Applying the Research

My week initially started with paperwork and struggling to add a signature to a Word and then a PDF document, as I had to fill out a form to access a state database. But once I finally got a handle on that- and by handle, I mean just printing out the document, signing it, and then scanning it- the real work began.

After a few weeks of research and finding my bearings, this week I began putting the Seminole County history that I had been learning to use.  I started the process of creating Draft Resolutions for the various historic sites that are possibly up for a historic marker nomination. I modeled the resolutions that I was writing on one that was created last year. Working on these resolutions meant that I was looking back at the sources that I had been collecting over the last few weeks.

I wrote up the first two with minimal issues. The concept made sense, and it was easy to explain why they were important to the greater history of central Florida. However, while working on the third one, I noticed a problem: an issue with the address. When I had been given a list of the sites, some of them had come with addresses; this included a care home. However, I realized that none of the sources that I had found discussing the site actually gave an address. And unfortunately, the year that the current building sitting in that spot was constructed, 1959, does not match when this care home was said to have been founded, ca. 1947.

Now, under most circumstances, I may have assumed that the building had been older and was destroyed and rebuilt in 1959. However, the individual responsible for the care home was working on a different project in 1959. So, now I am concerned that the site that I have been looking at, while associated with the same person, might have been another place entirely. Determining this will definitely be a high priority for my tasks next week.

Regardless, this whole process has made me more aware of what kind of information I should be looking for when considering what sites are eligible for various kinds of historical notoriety. Like many places in the United States, Seminole County’s eligibility requirements reflect the standards that appear to come from the National Park Service in the National Register of Historic Places. So, doing research and learning how to complete the resolution Drafts for sites in Seminole County should be similar and applicable to what the process is like in other places, especially in Florida.