Genealogy show on PBS debuts March 25th

Harvard history professor Henry Louis Gates will host Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates Jr. , featuring well-known Americans, on PBS. Read more and see a clip here.

Genealogy Society of Hernando County

The Genealogy Society of Hernando County meets at 6:30 on the 4th Thursday of every month at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints(Mormons). The church is located at 21043 Yontz Road in Brooksville. For more information, please call Kathleen Marsh at 352-796-1623 or Bunny Ryczek at 352-796-4419.

Hernando County cemetery records at the library

If you can’t track your Hernando County ancestors through obituaries, you may be able to find them through cemetery records. These listings include any information found on the gravestones, such as the names of family members.

The Main library on Howell Avenue has the following cemetery indexes:

Hernando County burial records through 1992 . These records, compiled by the Hernando County Genealogy Society, go back to the 1800’s, and cover most, if not all county cemeteries. You can also find them online at the Hernando Historical Museum Association website- just click on “cemetery records” on the menu bar at the top right. You may need to give the index a minute to download.

Brooksville City Cemetery burials through 2004 – this data used to be online at the Florida Genweb site- if you find it online anywhere, please let us know. In the meantime, we have it in print at the library.

The USGenWeb Tombstone Transcription Project – this very valuable source is available in print at the library or online here.

Also, if you need directions to a cemetery, you will find that at the library as well. If you can’t make it downtown, please call or come in to your local branch and we will fax the pages you need to that branch.

African-American Genealogy

See this guide at afrigeneas.com. Its a gateway to resources and other websites for AA genealogy.

'Beannachtam na Feile Padraig!'

St. Patrick's Day is just around the corner. A 2009 report by the U.S. census bureau reported that nearly 12 percent of the U.S. population claim some Irish Ancestry.
Take our survey (on the right of the page)an let us now which province your people came from. If you're not sure, this link will tell you which counties are in which province:

Genealogy webinars

If you have high speed Internet, you can participate in genealogy webinars. They are interactive, and some are free. Your genealogy group can also host a webinar. Learn more at blogspot.geneawebinars.com

The 1940 U.S. Census Community Project

If your club or organization is looking for a community service projec, look no further. This if from the1940census.org:

Community Outreach
1940 Newspaper Article

Historic Census to Shed New Light on the Greatest Generation

What do General George Patton, John F. Kennedy, Dan Rather, Betty White, and Jesse Owens have in common?

They can all be found in the 1940 U.S. Census, newly released by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. The challenge, of course, will be finding them in the hundreds of thousands of digital images of the census pages online until a searchable name index can be created. Unless you know the state, county, and street address where they were residing in 1940, locating them without a name index will be daunting. Fortunately, that challenge is being resolved by thousands of good-hearted volunteers online at the1940census.org. If you are looking for a meaningful project for your next act of community service, The 1940 US Census Community Project is a great one.

Supported by genealogy giants archives.com, FamilySearch.org, and findmypast.com, and local and national genealogy and historical societies, the project is trying to rally tens of thousands of individuals to join an online community of volunteers to create a free, high quality, searchable index online of every single name found in the 1940 census. Volunteers use an Internet application found at the1940census.org to look at digital images of 1940 Census pages and type in the names and information highlighted on the screen. About 30 to 40 minutes is all that’s required to do one census page. The data extracted by volunteers is saved online immediately and ultimately made available as a free, every name, searchable index at FamilySearch.org. With enough volunteers, the project aims to complete the index before the end of the year.

Many are all familiar with the 2010 Census just completed, but it will be of little use to family historians until 2082, when the 72 years privacy right expires. The 1940 U.S. Census, however, is now available, and family researchers can’t wait to unlock its long held mysteries. In addition to name, age, gender, race, education, and place of birth, 1940 census takers also asked individuals for their place of residence 5 years earlier, their level of education, occupation, and income.

Coupled with the earlier census indexes (1790 to 1930) now available online for free at FamilySearch.org, it will be easier than ever for family historians to extend their genealogical trees beyond their living memories. The 1940 U.S. Census index online will most likely become the most searched online database for the next decade, and a boon to growing consumer interest in genealogy.

The Greatest Generation would be proud of The 1940 US Census Community Project.

For more information or to participate, go to the1940census.com/society and register to participate with the project team in your area, <society name>. Simply select <society name> on the profile screen when creating your account. You’ll be on your way to contributing in an impactful way to this national service project.

How to find obits in the local papers

The library has archived editions of both Tampa papers in our databases, and they include Hernando County obituaries.

From the library’s home page, click on research, then Infotrac OneFile. Enter your library card number when prompted. Scroll down to Popular Magazines and click on it. Click on publication search, enter the name of the newspaper and then click on the search button or hit ‘enter’. A link to the newspaper will appear in the center of the page.

The St. Petersburg Times (as of January 1^st, 2012, the Tampa Bay Times) is covered back to August 31, 1998. Search by last name, first name. For obits prior to that date the Times website  has an archive search going back to 1987. Enter “obituaries” and select “archives”, then click on “go”.

Search Site   Web   Archives - back to 1987

On the next screen you can use the “advanced search” to search by name and date.

As of this writing, database coverage for The Tampa Tribune is from March 23, 1996 to June 22, 2011. Don’t ask me why, but in addition to The Tampa Tribune, you will also see Tampa Tribune(minus the The); it covers April 23, 2000 to March 21, 2008. We searched for a particular article, and found it in both, so there’s probably no need to search both databases. Curiously, some editions, such as those of March 24^th and 25^th of 2008, are missing,  probably due to some sort of copyright issue.

Anything from the Tribune after June 22^nd will have to be found on their website. Scroll about half way down to find the obituaries link. When you click on the link, it takes you to an obituaries page, with a search box on the right hand side.

Regardless of whether or not you’re not a member of the library, our reference librarians will be happy to do a look up for you. Just call us at 352-754-4043, and select the ‘3’ option from the menu. You can also email us at hcplonline@tampabay.rr.com