I'm sure all of us have at least one ancestor of whom we have only sketchy information as to where they were from or where they went. The US Census is so valuable to us as researchers, but often we are only left with the name of the state where our ancestor was born. It is wonderful when we can find them on additional census and learn where they were living during the given year of the enumeration. Hopefully we can provide some helpful links here, to aid in your search for your elusive ancestors.
If you are looking for some place name in the State of Florida, try searching out old maps. There are many resources online now. Some links will be provided here on this site. If you have found them on a census, try looking for a map that was created around that same time.
If it is an elusive place name, but you know the county, try contacting the local Historical Society in that county. They often have a great deal of knowledge about the area. Or check with the local library in that county.
Florida has several defunct counties. Mosquito County was in the area around present day Orlando, Florida. Benton County was part of the present day Hernando and Pasco Counties. Fayette County was part of present day Calhoun and Jackson Counties.
It is highly recommended that you post your Florida Genealogy questions on the Florida List. It covers the entire state, and there are many helpful people subscribed to it. Don't get discouraged if you don't receive an answer right away. Maybe no one has the answer at that time, or perhaps they are caught up in a busy life. You will have to subscribe in order to post. CLICK HERE for information on subscribing to the Florida-List. At the same link, you may also browse the archived posts to the list and search the archive, to see if there have been any posts pertaining to your Florida subject.
Florida Unknown County Queries
•FLGenWeb Project Counties List
FLGenWeb Counties
•Be sure to check out the Florida Digital Library & Archives Project for tons of data!
Florida GenWeb Digital Library and Archives
•RootsWeb Table of Contents/Index Page
If you know a County name where your ancestor lived, you might want to subscribe to the Florida County RootsWeb Email List for that county. Or perhaps the surname list.
RootsWeb.com
•RootsWeb Mailing List Interactive Search
Archived messages of RootsWeb Email lists.
Search the RootsWeb E-mail Lists Archives
•Florida INDEPENDENT History & Genealogy
Main Entry Page
•Florida Archives at USGenWeb
Archives Link
•Florida Tombstone Project
Tombstone Project Link
•From the State Library at the Archives of Florida
Census Place Names by County
•Interesting Link for information on Florida Counties.
Florida Place Names
•Universities•
Other sources of great reading on Florida History are the various Universities of Florida. They have made available some excellent works online for us to take advantage of. You will find old maps, documents, even digitalized books on the history of this state. All of which, could play a part in finding out where 'that place in Florida' was located.
•University of Florida
University of Florida, the P. K. Yonge Library of Florida History
•University of South Florida
Historic Florida Maps
•1895 Atlas Maps for the State of Florida and Individual Counties.
These maps are just plain beautiful!
1895 Atlas Maps for Florida
•More Helpful Links:
•Florida History & Antiquities Index
A Vignette of Florida's Heritage by John Lobota
