Memorial Marker for Francisco Xavier Sanchez

Preserving Florida’s History

Researchers at USF St. Petersburg are working to digitize a treasure trove of Spanish documents that shed light on Florida’s past in St. Augustine.

Exciting news -- the new professor at USF Saint Petersburg, J Michael Francis, has students digging into the original Spanish archives.

Wonder if we can locate more records on Francisco? Was there ever a marriage between him and Beatriz de Piedra? Can we find earlier family records?

Soon they will be online. Check out the story in the USF magazine:
http://www.magazine.usf.edu/2013/spring/features/preserving-floridas-history.aspx

Florida Trend Magazine

I got an email from Dick Rousseau that he received that you might like to follow up on:

Hello,

 

I'm a writer for Florida Trend magazine and we're working on an upcoming "La Florida" issue for the magazine. More than most of our issues, this one is going to include quite a bit of historical information. In partticular we are interested in finding descendents of some of the earliest Spanish settlers that still live in Florida to interview. I'm hoping you can help connect me with some of these descendents.

 

You can reach me at this email or at the phone numbers listed below. I'm eager to hear from you soon.

 

Cheers,

 

Lilly Rockwell
Associate EditorFlorida TrendOffice: (850) 391-9272

Cell: (850) 228-1664lrockwell@floridatrend.com

Florida Soldiers in Civil War (both sides)

Many of our ancestors served as soldiers during the Civil War.  There is a 6-volume set of books that includes information garnered from many documented sources about the soldiers and their military units from both sides of the conflict.

Biographical Rosters of Florida's Confederate and Union Soldiers, 1861-1865, by David W. Hartman (compiler) and David J. Coles (associate compiler); ISBN: 1568372884

It is an expensive set of books the Florida Catalog lists 44 locations in Florida to read this set.  It does not circulate and in county libraries that own it, it is in the "main" branch.  It is also in the larger colleges and universities in Florida.

Florida Townships & Ranges

In Florida the legal property description is based on a rectangular grid  (6-miles by 6-miles) of townships and ranges with a meridian (center-point) passing through Tallahassee.  Each township and range is subdivided into 36 square mile subdivisions (1-mile by 1-mile) termed sections.  The sections get further divided into aliquots.


There is a better explanation on a website called Section, Township & Range, at genealogy.about.com/cs/land/a/public_lands.htm.  There is another good explanation on Wikipedia as Public Land Survey System at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Land_Survey_System


I have two "simple" online ways to local these coordinates.  One is to use the Official DOT County Maps of Florida, at www.dot.state.fl.us/surveyingandmapping/countymap.shtm.  You can view and download the maps as pdf-files (the border have T[township] and R[range] with the sections in boxes on the map.)  The other (less simple) involves using Google Earth downloading a kml-file and executing it to apply the township-range-sections to the Google Earth map.  The kml-file is available from Earthpoint at www.earthpoint.us/Townships.aspx.  When you open this webpage, simply click the box labeled: View on Google Earth in the BML Township, Range and Section section.  The kml-file will be downloaded, you don't have to register.  Open your free copy of Google Earth, then find EarthPointTownships.kml in your downloads and double click on the file to temporarily install it on your Google Earth.  It is an intensive program and will slow down Google Earth so turn it off for other projects.


The Thomas Register for Florida, a large book in the Reference Section of your larger public Florida library will contain a township and range map as well.


Okay it isn't real simple, but it ain't rocket science either.  With a handle on the legal description of a piece of land, you will be able to find it on a map and likely on the road in front of it.

The Land

At the recent Los Floridanos meeting in St. Augustine, someone was asking about how some family member got such large tracks of land.
There are several ways these pieces of land were obtained in Florida.
Land Grants, 

• The Armed Occupation Act, 
• Military Land Bounties, and 
• Buying the land from the Government Land Office
• Second-hand Railroad land

Are the most common methods in Florida.

Most of the files on the Spanish Land Grants are available through the Florida State Archives.  The physical copies remain in Tallahassee, but the State provides images of these files online at: Florida Memory – Spanish Land Grants, www.floridamemory.com/collections/spanishlandgrants/.  

Prior to the sale of Florida to the U.S. government, the King of Spain gave land grants to many individuals.  After Florida became part of the U.S.A., the U.S. Supreme Court had to decide whether the land grants were valid which created a good paper-trail.  The original land grants were in Spanish, but for the court were translated.  That is why you will find both languages in the documents.  Only some of the West Florida (the Panhandle) land grants are missing.  At the website you will find images of each folder and it's contents that you can print or save as a digital color jpg-file (if you right-click your mouse when the cursor is over the image, you will find a selection of features.)  Since the legal proceedings were lengthy, the title of the land grant may have been passed to heirs or sold for cash.

An online tool for finding the other types of land acquisition from the U.S. government is the Bureau of Land Management’s Government Land Office Records, www.glorecords.blm.gov . Look over the information page, but click the words Search Documents next to the house symbol on the green bar down from the top.  You should be on the Search Page with the defaults of “Search by Document Type” and “Patents” selected.  You will need to select Florida for a location for your initial search leave the county unselected.  Next in the names area type the last or surname (if more than one spelling is possible you will need to repeat the search for each), for the initial search don’t enter first or middle names.  The click Search Patents on the orange-brown line near the bottom of the page.  To see a record, click the leading image or accession number.  If you need to shorten your list, add first names or a current county.  It is an informative database for you to find land records and some history.  DO NOT BUY CERTIFIED COPIES, you can print and download images for free.

The State of Florida maintains a similar looking website that you may find useful called the Land Document Search, 199.73.242.56 .  It is free.

In the 1840s the U.S. government passed the Armed Occupation Act of 1842.  A Florida resident could claim 160 acres of land by settling on land South of Newnansville and Palatka and also away from other regular settlements and outposts, register with the General Land Office (GLO), farm 5 at least of the acres, built a house.  This put the settler on the Indian Frontier and he needed to be prepared for conflict.

Military Land Bounties were granted to the soldiers after wars.  The size of the bounty was sometimes determined by the soldier’s rank.  And sometimes the bounty could be transferred to an heir.  In Florida the veteran could apply for a military warrant that could be applied to acquiring a government owned land.  The veteran had the option of selling the warrant.  Typical military warrants in Florida were for the Seminole Wars and Mexican War.

Buying land from the government is the largest category whether it is homestead land (cheap with strings) or outright (more expensive without as many strings) some land is dry and some still submerged.  And there are second-hand land deals.  The railroads were often given large tracks of land adjoining the railway, these were many times sold (the Florida Land Document Search catches many of these transactions.)

This posting is already too long.  I will write another discussing Townships, Ranges, and Section soon.

Please comment, if I explained poorly or got it wrong.  Or if you have more tips for us.  

The software omits anonymous comments so leave us your link.

Celebrating the Historic Heritage

 of Beatriz de Piedra & Franscisco Xavier Sanchez

Starting Wednesday the Underground Railroad Conference begins in Saint Augustine (http://www.oah.org/programs/nps/2012ugrr/index.html) Wednesday, with reenactments of life at Fort Mose on Saturday and celebrations continuing Sunday. (http://www.floridastateparks.org/fortmose/events.cfm?viewevent=7501#7501)


These matter particularly to Los Floridanos because until the English evacuation of the 1770s, when Spain was forced to trade Florida for Havana, the Spanish colony was populated by more people of color than white skinned residents. And these were the Flordianos who spoke Spanish and populated our homeland.

Beatriz Stone (de Piedra), however, came from Charleston when she arrived at Fort Mose, the first free black settlement in America. Mostly its residents were fleeing slavery in the English Colonies or were Spanish soldiers assigned from Cuba. But Beatriz wasn't ever a slave. She had been born free thanks to her Huguenot father John Stone of Charleston and her mother, Regina, who held slave status. (http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~crackerbarrel/1John.html)

Together, Beatriz and Franscisco had a large family during the time of English rule. A wise businesswoman, she ran the trading post while he build a wide agricultural empire. Their oldest son was among the first settlers of Amelia Island.

Come learn more at the Underground Railroad conference, or at least join the free weekend festivities at Fort Mose (http://www.floridastateparks.org/fortmose/) this weekend. Hope to see you there!

Rev. Dee Graham, Bradenton, Florida

Alexander Boneparte Sanchez Jr's daughter

This is a picture of George Washington Polk and Rella Sanchez. These are my great-grandparents. Rella is the 4th child of Alexander Sanchez Jr. and Julia Sheffield. She was buried in Springhead Cemetary in Polk County, Florida. Rella and George had 9 children and lived in the Plant City area. She looks a lot like her mother Julia Sheffield in the picture. If you look real close you will see that Rella is holding a baby in her arms. I didn't see this at first, but believe from what I have heard from others that this baby is Allie (Polk) Weeks and the little boy is George "Clayton" Polk.

Francisco's First Family -- Beatrice de Piedra & Fort Mose

Some of the most exciting times in the life of young Franscisco may have been as a young adult. Left behind in his native la Florida by his familia, the teenager fended for himself as the English took over his homeland. Amidst this, as he struggled and grew and found his way to material success, he also found a partner for his journey -- young Beatrice Stone. A native of Charleston, the young mixed-race woman was transported to Fort Mose by her uncle so that she could continue to live free as her father intended.

The prominent historian who has written extensively about Jane Landers, Francisco's first love and the mother of half of his children, will present at the upcoming Underground Railroad conference in Saint Augustine this June 20-23.

Underground Railroad Conference

Alums relish Manatee High Centennial Celebration under the stars - Local - BradentonHerald.com

Alums relish Manatee High Centennial Celebration under the stars - Local - BradentonHerald.com

Florida Pioneer Dies After 103 New Year's Days

          In his final weeks of life, Lamar Graham received a standing ovation as the oldest living graduate of Manatee High School at its Centennial Celebration, cruised the Manatee Civic Center in his wheelchair for the Ham Fest (Amateur Radio Convention) and chatted on his i-Phone in the middle of his 102nd birthday party. Even though he next had to tackle pneumonia, he made it through to see his 103rd Christmas and New Year’s holidays.

            That’s the kind of genetics he inherited as a Floridano, a member of Florida’s founding Sanchez family and a relative of the Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon. He learned about his ancestry when he and his late wife Edith began their retirement trek of searching for lost relatives and consequently wrote the book Double Cousins in 1987.

               An active Manatee County volunteer with the Red Cross during hurricanes with the Manatee Amateur Radio Club, at the time of his death Graham could also claim “longest term  member” status at the Kirby Steward American Legion post and Bradenton’s First United Methodist Church , which he joined in 1927.  He completed school at both Ballard Elementary and Manatee High School when the  original buildings were new, and even began grade school here at what is now the Manatee County School Board building on Manatee Avenue.

            He caddied for department store founder Robert Beall Sr. on the old Bradenton Golf Course (site of McKechnie Field) and witnessed Armistice Day (end of WWI) as a celebration erupted near the downtown courthouse.  His first radio was a hand-built crystal one yet he ended his working life sending out transmissions for WEDU-TV, Channel 3, in Riverview.

OBITUARY:

Lamar Timmerman Graham, age 102, of Bradenton, died Friday, Jan. 6, 2012, in Pinellas Park, Florida at Suncoast Hospice Woodside.

Survivors include his daughter, the Rev. Dee Graham of Bradenton and Saint Petersburg; his grandson Asaph Graham of Seminole; his granddaughters Austin Graham and Charlotte Quandt, and his great grandchildren, Anthony Quandt Judd and Lila Shelby, all of Saint Petersburg. His nieces and nephews include nieces Joanne Graham Dick of Bradenton, Bonnie Graham Ricker of Michigan, Delia Graham Cirino of Van Nuys, CA; Tonia Graham Hemminger, Joe Graham, Marion Graham Luquette and Chuck Graham, all of Ellenton; Richard Graham of Tallahassee, Van Graham of Colorado, Thomas Graham of Saint Augustine, Peggy Jones Russell of North Carolina and Pat Jones Goodwill of Tampa.

Recognized as a member of a “Florida Pioneer Family” by the Florida Genealogical Society and as a descendent of Ponce de Leon of Spain, Graham leaves behind numerous other relatives who he and his wife discovered while researching the story of his ancestors from Spanish Florida.  The unique relationship between the Sanchez and Perez family, as well as the Sheffield’s who married into the family, inspired the title of their 1990 book, Double Cousins.

In addition to being a Floridano, a member of Florida’s first European families, Graham has been a resident of Bradenton, FL, since 1922. He was born in Fitzgerald, GA, on Dec. 8, 1909 to Thomas Sentell and Marion Amorett Sheffield Graham, and outlived all three of his brothers, Joseph, Thomas and Elmer. He spent much of his early childhood on the rice farm of his grandparents, Joseph Sealy and Andelia Sanchez Sheffield, in Wimauma, FL.

As a child he attended Ballard Elementary School on its first day, Biltmore Elementary when it was housed in the historic Davis Building (now rebuilt on its site in Manatee High School.  Later he went to Bradenton High, which, by the time he graduated in 1931, had been renamed Manatee County High School. He played on the baseball team.

In 1935 he married Edith Lucille Jones (class of 1932), who was the daughter of former Bradenton Mayor Asaph R and Edith Maria Day Jones. She predeceased him in 2009.

Prior to WWII, Graham served in the US Navy, where he worked as a civilian for the military and studied radio and telecommunications at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. He returned to Bradenton to take over the Bradenton Credit Bureau, founded by his father.  At the age of 35 he was drafted into WWII, where he served in the Army Air Force as a Staff Sergeant working in flight communications.

After he returned from the war, Graham sought government employment and worked as a postal clerk for the Bradenton Post Office for more than 20 years, retiring at age 65 and returning to his first love, communications. After earning his commercial radio license, he worked for Lampkin Laboratory in Bradenton, and then finished his career working for WEDU-TV, Channel 3.

Still active locally until his death, Graham (W4FKR) belonged to the Manatee Amateur Radio Club, the Manatee County Historical Society, the Sons of Confederate Veterans, First United Methodist Church of Bradenton, the local chapter of the National Association of Retired Federal Employees, and the Quarter Century Wireless Association. Through his amateur radio work with the Red Cross during hurricanes and other disasters, he continued to be honored annually as a Manatee County Volunteer.  In 2011, he was honored with a lifetime membership in the Kirby Stewart American Legion Post, where he was the longest standing member.

A graveside service will be held Saturday, Jan. 14, in Manasota Memorial Park in Oneco at 11 a.m., including military honors. A reception will follow nearby for family and friends. Those who wish to give a memorial donation are encouraged to consider the local organizations that mattered most to him.

Ponce de Leon story in Saint Petersburg/Tampa Bay Times

Timeline of Florida History

I came across a well done (I may not whole agree with) timeline of Florida's history. It was prepared for OurFlorida.OurFuture. a website for the Collins Center. It is simply called Florida Historical Timeline with a url address: www.ourfloridaourfuture.org/florida-historical-timeline/

You might have wondered why an ancestor moved and to why there, timelines can suggest possible reasons why. Check it out, if you like it "bookmark" it on your computer browser, otherwise ignore it.

Remains of Old Stone Church have been Found

Archeologist have found the remains of an old stone church which predates the Castillo has been found at the site of the Nombre de Dios mission.

The St. Augustine Record reported, "Long-lost Church Found." And an AP story "Remains of St. Augustine church may predate fort" has appeared in newspapers across Florida and the South.

A more detailed report from the University of Florida, "UF researchers unearth only stone mission church in St. Augustine." This is a press release from those doing the excavating.

A Jacksonville TV-station, channel 4 also reported on the find. Archeologists Find 300-Year-Old Church. There is a video link.

These articles appeared today June 3rd so watch for more to come. Please point out any more detailed reports as comments or new postings.

Sanchez Private Sanitarium

Last summer, I met Ed Whitehead and he gave me a picture postcard of the Sanchez Private Sanitarium in Barwick, Georgia. I intended to scan it and post it then, but things got in the way.

Here it is. Barwick is on the county-line of Brooks and Thomas Counties in Georgia. Dr. Simeon Edward Sanchez, M.D., a son of Alexander B. Sanchez, Jr., was the operator of the sanitarium. Dr. Sanchez's name appears in the records to the Thomas County Medical Society and occasionally in the Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper at awards ceremonies.

I understand that the building has been torn-down.

This picture is linkable, which means that if you want a copy: move your cursor over the picture, click your right mouse button, select Save the image appearing in the menu that appears, and save it to a location on your computer.

Dr. Simeon Sanchez had a brother that was also a medical doctor, Dr. Butler Hall Sanchez, M.D. who practiced in Plant City, Florida.

I have a question. What was the sanitarium? a hospital, a TB facility, or what?

Could they have found an Old Wooden Fort?

There was an interesting online posting from The St. Augustine Record from January 16. The article posted is titled, "Find could be from the 1500s." The article is by Justine Griffin.

A link to it is: staugustine.com/news/local-news/2011-01-15/find-could-be-1500s

In St. Augustine, digging gets a visit from the city archeologist. It seems that digging anywhere in St. Augustine uncovers some history. Some construction has revealed the foundations of a wooden structure located near the Castillo. The acrheologist calls the dig a big find. There are post-holes, wood stains and artifacts.

What the building was is still to be determine. Check the link above for details.

What do you think it was?

Hard and Soft Genealogy

I got an email pointing out a fault in the "Ancestry of Maria del Carmen Hill" that is linked to in the items at the top right column of the blog (#6.)

The death of John Palmer (#162) in 1661 would have made him 117 years old when he died. Yes, it is unlikely that he was that old. Maybe the year was 1616 and there was a transposition error or there was another John Palmer who died in 1661.

This above ancestry is an ahnentafel that someone had shared, and I have lost the identity of the good person who shared their work. The best way to find our errors is to have them pointed out, we are otherwise blind to our own errors otherwise.

Some of you Bloggers want to cross from soft genealogy where people collect names of people suggested as ancestors to carefully listing ancestors, their siblings, parents, birth-marriage-death dates and places, and a record of where all of the information came from. Many of us are in the genealogy area in-between soft and hard.

One problem has been online space to store this information that would be shared. The items in the upper right column are stored on the 10 megabytes that Verizon allows me the create a webpage. However, there are now other places to store the information.

• Scribd at http://www.scribd.com/ allow you to store documents for free that anyone can read (that is after they register (and they have not sold me to the junk email dealers.))
• Google Documents at http://www.google.com/ allows you to store documents for free, but to share them you need to list everyone you want to allow access to them. You will have to register here as well.
• Microsoft Windows Live at http://login.live.com/ has a similar free service as well. You will have to register here as well.
• There are likely other such resources.

The blog is not designed for sources, footnotes, and references. But it is great for "soft" genealogy.

Some of you have a great deal of research that you want to share. You are not going to make a financial profit from it. Most genealogies are self-published and breaking even becomes a lot of work too. Please, share your work with us. Use one of these above services or even another that the readers can access.

Some of you have collected family stories and tales. These are treasures that might be lost if they are not shared. I have heard two stories about diamond rings and glass panes as their canvas. I think more people would like to hear or read these tales that have been handed down. Please, share these tales with us and tell us who you heard them from. The blog, Orlando Stone Soup, is a continuing collections of tales and stories about people and places in Orlando, WV. There are no "Sanchez" in these stories, it is just a great example of what is possible. Check out: http://orlandostonesoup.blogspot.com/

If you are just a name collector of possible ancestors, you can share your speculations with us as well. Continue to share with us.

We also have historical fiction writers among us. They to are welcome please with the caveat of labeling their work as historical fiction. Consider sharing with us.

If you don't have the privileges to post to this blog, just write me at tomsantacruz@gmail.com and I will have an invitation sent to you (this blog is a free service of Google.)

These rest of you, I hope you change you mind and step-up with your opinions, insights, tales, and such. You can still comment on any of the postings. If you send SPAM, it will disappear.

Marker Unveiled to Large Gathering

There were about 50 to 60 Los Floridanos present at the unveiling of the marker which is on the route from the Visitor Center to the Town or the Castillo.

A link to some pictures of the unveiling are at: http://spotted.staugustine.com/photos/index.php?id=1971758&page=1

The reception that followed was welcomed on another hot day in St. Augustine. But it was nice with a view of the renovated Bridge of Lions and a brief presentation by Don Crichlow, City Commissioner, on the significance of the Los Floridanos ancestors and their descendants on the city. The City of St. Augustine is preparing to celebrate 450 years of continuous occupation in just few years.

Update on Marker Unveiling

If you cannot read the announcement, click HERE to view a larger image.

Los Floridanos Heritage Plaque

This email arrived today, May 17th:

The Los Floridanos Historical Society cordially invites all members to attend the dedication of the Los Floridanos Heritage Plaque. The event, sponsored by the City of St. Augustine and hosted by the Los Floridanos Society, is part of the City's historical marker program.

The dedication ceremony will take place on Saturday, May 29, 2010, at 10:30am on the Northeast corner of Cordova and Orange Streets on the grounds of the visitor Center and City Parking Garage Complex. The plaque honors the historical heritage of the descendants of the first Spanish settlers, the Los Floridanos, who were sent to colonize "La Florida".

A reception will follow the dedication at the A1A Ale House on the Bayfront. Please let me know if you plan to attend the dedication and reception. Thanks.

The email came from Thomas T. Rogero

New Info on Alexander Bonaparte Sanchez' Descendants

Some of you may have notice an additional listing in the Bibliographies and Descendant Charts . . . section in the right-hand column. That would be item: 7. Alexander Bonaparte Sanchez, Jr.'s Descendants.

Cousin, Ed Whitehead ewhitehead@triad.rr.com has contributed this information. It brings this part of the family tree up-to-date.

Please add any comments or corrections or email directly to Ed.

Is this St. Augustine Sanchez one of our family?

Recently, there was a posting on another blog, My Florida History, that featured the Rodriguez-Avero-Sanchez House at 52 St. George Street in St. Augustine

But who is this Juan Sanchez who died in 1801? He isn't in the records that I have collected. Is he from another Sanchez family?

Please comment. Correct me if I am wrong.

Lamar Graham, 99 and Counting

Here's Lamar T. Graham, only days before his 100th birthday, celebrating Thanksgiving, 2009. Lamar is the 3rd great grandson of Francisco Xavier Sanchez, co-author of the book Double Cousins, who was born December 8, 1909 in Fitzgerald, Georgia.
Contact him at w4fkr@aol.com.

Posted by his daughter, Dee Graham.

Charles R. Usina died October 30, 2009

A message from the Los Floridanos society sent the information about Charles Usina's death this morning:

It is with deep sorrow that I report the death of Charles Usina who passed away at his home Friday morning. Charles was a very active member of Los Floridanos and a major contributor to the society. We will miss him.

Visitation will be held 5 to 8 p.m. Monday at Craig Funeral Home, with prayer services at 6 P.M. Funeral services will be held 2 P.M. Tuesday at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine.

There is a news article in the St. Augustine Record from October 31, 2009 that describes highlights from his full life. It can be read at: staugustine.com/stories/103109/news_103109_019.shtml

Charles Robert Usina is a descendant of Joseph Simeon Sanchez, Francis Roman Sanchez' brother.

Los Floridanos Society Meeting - 10/10/09

Los Floridanos Society, Inc.

Florida’s First Spanish Families 1565-1763

P. O. Box 1891

St. Augustine, FL 32085

Sanchez www.losfloridanos.org Solana

Society News Updates October 2009

10/10/09 – 9:00 am - Informal membership breakfast to be held at the

IHOP Restaurant, 2600 Ponce DeLeon Blvd., St. Augustine, FL.

Please continue to support this organization by your participation at our scheduled events.

Remaining 2009 Calendar

11/14/09 – Informal breakfast – 9:00 AM - IHOP Restaurant

12/12/09 – Christmas Luncheon; Time & Location to be announced

For those of you who may not have heard, the City of St Augustine is sponsoring a historical marker program. The markers are placed at various locations around the city and inform the visitors to St Augustine of the events, persons and buildings that are a part of the city’s diverse history.

Los Floridanos Society is in the final development stages of a marker to commemorate our “Los Floridanos” ancestors. At the September membership breakfast, the marker layout by member Jeremy Cain was unveiled. A delegation has presented the layout to the city and found the cost of the marker will be $1,300. We are seeking donations to help defray the cost of the marker. To date we have collected $800 toward the cost of the marker. Thank you to the 4 members who have donated so far.

For members wishing to make a donation, kindly mail a check to the above address made out to Los Floridanos Society. Indicate on the check it is for the marker project. Thank you for your support.

Hello, Floridanos & Friends!

As Daddy (Lamar T. Graham) approaches his 100th birthday on Dec. 8, I'm starting a blog from my birthday (yesterday, Sept.8) to his. Please check it out, add memories or comments, and join us for the celebration when we reach this celebratory occasion!

The party is planned for an open house from about 5:30 - 8:30 pm at the Manatee Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Bradenton, Fl. ( http://www.uuofbradenton.org/), where folks can come by after work, bring a covered dish or a snack, sit down and visit a spell, compare geneaology charts and meet shirt-tail relatives. It will be casual, making the event low stress, but giving everyone a chance to share memories and pass the time. The focus will be memories, history, progress and wisdom.

In the meantime, please check out our new Blog, comment if you remember things about Daddy, the family or just back in the day. We want to keep looking forward to 2010, which promises to be a better year all the way around!

Blessings all!

Dee

Rev Dee Graham
Daugher of the late Edith Lucille Jones & Lamar T Graham
as seen in Double Cousins

(Which, by the way, Daddy and I hope to have updated sometime this year.)

Los Floridanos Activities Resume

Los Floridanos Society, Inc.

Florida’s First Spanish Families 1565-1763
P. O. Box 1891
Solana St. Augustine, FL 32085-1891 Sanchez
www.losfloridanos.org

Society News Updates September 2009


Welcome back. Hope you had a relaxing summer.

Los Floridanos has again been invited to participate in the City of St. Augustine’s annual reenactment of the founding of St. Augustine. The activities begin at 9:30 a.m. as authentically clad soldiers prepare for the reenactment of the landing by the city’s founder, Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles, at the Mission of Nombre de Dios. Plan to arrive about 15 minutes early to meet up with our President, Dick Rousseau. For more information call Dick at 797-4952

There has been a change to the September get together. There will not be a luncheon instead join us for a welcome back membership breakfast at 9 am at IHOP Restaurant, 2600 Ponce DeLeon Blvd., St. Augustine, FL.
Please post the calendar as a reminder of upcoming events and join us when you can!


2009 Calendar
9/5/09 – Menendez Landing Reenactment and Mass – 9:30 am at the Mission Nombre de Dios.
9/12/09 – Welcome back Breakfast – 9:00 AM - IHOP Restaurant
10/10/09 – Informal breakfast – 9:00 AM - IHOP Restaurant
11/14/09 – Informal breakfast – 9:00 AM - IHOP Restaurant
12/12/09 – Christmas Luncheon; Location to be announced

Edith L. Graham died on July 8, 2009

Many of us have read Edith's book, Double Cousin. It is a book that anyone studying our Sanchez genealogy should be familiar with. Both she and her husband, Lamar T. Graham, collected the information, and she wrote the book.

The family wrote an informative obituary:

Edith L. Graham (Jones)

Edith L. Jones Graham, born May 19, 1915, dies July 8, 2009, at age 94. A genealogist and co-author of Double Cousins, which documented the story of "Los Floridanos" Sanchez family who pioneered Saint Augustine from before 1603, Edith Lucille Jones Graham died Wednesday, July 8, 2009, in Bradenton, FL. She was 94. After an injury forced her to retire in 1978, she and her husband Lamar Graham took advantage of their time to investigate their curiosity in genealogy and his family history to begin what turned into a discovery of a rich part of Florida 's diverse heritage. With the help of their daughter, the Rev. Dee Graham, a professional journalist, they wrote several books about the state's pioneer families. Characters they uncovered range from one of six Spaniards allowed to remain when the British took over in the 1700s to a signer of Florida's original constitution to several of Florida's first preachers and church founders to colonial clergy to pirates, Confederate soldiers and members of indigenous tribes. Surnames they covered included Sanchez, Sheffield, Graham, Thomas and Holland. The daughter of former Bradenton and Elyria, OH, Mayor Asaph R. Jones, and the niece of former Florida Sen. Lee S. Day, was born in Elyria and graduated from Bradenton High School in 1932, going on to both Virginia Intermont College and Florida State University. She married her high school classmate Lamar T. Graham, Sept. 14, 1935, and worked with him in running the Bradenton Credit Bureau until after World War II, when they both ended up working as United States Postal Clerks. Mrs. Graham was a founding member of the first Manatee chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution and of the National Organization for Women. She belonged to Bradenton's First United Methodist Church and the Manatee County Historical Society. Survivors include her husband of 73 years, Lamar T. Graham of Bradenton; her daughter, the Rev. Dee Graham of Saint Petersburg, grandson Asaph Graham and wife Marlaine of Seminole; granddaughters Austin Graham and Charlotte Quandt, both of Saint Petersburg; three great-grandsons, her cousin Doris Day Leland of Bradenton, and many nieces and nephews. A graveside memorial service will be held at 10 am Tuesday, July 14, at Manasota Memorial Park in Oneco, FL. Memorial donations may be made by check to the National Ataxia Foundation, 2600 Fernbrook Lane, Suite 119, Minneapolis, MN, 55447, www.ataxia.org.

A copy of this obituary appeared in The Bradenton Herald on Sunday, July 12, 2009.

FamilySearch.org has Somethings NEW!

Recently, the "pilot" FamilySearch.org added a database of Florida Death Certificates for the period 1877 to 1939. It is more than just an index, much of the information has been transcribed by volunteers into this database.

It is FamilySearch Records Search - Pilot Site, (or go to http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#start .)
You can leave the "first or middle names" blank, enter a "surname" like Sanchez.
For "Life Event" select Death/Burial,
For "Year" enter 1920,
For "Place" enter Saint Augustine, Saint Johns, Florida, United States, (if you leave off Saint Augustine, you will get all of Saint Johns County, or if you leave off Saint Augustine, Saint Johns, you will get all of Florida.)

With this example I got 6 results. When I pass my cursor over the blue underlined name, I get a summary on the screen. And if I click that blue underlined name, I get a page of information from the database.

Near the top of the page of information, you will see in blue and underlined "copy to clipboard", if you click that you can then add the information to your word processor or an email by pasting or keyboarding with control key + v.

To the left of "copy to clipboard" is "about this collection", click it and you get a history of the collection, but also at the to the words "search this collection." Now clicking it will limit the searching of Familysearch to just this database.

There are other refinements to searching possibilities that you can try as well.

But some names are spelt wrong: the volunteers transcribed what they saw, they were not familiar with the people or places.

And it is free.

Los Floridanos Picnic on May 9th 2009

LOS FLORIDANOS ANNUAL PICNIC:

If you have not marked your calendar for the May 9th Annual Picnic, do so now. Put a big red circle around May 9th as a reminder.

The picnic this year will be at the St. Augustine recreational park across the street from the St. Augustine Lighthouse. The park has ample shade and parking.

Following lunch, for the young at heart, you may want to work off the calories with an aerobic workout climbing the lighthouse’s 219 steps. If that is not your thing, you might want to cross the street to the lighthouse gift shop and museum. The gift shop is open to the public but there is a charge for the tower, museum and audio tour. For more information, including ticket prices, check out the web site: www.staugustinelighthouse.com.

The Society is providing the meat. Please bring a covered dish: salad, vegetable and/or dessert. See you there!

^^^The above is from an email received on April 29 from the Society.^^^

Los Floridanos Society - April Announcements

Los Floridanos Society, Inc.

Florida’s First Spanish Families 1565-1763
P.O. Box 1891
St. Augustine, FL 32085-1891
www.losfloridanos.org

April 11, 2009 9:00 AM Breakfast Meeting

The Society will be meeting, April 11, at the IHOP Restaurant, 2600 Ponce DeLeon Blvd. St. Augustine, Fl. Please plan to attend this meeting.

Mark your calendars for the May 9th annual Society picnic The place and time will be forthcoming.

If you have not paid your annual dues for 2009 please forward a check to the above address or bring your payment to the breakfast meeting on Apr. 11. Annual dues are $15.00 for the calendar year.



Additional (by mail):

May 9, 2009 12:00 PM Annual Family Picnic
Members and guest, plan on attending the Los Floridanos Annual Picnic on Saturday May 9th. Bring a dish to share. It can be a main dish, side dish, or a dessert. The Society will be furnishing fried chicken, iced tea and papers products.
Feel free to bring your folding chairs for your comfort.
Please note that the family picnic has been moved up to the Spring. And, we are looking into holding the picnic at a different site. Watch for a mailing with more information.

2009 Calendar

4/11/09 - Informal breakfast; IHOP Restaurant
5/9/09 - Family Picnic - Location to be announced
June, July, August - Summer off
9/12/09 - Welcome back Luncheon; Location to be announced
10/10/09 - Informal breakfast; Location to be announced
11/14/09 - Informal breakfast; Location to be announced
12/12/09 - Christmas Luncheon; Location to be announced