Florida's Place In My Family History Research

Somehow, we avoided the Wicked Blizzard of 2011. We got the last three seats on a plane for Fort Lauderdale the day before the storm and started our vacation/visit early. It hasn't quite been beach weather, but it sure beats the 24" that I'm told was filling my driveway!

I've been coming down to south Florida since I was a kid, first visiting my grandparents in Hallandale and then visiting my wife's grandparents in Boynton Beach. My parents have a place here now, doing the "snowbird" thing for a year or two before officially nesting here. Two of my aunts and uncles are here, a few of my father's cousins, and a good chunk of my parent's friends from New Jersey. This Jewish migration to Florida from the New York Tri-State region is as ingrained in my folk understanding of Judaism as eating Chinese food on Christmas, and it seems to be happening on schedule!

On this current trip, I started thinking of the affects of this resettlement from a genealogical perspective. In tracing my family tree, I've rarely done research on Florida because families were mostly born and raised in New York. My superficial internet research suggests that this aspect of the Jewish experience hasn't been studied too extensively (although perhaps I should read this book). But in many cases in the families I research, the latter decades of folks' lives took place in the state. If I'm really trying to understand their experience - and not just recording their names and vital records - I shouldn't ignore Florida.

I had a couple of thoughts...

• Who was here? My grandmother, Marian Goldner Weil, had three siblings with her in Florida (David, Morris, and Bessie) - four out of ten siblings who reached adulthood. My grandfather, Jacob Weil, was down in Florida with his older brother Harry. Plus a bunch of cousins, nieces and nephews. On my mother's side, my great-grandmother used to come down on vacation, and there are a few cousins still scattered about. There is still some extended family in Ft. Lauderdale and Miami. Coming down here is always a good time to reconnect.
• What was their experience? Going to 3G Deil, it is clear that there is still a significant Jewish population here. We always joke that we bring the average age down by a few decades when we walk into the room, although as the years go by it is clear that isn't always going to be true! Once there were a critical mass of Jews here, the cultural and religious supports became sustainable. That includes synagogues, newspapers, Yiddish and Hebrew language groups, Jewish philanthropic organizations, Kosher and faux-Kosher restaurants, etc. All of the aspects of life in New York were here, only warmer.
• Death certificates & Obits. I've ordered my share of Florida death certificates to get information about family member's birth dates, parent's names, and next of kin. My wife calls Florida "God's Waiting Room." I bet I could get more info from obits than I currently do if I knew where to look. All of these gated communities have their own newsletters, and I bet their remembrances are more personal.
• "Vacation" destinations. I'll be honest. If my wife's grandmother and my parents weren't down here, we wouldn't be here. This isn't where I'd go on vacation, Disney notwithstanding. But for more than a half century, south Florida has been the school-vacation week destination of tens of thousands of Northeastern Jews. What parts of the country are we missing out on because its time to go back to Boca to brunch with Bubbie and Zeydie? On the plus side, there are some wonderful things to do here, and I hope my kids have nothing but good memories. In fact, that is a major source of stories for my wife and me. I've spent a lot of hours hearing about my wife's family and getting the guided tour of 90 years of photo albums.

I'm going to try to make more, genealogically speaking, of my next trip to Florida. But on this trip, it was mostly about making sure that my kids spent a lot of quality time with their grandparents and great-grandmother.