Did you know the Florida State Genealogical Society will issue you a "Pioneer Descendant" certificate if you can document an ancestor who lived in the territory before statehood was achieved in 1845?
Details are at this link: FSGS Pioneer Descendant program information
I qualified for a certificate several years ago, based on my descent from Sarah Matilda (Ivey) Patrick. She was born in Hamilton County in 1844, a year before statehood, and came to Orange County with her parents in the 1850s. Sarah married Dink Patrick (more on him later) and settled in the small town of Pine Castle south of Orlando. The third of their many children was my great great grandmother Alice Caroline (Patrick) Macy, one of the organizers of Pine Castle's venerable "Union Church" in 1900. Her eldest son Bernie Macy was the town constable in the 1920s. He had five daughters, the eldest of whom is my grandmother Alice (Macy) Morgan. If you count Sarah's parents as well as my grandmother's great great grandchildren, you come up with a LONG LINE of nine generations of Central Florida residents.
Since receiving my certificate, I discovered Dink Patrick's great grandmother Martha (Deas) Jernigan was living in Orange County as early as 1850. Her daughter Ellender Jernigan married Wright Patrick, our area's first official postmaster. Their son John Patrick was a veteran of the Seminole Wars and served as a guide to the earliest federal survey crews on the Florida frontier. He was Dink's father. So, that makes for an even LONGER LINE of eleven generations.
Either way, a lot of Florida history flows thru these veins . . .
#52Ancestors
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