Florida has begun a celebration of the 500th anniversary of its discovery by Juan Ponce de Leon on April 3, 1513.
Ponce de Leon’s claim of Florida for Spain began that nation’s role on the North American mainland. Florida’s first city, St. Augustine, was founded a bit later, in 1565. Georgia was founded some 220 years after Florida. One prominent Georgian, George Walton Jr., was namesake of Walton County and Fort Walton Beach.
Florida’s records can be found in the Spanish Archives until 1763, when it was given to the British by treaty and divided into the provinces of East and West Florida. After the American Revolution, another treaty in 1783 returned Florida to Spain until the United States acquired it in 1819. It reached statehood in 1845.
All of these changes of ownership and status are reflected in Florida’s records and influence where to search. The Florida State Archives is in Tallahassee, and online resources are accessible through their Florida Memory project at www.floridamemory.com. Newspapers can be found on Genealogybank.com and other websites.
Because of the great influx of northerners to Florida for the winter, there are a lot of great genealogy collections in the state. If you are traveling to Florida, always check a library’s website to see if they have a genealogy collection; you will be surprised what is available. The Atlanta area’s various libraries and archives also have some published materials on Florida, so always check. Online at Ancestry.com and Familysearch.org you can find many Florida state and county sources.
Lunchtime seminars
Tennessee Valley Authority records will be the topic when Maureen Hill speaks May 3 at the National Archives at Atlanta in Morrow. This First Friday Freebie will be at noon and is free; bring your own lunch. For more information, see www.archives.gov/atlanta.
Tina Seetoo, archives associate at the Delta Air Transportation Heritage Museum, will talk about caring for family photographs at the Georgia Archives Lunch and Learn seminar at noon May 10. It’s free; bring your own lunch. For additional information, check www.georgiaarchives.org.
Free forms
Free forms to help you keep up with your genealogical data are available from www.familytreemagazine.com/info/basicforms. These include a five-generation ancestor chart, family group sheet, a biographical outline sheet and, most importantly, a relationship chart to help you figure out who is your third cousin twice removed.
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