Record Atlas
7 eras · 1513–2026 · 70 places

Florida

St. Augustine, Pensacola, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Key West. Which empire held this ground in which years — and, the part that matters, which archive that means.

Whose archive this ground was

YearsWho held itWhose archive that means
1513–1763 Spanish Florida (La Florida) no registers survive

St. Augustine was founded in 1565. The Diocese of St. Augustine holds sacramental registers from 1594, the oldest Catholic parish records in the United States; the St. Augustine parish registers to 1821 have been digitised.
1763–1783 British East Florida and West Florida no registers survive

Spain gave Florida to Britain in 1763 in exchange for Havana, and Britain divided it into East Florida and West Florida. West Florida's capital was Pensacola, and Spain captured Pensacola in 1781.
1783–1821 Spanish Florida (second Spanish period) National Archives Catalog (NARA)

The East Florida Papers (1784-1821), the archive of the Spanish government of East Florida, are in the Library of Congress, moved from Tallahassee in 1905; land-grant records stayed in Tallahassee. Spain moved West Florida's eastern boundary from the Apalachicola to the Suwannee River in 1785. The United States took possession on July 17, 1821 under the Adams-Onis Treaty signed in 1819.
1821–1845 Florida Territory (organised March 30, 1822) FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA)

Andrew Jackson governed as military commissioner in 1821 and Tallahassee became the capital. A territorial census in 1825 counted 13,554 people. The Second Seminole War ran from the end of 1835 to 1842.
1845–1861 State of Florida (statehood March 3, 1845) FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA) · Chronicling America

Florida became the 27th state on March 3, 1845. The Third Seminole War ran 1855-1858.
1861–1865 Confederate State of Florida FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA) · Chronicling America

Florida seceded on January 10, 1861. Union forces held Key West, Fort Jefferson and Fort Pickens at Pensacola throughout the war, and occupied Fernandina from March 1862; Tallahassee never fell.
1865–2026 State of Florida FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA) · Chronicling America

Florida was readmitted to the Union on July 4, 1868. Statewide death registration is generally dated 1899 and birth registration 1917, with scattered earlier records (Key West from 1865, some deaths from 1877); sources differ on these start dates.

The rings are approximate — deliberately. They exist to shade which filing system a place fell under, not to adjudicate a border. A place near a ring's edge should be checked against both neighbours.

See the whole span, 1513–2026, on the map →

The map takes a range, and a range that crosses one of the rows above is where records get lost: the family never moved, and the archive on the far side of the handover will tell you it holds nothing.

70 places on this ground

1742 FamilySearch collections reach this ground

Ranked with the regional ones first — a collection for a province is usually a better lead than a national index, though the national index is often where a name is actually written down. A free account opens the images.

…and 1682 more.

All record regions · The map