dr. Upshaw continues his support of the Fund.

The LeRoy family, originally from the Province of Hainault in France, fled to England, where they remained for a short time before setting sail for "the new world", with Halifax as their destination. Bad weather conditions accounted for their arrival in Charleston rather than Halifax. Pierre Philippe and his sister, Mary Anne, together with their father, Peter Michael LeRoy, settled in New Bordeaux, SC.

A descendant of Pierre Philippe LeRoy, Belle Porcher LeRoy Upshaw was a long-time member of the Huguenot Society of South Carolina. Her descendants include the following members of the Georgia Society: Sarah Elizabeth Upshaw Crittenden (President 1999 - 2005), Mrs. Mary Upshaw Pike, Dr. James Upshaw and Mrs. Mary Frances Upshaw Culpepper.

Special Gifts to the Society

On October 16, 1979, Mrs. Halle Cohen, a Charter Member, presented the Society a gavel made from a sweet gum tree that grew in her garden.

On September 25, 1994, Mrs. Marion Bird Martin, Honorary State President, presented the Society a flag of The Huguenot Society of Georgia. She designed and made the flag, and later made a duplicate of the National Society.

On October 24, 1998, Guyton B. McCall donated to the Society a stand and flagpole for the display of its flag.

On April 22, 2000, Dr. and Mrs. J. Sanders Pike presented the Society a gavel carved from heart pine from their 18th century house. 

Since 1981, donations to the Statesboro Regional Library, consisting of books, and cash for the purchase of books, on Huguenot history and genealogy, have been made by the Society itself and by its Members individually.

Under the guidance of Smith C. Banks, Librarian of the Society, the collection of Huguenot material in the Brannen Room has become one of the largest in the State of Georgia.