Florida Genealogical Society

For your research you may want to check out the following blog:

Florida’s Genealogical Society

http://fgstampa.blogspot.com/

According to their blog, they are Florida’s oldest genealogical society, founded in 1958. 

They are located in Tampa, so for the Tampa historian, this makes them a potentially very useful contact for research information.   The blog also gives information about, and links to sites, for other genealogical societies in Tampa, such as the Jewish Genealogical Society of Tampa Bay, and outside Tampa, such as the Southwest Florida Germanic Genealogical Society.  See the side bar for links to the other societies.     

Although the blog seems to deal mainly with reports about meetings of societies, there is information about hiring members to get copies of obituaries and funeral notices in the Tampa Tribune.  The Tampa Tribune is microfilmed and housed at John F. Germany Public Library in Tampa.  The fee is $15 an hour, plus .25 for each photocopy.  There is an online index database, called Trails, for the obituary notices in the Tampa Tribune at www.hcplc.org.   You can search Trails to make sure there is an obituary available for your relative, and also to be able to provide the Florida Genealogical Society member with the exact dates of the individuals that you want the obituaries for.  They request you do the research before requesting a copy, and of course it saves you money.  

Also on the side bar of the blog are links to other blogs and podcasts.  A few that I found interesting were:

·         Cemeteries and Cemetery Symbols   http://cemeteries.wordpress.com/   (check out the side bar for links)

·         Genealogy Blogs and Newsletters  http://sites.google.com/site/paperangels02/genealogy_blogs which listed some other state blogs, like Mississippi, New Mexico, Missouri,  and Colorado, as well as genealogical blogs on ethnic groups, by libraries, and the top 50 genealogy blogs on Facebook.  It’s not a large collection, but it might be worth checking out. 

·         Genealogy Roots Blog http://genrootsblog.blogspot.com/ This blog is finding and posting “online genealogy databases, records, and resources.” The focus is vital records for the U.S., but Joe Beine says he occasionally throws in other locations.  One informative article I read on his blog was July 20, 2006 “Ellis Island? Castle Garden? Which one? And When?” Beine not only gives information about the dates of operation for them, but for a third, the Barge Office, which I never heard of.  He gives thanks to INS/USCIS historian, Marian Smith, for her help with this article, so he seems to be doing some real research for his articles. 

One thing I have learned about researching online today is that there is often more to a site or blog then may appear at first, so it’s worth taking at least a few minutes to dig around on a site before deciding it’s useless. At first glance I was ready to discard this site because it seemed to be only a blog about meetings in Florida that I can’t attend.  But, learning that I can hire a society member to copy the obituaries of some of my relatives in Tampa for so modest an amount, was helpful to know.  Another thing I have learned today is that sometimes information for another genealogy project is on unlikely sites.  I would never think to look on a Florida site for links for my German genealogy research, but I found one through this blog.  So if a site comes up on your search results, take a a  minute or two before you jump off.