Past Projects
Hillsborough County Marriages 1846-1964 at USF's Florida Studies Collection
FGS volunteers transcribed marriage records from a collection at the University of South Florida, creating a comprehensive spreadsheet of marriages recorded in Hillsborough County during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Click the link to search the collection.
Zion Cemetery, located on North Florida Avenue in Tampa, is believed to be Tampa's first African American cemetery, dedicated in 1901. The city of Tampa Housing Authority purchased part of that land in the 1950s for a housing development that was built over 1.5 acres of the cemetery. No records of dis-internments have been located. In 2019, a study was conducted that confirmed the location of Zion Cemetery. FGS assisted with genealogy work to identify the deceased. Below is a photo of FGS volunteers at the Zion Cemetery Rededication. Click the link for the FindAGrave page for Zion Cemetery.
Memorial Park Cemetery at East Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive
FGS volunteers have completed two meaningful projects at Memorial Park Cemetery, one of Tampa's historic African American cemeteries. The first brought together numerous volunteers to clean and photograph headstones, adding many new images to memorials on Find A Grave and helping preserve the cemetery's history. A second project focused on fulfilling photo requests, with volunteers walking every section of the cemetery to locate and photograph the graves of loved ones for families and genealogy researchers. Click the link for the FindAGrave page for Memorial Park Cemetery.
Burgert Brothers Photographs at the John F. Germany Library
FGS volunteers dedicated countless hours to sorting, identifying, and categorizing thousands of historic photographs from the Burgert Brothers Collection for the Hillsborough County Public Library Cooperative. These invaluable images, documenting everyday life and prominent individuals throughout the Tampa Bay area over several decades, are now preserved and can now be explored at the John F. Germany Public Library. Click the link for the Burgert Brothers Collection online digital collection.
Florida State Fair
For many years at the Florida State Fair, FGS volunteers brought genealogy to life by providing on-the-spot family history research for fairgoers. Whether uncovering long-lost relatives, revealing surprising family connections, or sharing historical discoveries, they inspired countless people to begin their own genealogical journey.
Find A Grave
One of FGS's largest volunteer projects brought together multiple members to transcribe and upload seven volumes of burial records to Find A Grave. Together, they preserved and made accessible several hundred thousand records, creating a valuable resource for genealogists and family historians around the world. Click here for the FindAGrave search page.
Local Volunteering Opportunities
Would you enjoy assisting in the Tampa Area with genealogy-related resources and events?
1. Find A Grave is a crowd-sourced websites that rely on locals to photograph and upload cemetery information. Search for cemeteries in your area, then help fellow family researchers from across the world. Click here.
2. BillionGraves is a genealogy-based website. They have a series of excellent training videos on how to work in cemeteries. Click here.
Online Volunteering Opportunities
Would you enjoy assisting fellow genealogists from the comfort of your own computer?
1. FamilySearch: Indexing records from around the world. If you can read another language, you will be particularly welcome. Click here for more information.
2. Library of Congress: Virtual Transcriptions. For more information, click here.
2. National Archives: Citizen Archivist Program. More more information, click here.
3. Library of Virginia: Transcribe-A-Thons held virtually, once a month, on Wednesday evenings from 5:30 - 7:30PM. For more information, click here.