State and County Officer Directories, 1868-1969

About These Records

For most years since 1845, Florida’s Secretary of State has maintained a directory of every county and state official who was either elected to office or appointed by the Governor. These records serve two main purposes. They make it possible to quickly determine who was occupying any of the multitude of state and county offices at a given time, when they were commissioned, where they lived at the time and how and when their term ended.

The directories also serve as an index to other records relating to a particular officer’s public service, such as copies of their commissions, written oaths of office and bonds.

The State Archives of Florida’s series of State and County Directories (series S1284) dates from 1845-1997. Florida Memory has digitized the directories created between 1868 and 1969, which document the public service of tens of thousands of Floridians. The remaining volumes will be digitized in the future, but in the meantime they are open for research at the State Archives.

Use the menu below to view the records for state offices or a particular county, and then use the tools in the Name Index tab to either search for a particular name or sort the list by office title, date or other attribute.

Research Hints

These records document the holders of more than 700 different state and county offices, but they generally do not include municipal officers like mayors or city council members. They also do not include state legislators, but you can use The People of Lawmaking in Florida, which is published by the Clerk of the Florida House of Representatives, to research those officials.

When searching for specific people, bear in mind that some names may be spelled differently in these records than in others. Rodgers could become Rogers, for example, or O’Neal could be O’Neill. If you are having trouble locating a specific person, try sorting the list by name and browsing for the person alphabetically.

Also, remember that Florida’s county boundaries have changed many times over the years as new counties were created. If you are having trouble finding a specific person in one county, check to be sure they did not actually live in a different county at the time of their public service. For example, the entry for a justice of the peace serving in Oviedo before 1913 would be found in the records for Orange County, but after 1913 his information would be listed under Seminole County.

State and County Officer Directories

State Offices

County Offices

---