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Welcome to Polk County, Florida Genealogy Trails!
Founded 8 February 1861
County Seat: Bartow
Largest city: Lakeland
Our goal is to help you track your ancestors through time by
transcribing genealogical and historical data and placing it online for the free use of all researchers.
* This County website is available for adoption *
WANT TO HELP?
We're looking for folks who share our dedication to putting data online and are interested
in helping this project be as successful as it can be. If you are interested in joining our group,
view our Volunteer
Page for further information and then contact
Kim.
Check your attics!
Dust off your family scrapbooks!
We're looking for DATA for this site!!!
If you are interested in adding your families' information this website, EMAIL US. We'll be happy
to help your families' obituaries, news items and other historical data find a home here at Florida Genealogy Trails,
where it will remain free for all to view.
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WE REGRET THAT WE ARE UNABLE TO DO PERSONAL RESEARCH FOR YOU.
ALL DATA IS ADDED TO THE SITE AS WE COME ACROSS IT, SO IF IT IS NOT HERE YET, PLEASE KEEP CHECKING BACK.
Don't want to host a site but still want to help?
Check out our Transcription
Team!
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Polk
County became Florida's 39th county on February 8, 1861, when the State of Florida
divided Hillsborough County into eastern and western
halves. The eastern half was named Polk, in honor of the 11th President of the United States, James
Knox Polk. Following the Civil War, the county commission established the county
seat on 120 acres donated in the central part of the county. Bartow, the county seat, was named after Francis S. Bartow, a confederate Colonel from Georgia who was the first confederate officer to die in battle during
the first battle of the Civil War. Fort Blount , as Bartow was then known, in a move to honor one of the first
fallen heroes of the Confederacy, was one of several towns and counties in the South that changed their name to
Bartow. The first courthouse built in Bartow was constructed in 1867. It was replaced twice, in 1884 and in 1908.
As the third courthouse to stand on the site, the present structure houses the Polk County Historical Museum and
Genealogical Library In 1914. That bond issue was considerable for those days, and allowed for 9-foot-wide roads
to start from Bartow to Mulberry, Lake Wales, Fort Meade, Winter Haven, Lakeland and Auburndale. According to historical
reports, then-county commission clerk W.S. Wev had
the idea of erecting an arch over every paved road at its entrance to Polk County, proclaiming that the motorist
was about to enter "Imperial Polk County." The name has since remained.
Auburndale * Bartow * Davenport * Dundee * Eagle Lake * Meade * Frostproof
* Haines City * Highland Park
Hillcrest Heights * Lake Alfred * Lake Hamilton * Lakeland * Lake Wales * Mulberry * Polk City * Winter Haven
Unincorporated Places
Babson Park * Brewster * Combee Settlement * Crooked Lake Park * Crystal
Lake * Cypress Gardens *
Fussels Corner * Gibsonia * Highland City * Homeland * Inwood * Jan Phyl Village * Kathleen * Lakeland Highlands
Loughman * Medulla * Nalcrest * Pittsburg * Poinciana * Wahneta * Waverly * Willow Oak * Winston
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