Genealogy in Northwest Florida: Societies

• Bay County, Florida GenGate: Getting Started.  

 This is the place to tap the amazing collection of databases gathered by the genealogy community in Bay County, Florida. 
If you want to know the news and events of the local genealogical society, link to this page .http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~flbcgs/programs.html.

•  Genealogical Society of Okaloosa County

 The program for August will feature George and M. Legge, the Family History Center directors for the Fort Walton Beach Family History Center.  Open the GSOC web link for more information and to preview the web site central to the Family History Center's purpose, travel on over to the FamilySearch site.

• West Florida Genealogical Society 

  Topic: FamilySearch.org: What’s New and How to Use It Speaker: Elder Balling and Elder Blair, from the LDS Church
Presentation will include new records and features of Family Search; how to search, create a pedigree fan chart, share photos, build a family tree, chat with a live person for help, and use Puzilla to “find our cousins.” WFGS member Mrs. Lee Scott will also be available to answer any in-depth general questions.

FamilySearch.org is a free website with many genealogy records to access, and WFGS library volunteers have recently been trained to assist visitors in using its resources.

Note: this is the program originally scheduled for June, which we had to cancel due to unforeseen circumstances. Members and guests are welcome to attend. Refreshments will be available at 9:45. Meeting begins at 10:00 A.M. Point of contact is Charlotte Schipman, 850-477-7166, email cschipman@mac.com

• Genealogical Society of Santa Rosa County

This society has spent many hours in accumulating acquisitions for the Milton Library in the Genealogy Department.  They also hold their monthly meetings in the library on 3rd Saturdays at 10a.m.  For more information, contact one of the board members listed on page 2 of the PDF Document Link above..
 
 

Summer Explorations

• BillionGraves Q&A  I am not yet a part of the Billion Graves project; but I love what they are doing to ease my path in locating interments.  Due to the immense learning curve standing between me and GPS photograpy skills, I have been slow to get on board!  So what is BG and what are they doing that hasn't been done before?  This website offeres Frequently-Asked-Questions in the "Q and A" format so that we can all be in the know. 

What websites and resources do you use to find or locate your ancestor's graves?  Here are some of the ones I've utilized:

1. http://Interment.net
2. Family Search Catalog:  Microfilms, Books, locality resources, etc.
3. FamilySearch Search Your Ancestor!
4. Find-A-Grave
5. USGenWeb
6. Publications of genealogical societies which are housed in libraries: Check Library of Congress and WorldCat or the library catalogs of individual repositories.
7. Periodicals (See PERSI), available at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana, as well as at some other locations (Your local library may have Heritage Quest online).  Read more about Heritage Quest at Dick Eastman's Encyclopedia.
8. Newspaper Obituaries:  Wherever you can find digitized or archived newspapers and obituaries, is where you must go.  I would recommend you look at Cyndislist because this is a comprehensive category that may pop up in a number of places.

Other ideas?