Welcome to Polk County Florida Genealogy Trails
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We appreciate all help we can get to make this a better site. Anything sent to us that we use will have full credit given.   Please contact Fawn if you have any questions or comments on the Florida site. Our goal at Genealogy Trails is to transcribe and post genealogical source data so that family researchers can track their ancestors through time, throughout the country. These Florida County websites need a dedicated host to make these sites the best that they can be! If you think that you may be interested in volunteering to host a county or state please view our Volunteer Information page here and email Kim. (A desire to transcribe data and the know-how to make a basic webpage is required)   Join our mailing lists for researchers looking to connect and share information. You never know who you might meet and what family data they may share with you -- it could start a whole new branch of the family! We also use the mailing lists to announce our website updates. Florida is covered under the South-Eastern Region Mailing List Remember to look around at the other states and consider donating your source information -- every little bit helps someone.	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. Incorporated Auburndale Bartow Davenport Dundee Eagle Lake Fort Meade Frostproof Haines City Highland Park Hillcrest Heights Lake Alfred Lake Hamilton Lakeland Lake Wales Mulberry Polk City Winter Haven Unincorporated 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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