Amber, Garden of Memories maintains their records and the records of Myrtle Hill Cemetery in their corporate office in St. Pete. When you go to the cemetery for info, they call St. Pete and when someone has time, they will do a search and call back with the info. The folks at GoM are very helpful, but it is a huge operation and I have spent precious hours waiting for that return call. When you only have two days, every minute counts. I suggest that you call or write to them now. 813-626-3161 Better yet, call and get their fax number. Fax your request for information and they frequently will fax back everything including a map of the plots you are looking for. CAUTION!! Many cemeteries, including GoM, keep their records filed accorrding to who owns/owned the burial plot. Confusion occurs when one requests information on a burial and the plot was purchased by a married daughter, niece, nephew or grandchild with a different surname. Their records are indexed according to plot owners. Have as many of those names as possible available when you request burial information. Marriage and immigration records...that exist...are available at the courthouse which is only a few blocks from the Hillsborough County Public Library. The main downtown library has an entire floor dedicated to genealogy and history of the local area. It includes the largest collection of census records I have seen in one place. Also there is an 8 volume INDEXED set of burial records for Hillsborough County, current to 1985 or 1990 that I have found invaluable in locating graves in Hillsborough County. USF is in north Tampa, about 20 minutes from downtown. I'm not familiar with their policies for use of their records. I was of the understanding that it was for faculty and students. I suggest you call and verify, unless someone on the list has better information. If I can be of further help, email me privately. Marc Whetsel ----- Original Message ----- From: <Womanola@aol.com> To: <FLHILLSB-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2000 7:59 AM Subject: [FLHILLSB-L] Researching in Hillsborough County... > Hello, > I'm planning a short trip from NC to Tampa to do some research on my Ybor > City roots. I only have 2 days there; Thursday March 23 and Friday March 24. > I'm hoping to find birth, death, marriage and immigration records. I have > family buried at L'Union Italia cemetary and at Garden of Memories. I don't > know my way around downtown Tampa very well, but a cousin of mine is willing > to drive me around one of those days. Can anyone suggest a starting point? I > found some interesting information on Ybor City's Sicilian heritage online at > the USF Special Collections library. Where is USF? Tampa? I'm going to do a > little groundwork here in Raleigh at our archives as far as census records > go... any information to help me plan my trip wisely would be greatly > appreciated! > Kindest Regards, > Amber Parker > > Surnames: ROMANO, BRUNO, TRIPOLINO, RESTIVO, VETZEL, SAUNDERS, MCKENDREE, > GASKINS > > > ============================== > Join the RootsWeb WorldConnect Project: > Linking the world, one GEDCOM at a time. > http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/ >