The Geneline - Amelia Island Genealogical Society
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The Geneline
THE MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF
Amelia Island Genealogical Society
July 2012 - ISSUE 7
COMING UP!
AIGS General Meeting - Tuesday - July 17th at 7:00 pm
HELD: FERNANDINA BEACH POLICE DEPT. COMMUNITY ROOM
Speaker: Jane Phillips Collins
Topic: Florida Pioneer Ancestors
Jane will speak to us about her Florida
pioneer ancestors including the Phillips
family. They were important players in the
early days of Florida, particularly Duval and
Nassau Counties.
Since their children moved away from
Jacksonville - some to Nassau County - the
family history is not common knowledge.
Jane enjoys telling their story in her efforts
to help keep her family history and
memories alive.
About Our Speaker: Jane Collins
Our speaker, Jane Collins, has lived on Amelia Island most of
her life and she has a strong interest in everything having to
do with our local history. She is very active with the Amelia
Island DAR chapter currently serving as Regent and is a
member of the Amelia Island Museum of History. Jane is in
the process of publishing her mother's book which is a
collection of stories of life in South Georgia and North
Florida over a span of almost 80 years.
In her professional life, Jane is a Realtor with Prudential
Chaplin Williams Realty and is also manager of her husband's
construction business and Trustee for her mother's estate,
managing the timber and real estate holdings.
PUBLIC IS WELCOME TO ATTEND
2012 AIGS MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
BOARD MEMBERS Michael A. Toomey
Michael S. Toomey
he AIGS, involving a significant
President
Royce “Gus” Reinwald
Vice-President
T number of our members, is con-
ducting a survey of the new sec-
tion of the Bosque Bello Cemetery, and I
Gloria Toomey thought I would provide an update of
Secretary how it is being done, and the results to
date.
Susan Anstead
Treasurer Bosque Bello Cemetery (Beautiful Woods)
is located on North 14th street about one
Charles Finnigan mile north of Atlantic Avenue and it con-
Membership tains two distinct sections which we have come to call the “Old” and “New”
Chairperson sections. You probably know, the original cemetery, which was established
Marie Santry just to the southeast of the original settlement of Fernandina, and as it
Past President began to fill, new land was donated to the city by the Cooper Family in
1945 in adjoining land to the east. This section of land is a triangular piece,
Bob Keane which is separated from the original cemetery by Magnolia (also called
Director North 12th street) and bounded on the north east side by North 14th street
Burt Swearingen See for the existing map (which I must say needs to be updated)
Director (http://aigensoc.org/gallery/cemetery_Bosque_Bello_New_Layout.JPG
Kay Watt The cemetery was first surveyed in 1987 by the Duncan Lamont Clinch
Director Historical Society with a second survey by the AIGS members in 1997. At
the second survey, this section of the cemetery contained 2028 graves, but
COMMITTEE CHAIRS it has grown rapidly and we estimate it now contains over 3200 graves.
& EDITORS
Michael Toomey We are capturing the data from each headstone with photographs, and
AIGS Website using these pictures to both establish the position of the grave
(Division/Section/lot) and, to capture the headstone information. The
Bob Keane
position of the grave is written on a small white board which contains the
Program
location and a photograph is taken next to the headstone. A second
Charles Finnigan picture of just the headstone information is also taken, these two pictures
Membership capture all we need without hand- copying everything on paper. We have
Lori Miranda six photographic teams working at this writing. These teams put the
Publicity photographs in Division/Section/Lot order, code the picture with that order
and process the picture to a uniform size and photographic density to
Kay Watt conserve space on the website (unprocessed pictures take a lot of memory
Librarian space).The photographs are put on the snapfish.com photographic site, for
Kathy Nemaric data entry use.
Research Coordinator
We have also been able to pull all of the existing graves data from the prior
Frances Bartelt surveys using our cemetery database. We create a small database for each
Editor Geneline Division, and a second team of eight people take the photographs, check
Jean Mann existing graves, and add only new grave information directly from the pic-
Editor of Nassau tures. Also, a link to each photograph is added for each grave so the pic-
County Genealogist tures can be viewed on our website. Currently a group of 8 people are
being trained to work on the data. Continued on pg. 3
pg 2 AIGS July 2012Now, this sounds complex, but it is really
straightforward, and we already have five The Value of Family Histories,
divisions (about 250 gravesites) online, Biographical Profiles and Periodicals,
and we have about that same number in Researching Your Family Roots
close to being completed.The big advan-
tage to this process is to eliminate the by Susan Anstead
writing and re-typing.This reduces errors
and speeds up the work.We have also n the early 1980’s, when my mother was researching
taken the opportunity to add military
and fraternal group information, nick-
names, etc.You can see can see samples
of the finished work on the website by
I her families roots, I remember her finding entire books
documenting her ancestors. I thought it was amazing
how so much information could be found in these books.
Many were sourced and cited and indexed. Some of these
either browsing The Bosque Bello New books were written by people who spent nearly their
Cemetery at entire lives gathering and documenting their relatives and
http://aigensoc.org/cemeteryBosqueBell family histories. My mother followed her lines for accuracy
onew.asp. Graves with photographs and didn’t find many mistakes in those books and then
shown on the right side of the page with came along a distant cousin.
a blue link have a photograph attached
and have been re-surveyed.As we go My mom’s cousin was born and raised out west and knew
along, we will update the maps and little about his family in the Midwest. He wanted to write
show links to the graves directly on the a book about them. My mother spent years correspon-
website. Following is a small list of sur- ding with him, sharing her research information. He visit-
veyed graves, where you can see the ed often and she showed him cemeteries and old family
completed work with photographs by photos and helped him any way she could. He had won-
going to our website and searching by derful intentions and worked tirelessly trying to capture
the surname. all the family documentation. Unfortunately, he had a lot of
2012 difficulty in documenting it all and my mother eventually
Bosque Bello Cemetery called him “The California Bomber”. Every time she
Survey Team would send him corrections he would change something
else and make more mistakes!
Anderson, Kathryn Louise
Atkinson,Willie H. So does that mean that my mother’s cousin’s book is
Bird, James M., Sr. worthless? Absolutely not! It still contains lots of accurate
Brown, Jacob information. Family histories should never be considered
Davis, Ernest definitive sources of information but they can certainly
Dubose,W. Irvin help point you in some new directions and give you some
Lee, Helen M. clues on where to look for more information.
Little, James K. When I started my quest to find out more about my dad’s
Lovett, Ella ancestors I was skeptical that I would find a book contain-
Paul,William B. ing any family history. I went to a half day genealogy
Wilcox, Jim class a few years ago and they mentioned finding informa-
York, Oleta Ann tion on Google Books. (http://books.google.com/books).
This is interesting and rewarding work, I started by typing in my family’s last names to see what
so if you are interested, contact any of popped up.The first book I found was written by a very
the officers, and we would be glad to distant cousin. It is entitled,“Journal of the Adventures of a
have you join the effort. Party of California Gold Seekers”.
Michael A. Toomey (Continued on pg. 4)
July 2012 AIGS pg 3There is not a lot of family history
information in it but it is a fascinating
read of one woman’s diary written
while crossing the Wild West to reach
California in the 1840’s. The History
Channel found it interesting enough to
create a one hour program based on it.
My dad told me that his grandfather
worked in a brickyard. That didn’t real-
ly tell me much until I searched Google
Books for more last names. Bingo! My
great grandmother’s uncle, Joseph
Winkle, started a Terra Cotta business in
St. Louis, Missouri.
I kept digging and found a wealth of
information in industry periodicals
including:“Brick and Clay Records”,
“Clay-Worker”, and “Brick”, all free on
Google Books.These documented the
brick and clay industry from the early
1800’s to the mid-1900’s.Article after
article was written about my great,
great, great uncle’s business as well as
about my great grandfather managing a
brickyard in St. Louis.
The Winkle Terra Cotta business had an
exhibit at the 1904 World’s Fair in St.
Louis, and won first prize for “best
design” of the building that housed the
Mines and Metallurgy exhibit.
I also found the family business docu-
mented in architectural books which
provided even more information.
The brick and clay periodicals led me to
biographical profiles of leading St. Louis
business men of the early 1900’s. My
family and its businesses were
documented in them, pictures and all.
These too are free on Google Books.
I found a great deal of information sup-
porting the periodicals and filling in
gaps in online newspapers. http://news-
paperarchive.com/
St. Louis 1904 World’s Fair Continued on pg. 5
The Artistic Exhibit of the Winkle Terra Cotta Co.
pg 4 AIGS July 2012An excerpt from the book,“The
History of the Development of
Missouri, Particularly of St. Louis,
Volume II”, Edited by Martin S. Snow.
In preparation for a trip to the
Family Search Library I sat down
with Marie Santry, who was kind
enough to give me a head start in
my search.
She suggested I search the Family
Search Library books section of their
website.
https://www.familysearch.org/#form
=books
We got a hit on the first search! It
turned out to be a family history of
my great, great, great grandfather’s
sister and her family. It documents
their trek to the United States in
1849 and their lives up to the
1960’s. The book even mentions the
Winkle Terra Cotta Business.It was
another incredible find. Biographical Profile
Joseph Winkle
Again, these books just contain
clues.This particular book was very
well documented but I still needed
ship’s manifests and christening
records and cemetery documenta-
tion, etc., etc. I have since found a
lot of documentation supporting the
information in the book and it has
led me to more ancestors and
insights into their lives.
I have discovered other family histo-
ry books on other lines of the family
too. So, if you are like me, and think
there is no way someone would
write a book about your ancestors,
you may be surprised. Just start
looking!
July 2012 AIGS pg 5Visit our Website: http://www.aigensoc.org/
Find Information about Amelia Island Genealogical Society
Access old and new GENELINEs.
A special reminder to our members: GENELINE is your Society’s publication.
Each member is encouraged to contribute material to it
All GENELINE articles are indexed by PERSI
Send GENELINE comments & submissions to Frances Bartelt - Francesbartelt@gmail.com
The Amelia Island Genealogical Society
P.O. Box 6005
Fernandina Beach, FL 32035-6005
The Society’s Library Collection is housed in the Fernandina Beach Library
The membership packet includes AIGS information and all current year issues of Society’s quarterly
The Nassau County Genealogist, and the GENELINE,AIGS’s monthly newsletter.
Family history research training is offered through classes, workshops and ongoing programs
Membership dues are $20.00 per person and $25.00 per two-person family.
The membership year is January 1st through December 31st
To join, send application form, along with the appropriate fee to:
The Amelia Island Genealogical Society
P.O. Box 6005
Fernandina Beach, FL 32035-6005
To print an membership application or for more information check our web site:
http://www.aigensoc.org/aigs/meetings.asp/You can also read
