Get out of the July heat and learn something new with speaker Gladys Friedman Paulin. Gladys will be talking about big city research, which can seem scary: too many people, too many repositories. But, according to Gladys, urban research is exciting. She says there is a smorgasbord of records available for all. Gladys cautions that the researcher needs a strategy and careful record keeping to be successful, especially since common surnames can lead to confusion.
According to Glayds, the history of a city, its neighborhoods and internal migrations may help you understand ancestor movements and give you hints for finding them in the correct places. Gladys' presentation includes a review of essential records: vital records, census, city directories, voter lists, tax and business records. Large numbers of urban residents were tenants, not property owners, but probate and other court records may be plentiful. Cities frequently collected information not deemed necessary in smaller towns and rural districts. Overlapping bureaucracies: municipal, borough, town, county, state and federal records may also be confusing. Border changes and annexations may require study to determine which records may be in which locations based on time and history.
Gladys' presentation also includes an overview of Ethnic records: newspapers, historical archives and museums; big city libraries; and the explosion of what can be found online.
So come cool off with us 6 July 2013 in the Auditorium of the John F. Germany Library, 900 N. Ashley, Tampa (11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.) and pick up some tips from Gladys.
Educational Opportunities
The Special Interest Groups will be meeting prior to this regular society meeting.
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Brickwalls and Beginning Genealogy meets in the Auditorium from 10:15 to 10:45 a.m.
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DNA groups gathers around a table in The Florida History & Genealogy Library on 2 West.
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Computer Interest Group is in the Computer Lab on 3 West. If you attended the last session, you had homework! Professional corporate trainer Lori Coffey will be back answering your questions about using Google. If you missed this presentation, you missed a lot! However, you can catch up.
--Log in to the Members Only area of the website.
--Click Secure Download.
--Click the Computer SIG Docs button.
--Click the June 2013 Handlout link.