Florida County Church and Cemetery Records
See Also Research In State Church & Cemetery Records - Church records rank among the most promising of genealogical records available. Indeed, for periods before the advent of civil registration of vital statistics (a very late development in many American states) , church records rank as the best available sources for information on specific vital events: birth, marriage, and death. They are also among the most under-used major records in American genealogy. Part of the reason lies in the number of denominations-there are hundreds of them. Identifying and locating the records of these various churches makes even professional genealogists hesitate......
As in most former frontier societies, early Florida church records are hit-and-miss, but they can be valuable when located. The Roman Catholic faith accompanied the earliest Spanish settlers to Florida, and by 1822 the Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalians, and Presbyterians were also active in the new territory. By 1845 the Baptists had split into the Missionary and Primitive varieties (probably totaling more than 5,000 Florida members), and all of the above groups had become more or less well organized Methodists had two churches in Fernandina as early as 1822 (under the South Carolina Conference) and more than 10,000 members by statehood.
The Episcopalians by 1845 had parishes at Apalachicola, Jacksonville, Key West, Pensacola, and Tallahassee in addition to others in several smaller towns. In 1840 Florida Presbyterian churches were divided among the Florida, Georgia, and Alabama Presbyteries. An incomplete but voluminous list of Florida churches in existence fifty years ago is the WPA volume Preliminary List of Religious Bodies in Florida. A microfiche edition is available from the Florida State Archives, and the original survey forms from which the volume was compiled are now in the state library's Florida Room. Church records are also to be had in the holdings of most libraries and archival depositories throughout the state, and denominational representatives should be consulted for repositories peculiar to their particular persuasions.
Saint Augustine's Roman Catholic Cathedral Parish records beginning in 1594 are maintained by the parish's current archivist at St. Augustine Catholic Diocese, 11625 St. Augustine Rd., Jacksonville, Florida. It includes marriages, baptisms, and burial
Search Florida Historical Records - Databases include Court, Land, Wills & Financial Records; Birth, Marriage & Death Records; Voter Lists & Census Records; Immigration & Emigration Records; Obituary Records; Military Records; Family Tree Records; Pictures; Stories, Memories & Histories; Directories & Member Lists and much more....
Cemeteries - Cemetery records are held by most Florida libraries and archives. One important compiled source is the WPA Register of Deceased Veterans Buried in Florida, which covers fifty-one of the sixty-seven counties. Access to the massive amount of cemetery information scattered throughout the state is being facilitated by a continuing cemetery location project of the Florida State Genealogical Society. The information will be published, but queries on locations and published surveys may in the meantime be directed to Cemetery Survey Chairman, Florida State Genealogical Society, P.O. Box 10249, Tallahassee, FL 32302. It is important to note that this is a directory of cemeteries and published records, not of personal names
Cemetery records and gravestone inscriptions are a rich source of information for family historians. Cemetery and other sources of information associated with death include:
| FOR DEFINITIONS OF ALL CEMETERY TERMS SEE THE GENEALOGY ENCYCLOPEDIA | |
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