The hotel was perfectly organized, with the lecture rooms and vendor hall very close to the elevators and the restaurant. It was easy to get around!
FGS (Tampa) was honored on many levels for its 50th anniversary celebration. It all began with the traditional banner parade of societies' banners. George G. Morgan carried ours, while Drew Smith carried that of FSGS.
On Friday night, FSGS held its gala Florida Pioneer Descendants Certification Awards Banquet. At that time, awards for pioneer descendants at the state level (descendants of persons who resided in Florida prior to statehood on 3 March 1845), county level (descendants of persons who resided in an area of Florida prior to the establishment of the county), and researchers (persons who successfully researched on behalf of one of the descendants in one or more of the categories before) were presented. This year's earliest pioneer descendants took their documentary research back to the amazing date of 1630 with Spanish colonial records! This just proved, again, that records exist and that the research can be done!
Also at the banquet, there were awards given in several categories. However, our own George G. Morgan won the prestigious "Distinguished Service Award" for service to genealogy.In addition, FGS (Tampa) had 15 attendees at this conference, and won the attendance award this year. We are extremely pleased with our society members' enthusiasm to attend the conference.
Finally, FSGS awarded FGS (Tampa) with both a certificate honoring its fifty golden years and a special gold pin will be sent to us, and that will be attached to our society's banner.
We have a great deal to celebrate this year. We are the oldest genealogical society in Florida and we have a great pride and enthusiasm on the part of our members. We wish all of you could have been part of the FSGS Conference this year. However, next year isn't that far away, and we can all be there then!
Our society's banner will be placed on permanent display in the Ceta R. Armitage Room in the History and Genealogy Department (2-W) of the John F. Germany Public Library in downtown Tampa, Florida. The gold pin will be attached to the banner when it is received. In addition, the certificate will be framed and placed on permanent display in the Armitage Room, which already displays the proclamations from Governor Charlie Crist and Mayor Pam Iorio commemorating our society's landmark 50th anniversary.
