Florida’s nickname is “the Sunshine State”. Genealogists who have hit the “brick wall” while trying to learn more about their ancestors who lived in Florida are probably quite frustrated. These Florida genealogy resources should help with that problem, and make your outlook on genealogy a whole lot sunnier!
Cyndi’s List is the most detailed collection of links to online genealogy resources. It has a page called “United States- Florida” that includes a series of links to different collections that relate to Florida genealogy. The Collections include: “Birth, Marriage, Death”, “Census”, “Counties”, “Military”, “Newspapers”, “Obituaries” and more. This is an excellent resource to start with for genealogists who are new to Florida genealogy.
FamilySearch has a Wiki that is about Florida. There is a link on that page for every county in Florida. Start with this Wiki page, and you can click over to several other FamilySearch Wiki pages that are about collections of records that FamilySearch has that are specific to Florida.
Ancestry.com has a page that is a “Data Collection”. It is a list of links to all the Ancestry.com collections of records that are for Florida. To access these links, you must have an Ancestry.com membership. Some collections might be offered for free from time to time, but the majority are locked behind a paywall. Genealogists who have a membership should return to this page often. Ancestry.com makes it clear when a collection has been updated or is new.
GeneaLinks has an easy to find search engine near the top of their page. Put your ancestor’s name into the boxes, and select the record type you want to search for. Choose from: vital, birth, death, marriage, divorce, or “genealogy”. There is a box of links that will let you search public records.
There is a lot of helpful information on their page that genealogists who are new to Florida genealogy may not know. For example, privacy laws in Florida keep all birth records confidential for 100 years.
The Florida State Genealogical Society was started in 1977. Scroll down, and you will see a section that is helpfully titled: “New Here?” This will walk new genealogists, (or genealogists who are new to FSGS) through the resources that are available, and provides research tips. It also points out where to find the calendar of upcoming events that FSGS will be involved in.
Image by Jeff Muceus on Flickr