Friends of the Library Donate state of the art Microfilm Scanner!

With Friends like these, who could ask for anything more??? This is what we are saying after the Friends of the Central Brevard Library donated a state of the art microfilm scanner called the ScanPro2000. While some may think that microfilm is a thing of the past, the library system has a large collection of film that still needs to be viewed and community members frequently bring in records of their own, military for instance, that are on film or fiche. Unable to obtain parts for our aging readers and down to only one working machine the Friends donation allows us to keep serving our patrons with the use of the latest technology. The ScanPro 2000, which fits on a small desktop, comes attached to a computer and a 24" montior and does a lot for its small size.

With automatic focus, digital zoom, editing software, several scanning modes, DPI choices, cropping ability and varioius exporting options, such as to a thumb drive or email, there isn't much it can't do. Below is an example of two scans of a photograph printed in a 1935 issue of the Cocoa Tribune newspaper, which we have on microfilm. The first scan shows how it appears on the film when viewing it and the second scan shows the same picture after using the Auto Adjust feature of the ScanPro2000. Pretty great stuff, come by and check it out!

Cocoa House Newspaper Photo Before Editing

Cocoa House Photo After Editing

Podcasts, Webinars & Online Classes

Numerous new free resources for online genealogy education have appeared during recent years. You can now sit at your computer and learn from the nation's top experts. How do you get started?

Experienced genealogist and Family History Center volunteer Patti Payne will tell you all about it on Monday, May 14, at 9:30 am in Room 1 of the Central Brevard Library. This meeting is free and open to the public. Hope to see you there!

Tragedy on the Banana River



Georgiana Cemetery, Merritt Island, Brevard County, FL

In the beautiful Georgiana Cemetery on Merritt Island, sits a stone that has puzzled and fascinated Brevard County residents for years. The stone documents the deaths of Myrtle, Mary and Martha Smith three daughters of M.G. & E. Smith who all died on Wednesday June 14, 1916. The fact that all three girls died the same day has led to endless speculation on how they might have met their fate, from the obvious illness to more sinister implications. After searching the microfilm of the two local newspapers of the time and finding no mention of the girls I wrote to the Vital Statistics Department in Jacksonville to obtain copies of Martha and Myrtle's death certificates, they could not find one for Mary. There finally in black in white was the cause of death which was listed as "drowning, caused by storm."  

After finding this out I went back to the newspapers and searched again with no luck, so I put it in a drawer and was at least happy that I knew what had happened to them. A few months ago I received another inquiry about the stone from Faye Roberts in Alabama and I responded with what I knew. When she asked for more details I informed her that despite my best efforts, that was all I had been able to find out. Intrigued she contacted a friend who had access to a database of historic newspapers from throughout the country that we did not have access to. There she found the full and heartbreaking story curiously published in the pages of the New Smyrna News on Friday June 23, 1916.

The paper relates that J.J. (Joseph) Ramsey, his daughter Florence, a son of about 10 years old and three of his grandchildren, the Smith sisters, decided to go from Merritt Island across the Banana River to get to the beach where they planned on camping for a week to play in the surf and hunt turtles. Although "a heavy cyclonic gale was raging," Mr. Ramsey decided to cross to the beach anyway. The boat, an ordinary sized rowboat equipped with a sail, six people, a tent and a month's supply of provisions was overloaded even for good weather. About a mile from the eastern shore a shift of wind tore the sails down to the water capsizing the boat and throwing the occupants into the water. Although Mr. Ramsey got his daughter and the three girls to the side of the boat they were unable to hold on and they were drowned. Mr. Ramsey and his son held on to the boat and when it was driven near the shore they were seen and rescued by William Venty, one of the camping party whom the Ramseys intended to join. Miss Ramsey's body was recovered on Thursday and the little girls on Friday. It was reported that in Miss Ramsey's clinched hand was a lock of hair, proving that she had tried to catch and save at least one of her nieces.

As if the story wasn't tragic enough the author related that the three girls were the only children of M.G. (Martin Gaither) Smith of Rockledge who had lost his wife Elizabeth, their mother, giving birth to the last of the three girls. Thus Mr. Smith was "left alone in his sorrow."

It is still a mystery to me why the local papers did not report on the accident, perhaps it was just too hurtful to Mr. Smith and his father-in-law, who I am sure had a tremendous amount of guilt to live with, but I am glad that after all these years we finally know what happened to the girls. The last line of the article states "The sympathy of the entire community goes out to the bereaved family and especially to Mr. Smith," and even today almost a hundred years later I am sure you will agree with me that it is hard not to feel that way upon hearing the story.

More Brevard County History Comes to the Library

This year has gotten off to a busy start with the move of the Brevard Historical Commission collection to the Central Brevard Library in Cocoa. The Historical Commission was created by ordinance in 1979 by the County Commission to "collect, arrange, record and preserve historical material and data relating to the history of the county and of the state." The commission itself is made up of 15 unpaid members appointed by our five county commissioners and administrative support will be provided by existing library staff.  While we have been managing the collection and answering inquiries since May of last year, it was still at another location. Last week everything was carefully packed up and moved to the second floor of the library where it will be housed adjacent to the genealogy collection. The commission's collection is made up of everything from old photographs to antique furniture, maps, early newspapers and archaeological items. 

 Brevard County in 1856

While the collection is not open to the public for browsing, due to the rarity and delicate condition of many of the items, it is cataloged and items can be retrieved for researchers by staff. In addition to saving the taxpayers money by combining services, the collection will be more accessible than in the past due to the library's extended hours. The library's concrete building with hurricane shutters also offers more protection than its former location.

For those of you interested in our local history the commission has several projects you might want to check out. The three volume set of Brevard

County history books is fascinating and their quarterly journal of history is another winner!

Genealogy For Beginners

A six-week Beginning Genealogy Course will start on Thursday, January 19, 2012 from 9:30 to noon in meeting room 1 at the Central Brevard Library located at 308 Forrest Ave. in Cocoa. The class will meet each Thursday through February 23, 2012.

The $30.00 fee includes all materials and a one-year membership in the Brevard Genealogical Society. Class size is limited and pre-registartion is required.

Materials include a 3-ring binder with course syllabus which contains summaries of all classes, a supply of genealogy forms, archival sheet protectors and notebook paper. Instructors will be Vera Zimmerman and Betty Eichhorn with other guest lecturers.

For more information contact Vera Zimmerman at (321)453-4932, verazimmerman@flbgs.com or visit the Brevard Genealogical Society website to register.

Oranges and Douglas Dummitt

Well, it is that time of year again, you thought I was going to say something about the holidays didn't you, but no it is orange season! Driving around the county the other day I noticed that all the grove owners have their stores open and seemed to be doing a brisk business selling our famous Indian River Citrus. Citrus is one of those industries, like tourism, that define our state and provided a livelihood for many of our early settlers. Although the groves aren't as numerous as they used to be, due to freezes and development pressures, Brevard county was home to one of the earliest and most prosperous groves founded by Douglas Dummitt or Dummett. Dummitt, whose family had moved to East Florida from Barbados, supposedly sold his first crop in 1828 and he created a sweet and sour hybrid by 1835. Dummitt's service in the Second Seminole War, Civil War and his controversial living arrangements with a former slave have been the subject of numerous articles and books over the years.

While I have read most of these it was another book that I picked up recently that threw me for a loop so to speak. The book, Frolicking Bears, Wet Vultures, and Other Oddities by Jerald Milanich is composed of articles written by the journalist Amos Jay Cummings describing his travels in nineteenth century Florida. On a trip in March of 1873, the year Dummitt died, he visited with him and his observations were not exactly what I expected. Regarding the Dummitt house Cummings states that, "The mansion was built of unplanned boards. They had neither been painted or whitewashed and had become black from the action of the weather. The house contained but one room. The Captain's bed, well protected by mosquito bars, stood in the southwest corner. Two or three wooden chairs were scattered about the room, and a hen was laying her egg on a sort of work bench in the corner nearest the door. The walls were neither lathed nor plastered, and streaks of daylight could be seen beneath the side boards. There were no windows in the house. Light was admitted through a square hole, which was covered with rough wooden shutters." This proves that the house often referred to as "Dummitt's Castle" and pictured below was most definitely a later nineteenth century addition to the property.

Although Cummings raves about the condition and productivity of Dummitt's grove, "none were so large or so fine," he also says that its money making potential is greatly hindered by the fact that anybody who wants the oranges must come to Dummitt and arrange the picking and shipping by themselves. Cummings states that Dummitt was fond of saying that he "wouldn't pick a damned orange for you if you would give me two million dollars a minute," and that "Dummitt works for no man-not even himself," was a common saying on the Indian River. The fact that nobody lived within twenty miles of Capt. Dummitt meant that most of his fruit went to waste and Cummings reported that Dummitt "cares little for money and is contented so long as he makes a living."

Just thought this was some very interesting insight into our area's earliest settler and if you care to be further enlightened on the real living conditions in the "good ole days" just check out Cummings descriptions of the mosquitoes on the Dummitt place!

Kentucky Genealogy & History on OverDrive



Kentucky Bluegrass

 I have heard lots of great comments about our Brevard County Libraries eLibrary Catalog and for those of you interested in genealogy and history, particularly in the "Bluegrass State", it just got even better!

OverDrive has a program called Community Reserve, in which participating libraries upload their own content to the OverDrive collection. This content can then be used by other libraries at no cost. Through Community Reserve, we have added 176 new titles, all Kentucky genealogy (such as city directories, marriage and cemetery records) to our collection. Click HERE for a screen shot which takes you to the Advanced Search page for OverDrive. In the Subject line click on the arrow for the pull down menu and the new titles can be found under the subject headings of "Kentucky Genealogy" and "Kentucky History".

Hopefully more communities will add content as OverDrive evolves, so check back and see.