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Genealogy Resources

These resources serve as a guide to genealogical research at the State Library. Our collection ranges from beginner’s handbooks to Spanish Florida land records research guides. 

Materials are generally available through interlibrary loan from the circulating collection of the State Library. 

Links within the bibliographies take you to information in the State Library catalog.

• General resources
• Guides, handbooks and manuals
• Colonial and Territorial Florida
• Military records
• Native American genealogy
• African-American genealogy

General resources

• Burkhart, Mary Lee Brooks. Bible Records, 1772-1978: Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, and Missouri. Tallahassee: Daughters of the American Revolution, Caroline Brevard Chapter, 1986. 
• Carr, Peter E. Guide to Cuban Genealogical Research: Records and Sources. Chicago: Adams Press, 1991. 
• Cash, W.T. Cash Writings of Taylor County, Florida. Perry, FL: Taylor County Historical Society, 2007. 
• Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. FamilySearch. 
• Colonial Dames of America. Florida Society. The History and Genealogy of the Florida Society Colonial Dames Seventeenth Century, 1933-2009. Florida: Florida History Book Committee, 2009. 
• New York Public Library. United States History, Local History and Genealogy Division. Florida Uncatalogued Local History Ephemera in the U.S. History, Local History and Genealogy Division of the New York Public Library. New York: New York Public Library, 1985. 

• Gilmour, Kay Ellen. A Genealogical History of Florida: Revealed in the Old St. Nicholas Cemetery, Jacksonville, Florida. La Vergne, TN: n.p., 2010.
• Howells, Cyndi. Cyndi’s List. 
• Knetsch, Joe. Postal Appointments and the Genealogist. Tallahassee: Tallahassee Genealogical Society, 1996. 
• McPhaul, John J. Scots on the Move to Florida, Texas and Beyond: The John, Neill, and Duncan McPhaul Families: An Illustrated Journal, 1829-1999. Dallas: J.J. McPhaul, 1999. 
• Mills, Donna Rachal. Florida’s Unfortunates: The 1880 Federal Census: Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent Classes. Tuscaloosa: Mills Historical Press, 1993. 
• National Archives and Records Administration. Southeast Region. Family History Sources. Morrow, GA: National Archives and Records Administration, Southeast Region, 2010. 
• Page, Patsy R. Directory of Florida Physicians, 1898. Alachua, FL: Page Publications, 1994. 
• Smallwood, LaViece Moore-Fraser. Salt of the South: The LDS Trail Blazers. Jacksonville: Drummond Press, 1997. 
• Smith, Drew Andrew Martin. Social Networking for Genealogists. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, 2009. 
• State Archives of Florida. “A Guide to Genealogical Research at the State Archives of Florida.” Florida Memory. 
• State Library of Florida. “WPA Church Records.” Florida Memory. 
• Tallahassee Genealogical Society. Tallahassee Genealogical Society. 
• Thorndale, William. Map Guide to the U.S. Federal Censuses, 1790-1920. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1987. 
• Tipton, Jim, et al. Find a Grave. 
• Vickery, Tina, et al.  The U.S. GenWeb Project. 
• Weil, François. Family Trees: A History of Genealogy in America. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2013. 

Guides, handbooks and manuals

• Allen, Desmond Walls. Beginner’s Guide to Family History Research. 3rd ed. Conway, AR: Research Associates, 1997. 
• Croom, Emily Anne. The Genealogist’s Companion and Sourcebook. Cincinnati: Betterway Books, 1994. 
• Florida State Archives. Using Genealogy Periodicals at the Florida State Archives. Tallahassee: Florida State Archives, 1999.   
• Hite, Richard W., and Henry Z. Jones. Sustainable Genealogy: Separating Fact from Fiction in Family Legends. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, 2013.
• Rose, Christine, and Kay Germain Ingalls. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Genealogy. New York: Alpha Books, 1997. 
• Simpson, Jack. Basics of Genealogy Reference: A Librarian’s Guide. Westport, CT.: Libraries Unlimited, 2008. 
• Smallwood, Carol, and Elaine Williams. Preserving Local Writers, Genealogy, Photographs, Newspapers, and Related Materials. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2012. 

Colonial and Territorial Florida

• Avant, David A. Some Southern Colonial Families. Tallahassee: L’Avant Studios, 1982. 
• Florida Historical Records Survey. Spanish Land Grants in Florida. Tallahassee: State Library Board, 1940. 
• Feldman, Lawrence H. The Last Days of British Saint Augustine, 1784-1785: A Spanish Census of the English Colony of East Florida. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, 1998. 
• Mills, Donna Rachal. Florida’s First Families: Translated Abstracts of Pre-1821 Spanish Censuses. Tuscaloosa: Mills Historical Press, 1992. 
• Moreno, Fernando J., Billie Ford Snider, and Janice B. Palmer. Spanish Plat Book of Land Records of the District of Pensacola, Province of West Florida: British and Spanish Land Grants, 1763-1821. Pensacola: Antique Compiling, 1994. 
• Rasico, Philip D. The Minorcans of Florida: Their History, Language and Culture. New Smyrna Beach, FL: Luthers, 1990.  
• Rhodes, Karen Packard. Non-Federal Censuses of Florida, 1784-1945: A Guide to Sources. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2010.

Military records

• Department of War. General Index and Additions and Corrections - The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. 1972 reprint. Gettysburg: National Historical Society, 1972. 
• Department of War. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1880. 
• Foreign Service Decoration, POWS, Citations: Floridians, World War I. St. Augustine: St. Francis Barracks, 1991. Special Archives Publication No. 116. 
• National Archives and Records Administration. Finding Information on Personal Participation in World War II. Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration, 2007.
• Neagles, James C. U.S. Military Records: A Guide to Federal and State Sources, Colonial America to the Present. Salt Lake City: Ancestry, 1994. 

Native American genealogy

• Bowen, Jeff. Seminole of Florida Indian Census, 1930-1940 With Birth and Death Records, 1930-1938. Signal Mountain, TN: Mountain Press, 1997. 
• Carpenter, Cecelia Svinth. How to Research American Indian Blood Lines: A Manual on Indian Genealogical Research. Bountiful, UT: American Genealogical Lending Library, 1997. 
• Duffy, Laurie Beth. Who’s Looking for Whom in Native American Ancestry. Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1997. 
• Lennon, Rachal Mills. Tracing Ancestors Among the Five Civilized Tribes: Southeastern Indians Prior to Removal. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2002. 
• Snider, Billie Ford. Full Name Indexes Creek Indians East of the Mississippi. Pensacola: Firehouse Print Shoppe, 1993.  

African-American genealogy

• Brady, Rowena Ferrell. Things Remembered: An Album of African Americans in Tampa. Tampa: University of Tampa Press, 1997. 
• National Archives and Records Administration. Black Family Research: Records of Post-Civil War Federal Agencies at the National Archives. Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration, 2010. 
• Smith, Franklin Carter, and Emily Anne Croom. A Genealogist’s Guide to Discovering Your African-American Ancestors: How to Find and Record Your Unique Heritage. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing, 2008. 
• Streets, David H. Slave Genealogy: A Research Guide With Case Studies. Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1986.