Florida Archives and Libraries

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

Florida Department of State
Bureau of Archives and Record Management Mail Station R.A. Gray Building 500 South Bronough Street Tallahassee, FL 32399-0250 Telephone: 850-245-6700 Fax: 850-488-4894 Internet: http://dlis.dos.state.fl.us/index_researchers.cfm

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."

National Archives—Southeast Region (Atlanta) 5780 Jonesboro Road Morrow, Georgia 30260 Phone: 770-968-2100 Fax: 770-968-2547 Internet: http://www.archives.gov/southeast/

Florida State Genealogical Society P.O. Box 10249 Tallahassee, FL 32302-2249 Internet: http://www.rootsweb.com/~flsgs/index.htm

Florida Historical Library 435 Brevard Avenue Cocoa, FL 32922 Phone: 321-690-1971 Fax: 321-690-4388 Internet: http://www.florida-historical-soc.org/

University of Florida Smathers Library Room 100 P.O. Box 117007 Gainesville, FL 32611 Telephone: 352-392-0319 Fax: 352-392-4788 Internet: http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/

University of West Florida John C. Pace Library 11000 University Parkway Pensacola, FL 32514 Telephone: 850-474-2424 Internet: http://uwf.edu/library/

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 Internet: http://www.library.miami.edu/about/contactus/helpdesks.html

Orange County Library System 101 East Central Boulevard Orlando, FL 32801 Telephone: 407.835.7323 Internet: http://www.ocls.info/Locations/MainLibrary/DRI/genealogy.asp?bhcp=1

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

Catalog of the Florida State Archives. Tallahassee, Florida: Department of State, 1975. (FHL book 975.9 A5fs number 1.)

Guide to Depositories of Manuscript Collections in the United States: Florida. Jacksonville, Florida: Florida Historical Records Survey Project, 1940. (FHL book 975.9 A1 number 130.)

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.

Computer Networks and Bulletin Boards
Computers with modems can be useful tools for obtaining information from selected archives and libraries. In a way, computer networks themselves serve as a library. The Internet, certain computer bulletin boards, and commercial on-line services help family history researchers:


 * Locate other researchers
 * Post queries
 * Send and receive e-mail
 * Search large databases
 * Search computer libraries
 * Join in computer chat and lecture sessions

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 network and bulletin board sites:

USGenWeb
http://www.usgenweb.com/

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
http://www.rootsweb.com/roots-l/usa/

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

For further details about using computer networks, bulletin boards, and news groups for family history research, see the United States Research Outline "Archives and Libraries" section.

FamilySearch™
www.familysearch.org

The Family History Library and some Family History Centers have computers with FamilySearch™. 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.