If you have interest in persons who resided in Florida in the past, the following sources may be of value to you:
The University of Florida has a substantial library on Judaism and Jewish persons, including the Jewish Encyclopedia and the Jewish Floridian, in its Judaica Collection (www.ufdc.ufl.edu/judaica and www.ufdc.ufl.edu/jewishnewspapers).
Flashbacks to early Florida environs and events can be found in www.floridamemory.com.
Obituaries in a range of newspapers can be located at www.legacy.com.
Information on burials can be found by going to www2.jewishgen.org and under "Databases" hitting "JOWBR." These include burials in Tallahassee and can be searched by name of the deceased.
Rabbi Stanley Garfein, who served Temple Israel in Tallahassee as Rabbi for 35 years (1966-2001) offers the following account of the origins and U.S. locations of Tallahassee Jewish icon Miss Ruby Diamond's grandparents:
Ruby Diamond’s grandparents and their families lived in Wreschen, which was in Prussian-occupied Poland. Miss Ruby’s maternal grandfather anglicized his name to “Robert Williams.” (On the ketubah {Jewish wedding certificate} for his daughter, Henrietta, and son-in-law, Julius Diamond, Robert Williams signed his name in Hebrew as “Z’ev,” which means “Wolf.” I surmise that “Wolf” was his German surname.) Miss Ruby’s maternal grandmother was “Helena” or “Lena” Dzialynski. I seem to remember that Robert and Lena were married in New York City after arriving from Prussian Poland, not necessarily at the same time. Before their marriage there had been some peregrination. Robert, a 49er, had made a fortune from his investments in California, according to a Tallahassee newspaper obituary at the time of his death. Also, apparently, both Robert and Lena spent some time in Pittsburgh, where there were relatives in the coal business. During the Civil War, they lived in Savannah. After the war was over, they journeyed to Tallahassee via Jasper. Their first daughter, Rachelle, was born in Jasper. They arrived in Tallahassee in 1865. They had close ties with the Jewish community in Jacksonville, where Lena’s brother, Morris Dzialynski, was a mayor as well as a founder of the first Jewish congregation in the city.
