Isle of Eight Flags
The written history of Amelia Island has unfolded under eight flags. Click on a flag for more information.
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The Amelia Island Genealogical Society will hold its annual Beginner Genealogy Course
five consecutive Saturdays starting January 5, 2019 at 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM.
Classes will be held in the Fernandina Beach Public Library Community Room, 25 N. 4th St.
$40 individual/$65 couple (includes 1-year AIGS memberships)
$15 existing member
Class size limited.
Contact Larry Conte to register:
(305)926-2978
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Join Us
For Our Next General Meeting
January 15, 2019
Thank You for the Shoes tracks the life of a 13-year-old boy who embarks on a solo journey in the early 1900s from Southern Italy to America in search of his father's grave. The story exposes the issues causing the 30-year mass migration of Southern Italians to America, resulting in nearly four million Italian immigrants coming to the US between around 1880 and 1924. Nearly half came between 1900 and 1910 and most were fleeing abject rural poverty in Southern Italy and Sicily. Today, Americans of Italian ancestry are the nation's fifth-largest ethnic group. Based on one man’s life, Raffaela Marie Rizzo shows the impact of the social and economic conditions impacting these migrants’ lives and the forces that shaped them into Americans.
A nearly life-long genealogist, Ms. Rizzo will address the issues she confronted in her research to ensure the story and the family names were historically accurate. Over the course of several years, she learned the ins and outs of research of genealogy records in Italy and the sad loss of many records here in the USA.
Raffaela Marie Rizzo Fenn is a former senior executive with numerous business and marketing communications awards. She earned an MBA from Jacksonville University and a BA in media studies from Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT, where she graduated magna cum laude. She is a member of the Florida Writers Association, Florida Authors and Publishers Association, and the Independent Book Publishers Association.
Born in Italy and raised in Connecticut, she relocated to Amelia Island in 1990 for Rayonier. After a 12 year stint in Atlanta as the inaugural president of the US National Peanut Board she returned to Amelia Island in 2013 when she and her husband Mark Fenn decided to start life 3.0 with some businesses of their own. In addition to Ms. Rizzo’s own writing, she and Mark help other authors fulfill their goals through Giro di Mondo, their publishing services company.
Ms. Rizzo has been an active participant in many community organizations where she served in leadership roles. Most recently served on the Board of the Directors for the Boys & Girls Club Foundation, and is past president of the Amelia Island Book Festival, where she currently serves as Board secretary and Celebrity Author Chair. She and her husband Mark are parishioners of St. Michael’s Catholic Church, where Ms. Rizzo serves in the lector ministry.
Public welcome.
Did You Know...?
DID YOU KNOW...that AIGS has the latest issues of Your Genealogy Today, Family Tree Magazine, and Internet Genealogy? You can find them at the Fernandina Beach Public Library in the genealogy section. Back issues are on the shelves!
Where were YOU in 2002?
15 years ago AIGS celebrated its 10th anniversary, now memorialized in scrapbook.
The book has been digitized and will soon be added to the Society's online collection.
If you scroll through and recognize unidentified faces, or if you have any special recollections of that evening, please drop us a line.
We'll update the collection with your notes.
Clicking on the link below will take you to the Society's public Forum posting where you can download the Scrapbook and comment.
Note: You must be logged in as a Member to comment.
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Welcome Genealogists!
For over a quarter of a century AIGS has been proud to serve both those seeking information about Amelia Island ancestors and those without local ties wishing to connect with other genealogists. Our upgraded site is another step to reaching as many as possible.
The physical AIGS research collection, through an agreement with the Nassau County Public Library system, is housed at the Fernandina Beach branch library where it is available to the public. If you cannot visit, a collection of online databases are searchable on this website. They grow steadily as we uncover and document additional unpublished record sets to reach a wider audience.
If you are already a member of this active group, you are familiar with its benefits such as monthly speakers, quarterly publications and monthly newsletter. Here you’ll continue to find information on upcoming events, both local and beyond. A newly added Forum section enhances member-to-member collaboration. If you’re new to genealogy, or would like to brush up on research skills, you might like to enroll in our annual Beginner Class, or join a project to increase your knowledge of the area.
The written history of this northern-most barrier island on the Atlantic coast of Florida stretches back to the 1500’s. That’s a lot of history! We can’t fill in all the blanks for you, but we hope you find your digital visit informative.
If you’re not already a member, we hope you consider joining us soon.
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Support the AIGS when you shop at Amazon, sign up for Amazon Smile.
Clicking on Get Started below will open a new window where you can sign up for AmazonSmile.
What is AmazonSmile?
AmazonSmile is a website operated by Amazon that lets customers enjoy the same wide selection of products, low prices, and convenient shopping features as on Amazon.com. The difference is that when customers shop on AmazonSmile (smile.amazon.com), the AmazonSmile Foundation will donate 0.5% of the price of eligible purchases to the charitable organizations selected by customers.
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