How do you find the history of a town???

[jonnyGURU]

I just moved to Town n' Country, Florida. It's unincorporated Hillsborough county outside of Tampa.

My next door neighbor said he was the first person in his house and that the whole town was built on a reclaimed phosphate mine back in 1960. I thought that was pretty interesting.

I've been trying to find city history, but all I can find while using three different search engines is the Town n' Country Chamber of Commerce which has the Veteran's Day Parade and some carnival at the Junior High School and a recent traffic report as it appeared in the St. Pete times:

"MEMORIAL HIGHWAY AT HILLSBOROUGH AVENUE, JAN. 9, 7:58 A.M.: A southbound 2001 Ford rear-ended a 1999 Ford truck that was stopped for traffic. There were no charges or injuries."

WOW! Exciting.

Where does someone go for this sort of information? Maybe old photos and maps?

 

[Plantanthera]

Library, museum if the town have one, other wise try the post office.

 

[Windogg]

Town Hall is usually a good place for records too. Actually check just about any county office. They all keep some sort of public documents.

 

[Ausm]

Walk around town and talk to an oldfart?

Ausm

 

[unxpurg8d]

Find the closest and oldest newspaper and go take a look in their morgue.

 

[Suicidal]

Gather up the old people and they'll let you know.

 

[jonnyGURU]

Hmm..... Let me qualify my post.....

Where on the internet can find this information.

There's a library I was thinking about checking out anyway. I suppose I could test how resourceful they are.

The old people have weird hours. For example, they do lawn work in the middle of the day on the weekdays and go to bed early. We do ours on weekend nights. The only reason why I know Carl (that's his name) is because MY OAK TREE drops leaves on his yard so he's always out in the driveway blowing leaves. Bet he thinks that now that I live there I'm going to cut them down to avoid having to scoop up leaves! :Q Wrong!

yakko had a map of the greater Tampa area from the 50's. I wish he could find it again. Kennedy Blvd was "Main Street" and there were no interstates. Finding something like that online would be SO COOL. Got to be on the net somewhere.

 

[Pastore]

most small towns have websites on their history...

my hometown is Horseheads

hmmmm... now that i look at that site, it dont have much info on the history of my town... hehe, nevermind!!!

 

[rgb7]

jonnyGURU - Try the state website and historical archives.

Good luck.

 

[cxim]

most towns don't have a website with a lot of history..

Bradenton, Sarasota, Manatee county, Sarasota county, for instance... all have a long history & several books written about the history. These are all small editions of a few hundred copies. The public library has copies & old photos, etc. Quite extensive.

Many counties /towns have a Historical Society... kind of like a Garden Club with little ole ladies that chat once a month & have a collection of books etc. In Bradenton & Sarasota, the Historical Society collection is at the public library.

None of this is online, tho.

Many county records are, property tax rolls, arrests & outstanding warrants & bond, people in jail, court cases, etc .... but not history...

For old maps you can try US Geological Survey. They have old maps, don't know anout online.

 

[yakko]

Good luck finding anything on the internet. Your best bet would be to walk up to the library. You could also stop at the beverage drive thru and if it is late enough go to the skating rink.

 

[Turbopit]

Go to you local newspaper as well.

 

[thebestMAX]

The County Recorders office should have Plats back to the begining either in huge old books or on microfilm. Interesting to look at but probably not on the Net.

 

[Azraele]

You're not going to find much on the internet if you haven't already. You're going to have to check town hall, perhaps the courthouse, library, post office, or interview some of the town elders. You might also ask any histry teachers in the area if they have knowledge of local history.