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WELCOMEtoLAKE COUNTY, FLORIDA |
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Mural was painted on the fireplace in the lobby at the Fountain Inn Hotel in Eustis, Lake, Fl. around 1923.
I am your county coordinator, Fran Smith. Glorianne Fahs is the assistant county coordinator. If you are interested only in what might appear in the Lake Co. site you may use the Lake Co. Search engine below for Lake Co FLGenWeb. Your search results will appear under the search box.
The FLGenWeb is proud of our ability to provide you with this FREE site. It is our hope that if you have information about Lake County, you will contact me. I will be happy to add your information. Because people are willing to help people and share their information we are able to maintain our status of the largest FREE internet genealogy group of websites. Pictures, bios, articles of interest, etc. make interesting reading for others. A new section is being added for those whose family members were cremated. This is the only way future generations will find where our loved ones are if they are not listed in a cemetery. If your loved one was born in Lake, lived, died or was interred here, email me with the information.
A Brief History of
Lake County
Lake County became a legal entity on July 27, 1887. It was carved out of portions of Orange and Sumter counties. The first County Commission meeting was held in Yalaha at Mendenhall's store and the board rented a two story house as a courthouse in Bloomfield on the south side of Lake Harris.
It was named Lake County because there were over 1400 lakes within its proposed boundaries. Tavares became the county seat after 3 elections that included political maneuvering and outright corruption.
As a part of his effort to have Tavares named as County Seat, Major St. Clair Abrams, who founded Tavares, borrowed $10,000 and built a courthouse, which later was known as the Pioneer Building. In 1922 the county floated a $250,000 Bond Issue and built a new courthouse which is now known as the Historic Courthouse.
The first Post Office was established in Okahumpka on January 2, 1845 when Florida was still a territory. Chetwynd, north of Fruitland Park, was the first Post Office after the county was formed but was discontinued in 1891 and taken over by Fruitland Park.
In 1890, the first census was formed and there were 8,034 people in the county. As of the 1990 census, there were approximately 140,000 people.
Agriculture was the main industry until the freezes of 1983, 1985, and 1989. The agribusiness figure reached $101 Million dollars.
Walt Disney's parents were married in a small town named Kismet, which no longer exists, on December 27, 1887. As a child, Walt used to spend vacations visiting his Aunt Jessie Perkins in Paisley.
What's New
This Month
Spanish War Veterans buried in Lake Co.
Cemetery Page has been updated with new links.
Shiloh Cemetery
Cassia Cemetery is also known as Walker Cemetery
Shockley Cemetery is also known as Maple Grove
Recent Additions
COUNTY EVENTS
A Fundraiser for the Leesburg Library
Under Used, Unheard of and Not So New Resources, or Where Have You NOT Looked? will be presented by noted genealogy speaker Pamela Cooper. All library resources will be available for researching your family tree. Library staff and genealogy volunteers will be on hand to assist, 5:30 – 8:30 pm Saturday, November 7th at the Leesburg Public Library, 100 East Main St., Leesburg, FL. Light refreshments provided. Tickets are $10, available at the library beginning Sept. 1st.
For further information, please call: 352-728-9790 or E-mail Carol.Anderson@leesburgflorida.gov
Pioneer Family Certification
Are you a descendent of a Leesburg (and vicinity) pioneer family? If so, we're looking for you. In fact, we're hoping to reach all of Leesburg's Pioneer Descendant families, so we can honor them in our celebration of Leesburg's Sesquicentennial.
The Leesburg Pioneer Certification, sponsored by the Leesburg
Sesquicentennial
Celebration Committee, honors Leesburg pioneers and their descendants
who
arrived by the time Leesburg was chartered
July
12, 1875.
Applications and instructions are available at Leesburg Heritage
Society,
Certificates will be awarded all during the
Sesquicentennial Year as your application
is
approved.
JUNE 13 =
The Groveland Historical Society will be hosting a reception to honor women who
worked in the citrus industry from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. For women who picked
oranges, worked in processing plants, management or were owners, we invite you
to come and share your stories for our oral history archive. We also have
refreshments and a small gift. We also ask that family members come to represent
mothers, grandmothers, sisters or daughters who worked in the industry but who
cannot come.
JUNE 27 =
There will be a launch party for the forthcoming book, Images of America:
GROVELAND. This is the first full history book about the city and the people
who shaped it. The party will include lunch, a signed copy of the book, musical
entertainment and a slideshow presentation. Cost $32. (The book is a $23 value
in itself.) The event will be held in the historivc Lake David Center, which was
built by the WPA in the 1940s and has recently been
restored.
JULY 4 =
Author and historian Doris Bloodsworth will be signing books all day at the Lake
David Center during the city’s old-fashioned 4th of July celebration.
Lots going on all day long until fireworks that night.
The month
of July = The City of Groveland, the Groveland Historical Society and the Marion
Baysinger Memorial Library are co-sponsoring ONE BOOK ONE COMMUNITY, a national
program that encourages reading and unity. During July, people are encouraged to
read Images of America: Groveland and join discussion groups, if they
wish. There will be daytime, evening and online discussion groups. Here are the
topics from the book:
The week of
July 6 = Taylorville and Early Groveland
The week of
July 13 = Groveland: 1940s – 1960s
The week of
July 20 = Schools and History Makers
The week of
July 27 = Neighboring communities: Mascotte, Clermont, Stuckey, Minneola and
Montverde
Everyone is
invited to participate. You can purchase an advance copy of the book at www.grovelandhistory.org/grovelandbook.html
and sign up for the One Book One Community program (free!) at www.grovelandhistory.org/booknews.html
Lake
County Home Page
Where is Lake
County
Birth,
Marriage &
Death Certificates
Lake
County Libraries
Post
Offices est. 1845-1961
Lake
County Funeral Homes
Leesburg
Mt. Dora
Sorrento
Tavares
Umatilla
Vanished Towns
Villa City
Florida
Facts and History
Migrations
(add your ancestors here)
Origin
of Florida Place Names
List
of
Florida Family History Centers
Florida
War History
Cyndi's List of
Florida Genealogy Web Sites
Where
To Write for Vital Records - Florida
ROOTS-L U.S. Resources: Florida
Census
Project
Census
Project
Florida Tombstone Project
Florida
African American Roots
Florida Digital
Library and Archives
Textual
Collections of Florida
USGenWeb
Florida
Archives
Genealogist's Index to the World Wide Web
If you would like to become a part of this project, please contact
Florida State Coordinator, for more information.
Back
Comments and suggestions
will be welcomed.
Last updated June 3, 2009
FLGenWeb Project, Inc. | AUP | USGenWeb
Fran Smith