Florida Archives and Libraries

United States Florida  Archives and Libraries

The following archives, libraries, and societies have collections or services helpful for genealogical research.

Florida State Archives Mail Station R.A. Gray Building 500 South Bronough Street Tallahassee, FL 32399-0250 Telephone: 850-245-6700 Fax: 850-488-4894

Online collections include Confederate Pension Applications, Spanish Land Grants, and World War I Service Cards among others.

As of January 1984 the genealogy collection of the Florida State Library was transferred to the Florida State Archives. However, the Florida State Library, which is also in the R.A. Gray Building, still has references of interest to the genealogist, especially in the "Florida Collection."

State Library of Florida R.A. Gray Building 500 South Bronough Street Tallahassee, FL 32399-0250 Telephone: 850-245-6600 Fax: 850-245-6651


 * Florida Collection


 * Genealogy Resources

National Archives Southeast Region (Atlanta) 5780 Jonesboro Road Morrow, Georgia 30260 Phone: 770-968-2100 Fax: 770-968-2547 Internet: National Archives at Atlanta

Florida Historical Library 435 Brevard Avenue Cocoa, FL 32922 Phone: 321-690-1971 Fax: 321-690-4388

University Of Florida Smathers Library Room 100 P.O. Box 117007 Gainesville, FL 32611 Telephone: 352-392-0319 Fax: 352-392-4788

University of West Florida John C. Pace Library 11000 University Parkway Pensacola, FL 32514 Telephone: 850-474-2424

University of Miami Otto G. Richter Library 1300 Memorial Drive P.O. Box 248214 Coral Gables, Florida 33124-0320 Phone 305-284-3233 Fax 305-284-4027 Orange County Library System 101 East Central Boulevard Orlando, FL 32801 Telephone: 407.835.7323

Two helpful guides for several important Florida archives and libraries are:

Catalog of the Florida State Archives. Tallahassee, Florida: Department of State, 1975. 

Guide to Depositories of Manuscript Collections in the United States: Florida. Jacksonville, Florida: Florida Historical Records Survey Project, 1940. (.)

To learn more about the history and record-keeping systems of Florida counties, use the 12 inventories of the county archives published by the Historical Records Survey around 1940. Copies are at the Family History Library.

Web Sites
You can find computerized research tips and information about ancestors from Florida in a variety of sources at local, state, national, and international levels. The list of sources is growing rapidly. Most of the information is available at no cost.

Addresses on the Internet change frequently. The following sites are important gateways linking you to many more sites:

The USGenWeb Project A cooperative effort by many volunteers to list genealogical databases, libraries, bulletin boards, and other resources available on the Internet for each county, state, and country.

Roots-L A useful list of sites and resources. Includes a large, regularly updated research coordination list.

FamilySearch™ Available to anyone with access to the Internet. In addition, the Family History Library and some Family History Centers have computers with the Internet that can be used for free for genealogical purposes. FamilySearch is a collection of computer files containing several million names. FamilySearch is a good place to begin your research. Some of the records come from compiled sources; some have been automated from original sources.