We have had a number of guests traveling through our Bed & Breakfast on their personal journey to find long-lost relatives. As well, we have become more familiar with local resources as we continue to research the homes and old commercial buildings in our historic district.
Following is a running list of resources and tips for you
General Resources
Genealogy Resources in Florida
Florida Memory Project - https://www.floridamemory.com/
Automobile registrations
Photos
Military Registrations
The Florida Historical Society - https://myfloridahistory.org/
County Clerks
Clerk of Courts for marriage and divorce records
Clerk of County for official records (property) – older records might be on paper in the courthouse itself
Google Scholar
This is an interesting resource because it has a lot of old digitized publications such as books on the Civil War, business publications, old trade journals and more
Books
Touched by the Sun, But Stuart B McIver - 2008
Newspapers and other things to look at
Florida News Online - https://guides.ucf.edu/c.php?g=78313&p=516309
http://www.Newspapers.com
Kissimmee Valley Gazette - https://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00091504/00002/allvolumes
Old Tampa papers seems to have been a place that news from across the state was published
University of Florida Digital Collection https://ufdc.ufl.edu/text - text search - https://ufdc.ufl.edu/text
Florida Historical Society Publications - https://www.jstor.org/publisher/florhistsoc
Historical Societies local to an area ·
Facebook Memory Pages for a town
Kissimmee – Do You Remember When? https://www.facebook.com/groups/KissFla
Homosassa Memories https://www.facebook.com/Homosassa-Memories-1552080881716307/?__tn__=-UC*F
Tips for searching
Late 1800’s early 1900’s – use initials such as “J A Barclay” or “J. A. Barclay”
Name Variations (e.g. “James A Barclay”, “J Allan Barclay” along with a hobby, or something about the person that you know)
Deciphering addresses in old phone books, “What address does "ss Broadway, 2d s of Darlington ave, r Verona, se cor Clyde ave?”
It means South side of Broadway 2 doors south of Darlington Avenue, Residence Verona Southeast corner of Clyde avenue