Brevard County, Florida Genealogical Records Information

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Brevard County History and Information

Brevard County Facts

Click HERE to see full sized D.O.T. County Map of
Brevard County [Map1] [Map2]

Brevard County was created in 14 Mar 1844 (also known as St. Lucie until 6 Jan 1855) and was formed from Mosquito County. The County was named for either Ephraim Brevard, who wrote the so-called Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, or George Washington Brevard, who served as Florida State Controller from 1854 to 1860 or Brigadier General Theodore Washington Brevard who led the Florida brigade at Appomattox.. The County Seat is Titusville. See also County History for more historical details.

Counties adjacent to Brevard County are Volusia County (north), Indian River County ( south), Osceola County (southwest), Orange County (west), Seminole County (northwest).

Brevard County Cities and Towns include Cape Canaveral, Cocoa, Cocoa Beach, Indian Harbour Beach, Melbourne, Palm Bay, Rockledge, Satellite Beach, Titusville, West Melbourne Grant-Valkaria, Indialantic, Malabar, Melbourne Beach, Melbourne Village, Palm Shores. CDPs Include Cocoa West, June Park, Merritt Island, Micco, Mims, Port St. John, Sharpes, South Patrick Shores. Communities Include Barefoot Bay, Canaveral Groves, Courteney, Floridana Beach, Kennedy Space Center, Melbourne Shores, Scottsmoor, Suntree, Viera

The Brevard County Official Government Website
Brevard County, Florida History Books at Amazon.com
Family History Library - The largest collection of free family history, family tree and genealogy records in the world.

There are free downloadable and printable forms to help with your research. These include U.S. Census Extraction Forms, U.K. Census Extraction Forms, Research Calendar, Ancestral Chart, Research Extract, Correspondence Record , Family Group Sheet , Source Summary Form.

Records at the Brevard County Courthouse

PLEASE READ!! Please call the clerk's department to confirm hours, mailing address, fees and other specifics before visiting or requesting information because of sometimes changing contact information.

The Official County website is located at http://www.countygovt.brevard.fl.us/. NOTE: The record dates below are from the earliest date to present time. See also Courthouse History

Brevard County Clerk of the Circuit Court / County Clerk has Marriage Records from 1868, Land Records from 1871, Probate Records from 1877 and Court Records from 1879 and is located at P.O Box 219, Titusville, Florida 32781-0219; 321-264-5350, Fax: 321-264-5269
The Clerk of the Circuit Court is also the County Clerk. His office is located in the County Courthouse. The office of the Clerk is created in Article V and Article VIII of the Florida Constitution. The Clerk is an officer of the court of justice whose responsibilities are mandated by the Constitution as well as state and local laws. Under a 1973 reorganization of the judicial system, the clerk of courts in each county was made, and remains, custodian of all records of all predecessor courts, whether justice of the peace, city, county, probate, civil, or criminal.

You may also search the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) which covers Florida and surrounding states. Many pioneers and settelers bought land from the government instead of individuals.

Click Here to Search Florida Court, Land, Wills & Financial Records! - Researchers often overlook the importance of court records, probate records, and land records as a source of family history information.

Below is a list of online resources for Brevard County Court Records. Email us with websites containing Brevard County Court Records by clicking the link below:

Brevard County, Florida Court Books at Amazon.com
Florida Immigration & Emigration Records - Immigration records help the family historian to understand the movements of their ancestry as they relocated to different parts of the world.

Brevard County Vital Records

See Also Research In Tax Records

Early tax rolls, especially between census years, can be a gold mine for the fortunate researcher. Most existing rolls can be found in the counties of origin, but the Flordia State Archives also has some bound volumes sent to the state comptroller during the period 1829-81. Normal information includes the taxpayer's name, land ownership, number of white males (above taxable age, 21) and slaves, horses, wagons, and other taxable items of personal property such as jewelry, watches, musical instruments, and carriages. Many of the counties' records in the series are incomplete, but there are some in the Florida State Archives that the originating counties no longer have. This valuable resource is not indexed. It must be searched in the county, at the Florida State Archives, or both.

Below is a list of online resources for Brevard County Tax Records. Email us with websites containing Brevard County Tax Records by clicking the link below:

Brevard County, Florida Tax Books at Amazon.com

Brevard County Genealogical Addresses

See Also Other Florida Genealogical Addresses

The Repositories in this section are Archives, Libraries, Museums, Genealogical and Historical Societies. Many County Historical and Genealogical Societies publish magazines and/or news letters on a monthly, quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis. Contacting the local societies should not be over looked. State Archives and Societies are usually much larger and better organized with much larger archived materials than their smaller county cousins but they can be more generalized and over look the smaller details that local societies tend to have. Libraries can also be a good place to look for local information. Some libraries have a genealogy section and may have some resources that are not located at archives or societies. Also, take a special look at any museums in the area. They sometimes have photos and items from years gone by as well as information of a genealogical interest. All these places are vitally important to the family genealogist and must not be passed over.

Below is a list of online resources for Brevard County Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing Brevard County Genealogical Addresses by clicking the link below:

North Brevard Historical Society, 801 S. Washington Ave., P. O. Box 6199, Titusville, FL 32782-6199; 407-269-3658
Genealogical Society of North Brevard, Inc., P. O. Box 897, Titusville, FL 32780;
South Brevard Historical Society, P. O. Box 1064, Melbourne, FL 32902-1064;
Genealogical Society of South Brevard, P. O. Box 786, Melbourne, FL 32902-0786
Brevard Genealogical Society, P. O. Box 1123, Cocoa, FL 32922
Brevard Heritage Council, 870 Indionola Dr., Merritt Island, FL 32953
Local Florida Researchers, Find a local researcher or become a local researcher.
Florida Dept of State Div of Library & Information Services, Bureau of Archives & Records Management, 500 S. Bronough St., Tallahassee, FL 32399-0250; (850)245-6700, [EMAIL]
Florida Historical Society 1320 Highland Ave, Melbourne, FL 32935; (321) 254-9855,[EMAIL]
Florida State Genealogical Society, PO Box 10249, Tallahassee, FL 32302-2249
Florida State Library, R.A. Gray Building, 500 South Bronough Street, Tallahassee, FL 32399-0250, (850)245-6600; Hours: Mon.- Fri. 9:00am - 4:30pm, Sat. 9:30am - 3:30pm
Florida State Records Center, 4319 Shelfer Road, Tallahassee, FL 32399-0250; (850)245-6750; Hours: By Appointment Only
Florida Newspapers & Periodicals Records - Newspapers and periodicals are the diaries of local communities. They are excellent sources of family history details - often recorded nowhere else. Look for obituaries, marriages, legal notices, and more found in our Historical Newspaper Archives.
Florida Genealogical Society Books at Amazon.com

Brevard County Church & Cemeteries

Click Here to Search Florida Obituary Records! - This database is a compilation of obituaries published in U.S. newspapers, collected from various online sources. Obituaries can vary in the amount of information they contain, but many of them are genealogical goldmines, including information such as names, dates, places of birth and death, marriage information, and family relationships.

There are many churches and cemeteries in Brevard County. Some transcriptions are online. A great site is the Brevard County Tombstone Transcription Project.

As in most former frontier societies, early Florida church records are hit-and-miss, but they can be valuable when located. The Roman Catholic faith accompanied the earliest Spanish settlers to Florida, and by 1822 the Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalians, and Presbyterians were also active in the new territory. By 1845 the Baptists had split into the Missionary and Primitive varieties (probably totaling more than 5,000 Florida members), and all of the above groups had become more or less well organized Methodists had two churches in Fernandina as early as 1822 (under the South Carolina Conference) and more than 10,000 members by statehood.

Cemetery records are held by most Florida libraries and archives. One important compiled source is the WPA Register of Deceased Veterans Buried in Florida, which covers fifty-one of the sixty-seven counties. Access to the massive amount of cemetery information scattered throughout the state is being facilitated by a continuing cemetery location project of the Florida State Genealogical Society.

Below is a list of online resources for Brevard County Cemetery & Church Records. Email us with websites containing Brevard County Cemetery & Church Records by clicking the link below:

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

Click Here to Search Florida Family Tree Records! - The use of published genealogies, electronic files containing genealogical lineage, and other compiled sources can be of tremendous value to a researcher.

When view family trees online or not, be sure to only take the info at face value and always follow up with your own sources or verify the ones they provide. Below is a list of online resources for Brevard County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information. Email us with websites containing Brevard County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:

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Brevard County, Florida Family Books at Amazon.com

County History

Brevard County was established by an act of the Florida Legislature in 1854, actually signed into law by the Governor early in 1855. The initial boundaries of the new county incorporated all of what had been St. Lucie County. At that time, Brevard extended southward along the state's Atlantic east coast all the way down to present day Miami-Dade County in south Florida. The origin of the county's name is widely attributed to Theodore W. Brevard , Florida Comptroller at the time of the county's creation. In the decades after it was first established, the boundaries of Brevard County were amended several times. It took on its current shape in 1905.

The earliest inhabitants of the Indian River region now called Brevard County were Native Americans who ventured into the area perhaps as long as 12,000 years ago. The descendents of these people became more settled, and began societies based on living off the resources of the Indian River Lagoon, the St. Johns River, and the surrounding coastal highlands and high points within the river basins. Known collectively as the archaic people, these are the humans who inhabited the Windover Archeological site in north Brevard County. Still later, their descendants became diversified into distinct tribes, the Ais and the Timucuans, which lived along the shores of the Indian River lagoon and left behind huge mounds of discarded shellfish, animal bones, and fractured pottery. These were the native peoples who were encountered by the first Europeans. Many sites evidencing these first inhabitants remain scattered through our county and some have been well preserved on public lands.

Early Spanish explorers sailed along the Brevard County coastline and gave Cape Canaveral its name. There are well-documented accounts of European shipwreck survivors traveling among the native tribes in this region, and the well known adventure of Jonathon Dickinson , who kept a journal.

Still, the area would remain largely unsettled, except for a failed attempt by Andrew Turnbull to establish an agricultural colony, until after the U.S. Army and Florida Militia established supply posts and routes through the county during the Second Seminole War. As this conflict unfolded in 1835, the only known inhabitants of the present-day Brevard County area were Seminole Indians.

Fort Ann was established late in 1837 as an important supply depot on the east shore of the Indian River near the boat haulover point on a narrow strip of Merritt Island . Florida militia commander General Joseph Hernandez and his force encamped in the general vicinity of Mims and constructed a wagon road southward to Fort Capron and Fort Pierce that became known as the " Hernandez Trail ."

As armed conflict with the Seminoles slowly dwindled to a stalemate, with remaining holdouts of the tribe hidden but considered harmless in the vast Everglades to the south, adventuring pioneers like Douglas Dummitt and Mills Burnham began to establish new lives and homes on the Indian River frontier. A colony of settler families seeking land grants under the armed occupation act held home sites in the southern portion of our region until a sudden Indian scare prompted their hasty abandonment for fear of a massacre.

Gradually, pioneers trickled in and in the 1850s a small community was emerging in the vicinity of Sand Point, then a part of Volusia County and now the site of Titusville . By 1860, families were also settling the area around what would become Eau Gallie . The region remained very sparsely settled throughout the Civil War, though some of its men were recruited into Confederate service and died for the Southern cause.

The Indian River region really began to open up to settlement immediate following the Civil War, when defeated Southern soldiers and northern veterans as well moved their families to the unoccupied frontier to seek new lives and opportunity.

The towns of Titusville , Rockledge , and soon Melbourne , began to emerge and grow as trading, fishing, and agricultural centers along the Indian River. Primary transportation between the communities was by water. In 1877, Captain Lund brought the steamboat Pioneer to the Indian River to commence an era of commercial steamboat transportation that would extend into the early 20th century. By the mid 1880s, railroad transportation had arrived in Titusville , and soon the Flagler line extended the rail line southward through the entire county. Improved transportation brought still more settlers, and thousands of winter tourists.

Commercial fishing, citrus agriculture, resort tourism, and a variety of smaller industries continued to fuel the area's economy and growth until World War II. In the years immediately following the end of the war, the undeveloped coastal scrub of Cape Canaveral became the home to America's missile testing program, and by the 1960s, the home of America's human space flight program and the launch site for the first U.S. astronauts. Soon, the nation's investment in a major launch complex at the Kennedy Space Center to meet the challenge of sending American's to the moon, coupled with the continuing role of Cape Canaveral in America's missile development effort, produced a boom in population growth and development that continues to influence the region today.

To learn more about the history of Brevard County, read the official history published in three volumes and available from the Brevard County Historical Commission.

Courthouse History
Brevard County, founded in 1844, is today famous as Florida’s “Space Coast.” Most likely the name honors Theodore Brevard, who served as Florida’s Comptroller. Originally the county was named St. Lucie and covered most of Florida’s central and southwest coast. Its county seat was located at “Susanna,” apparently near the present site of Ft. Pierce. The county name was later changed and the seat of government moved to Titusville - formerly known as Sand Point, and renamed in honor of its developer, Colonel Henry Titus. (The name St. Lucie was resurrected in 1905 for a new county, also centered around Ft. Pierce.)

The 1912 Brevard County Courthouse was built on land donated by Colonel Titus. Because of the unusual size and dimensions of the county, court is convened today in several locations including the “new city” of Viera.

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