The reason I'm publishing this family history blog is to share information that may be of interest to others. I hold out some hope that someone may help us fill in some of the knowledge gaps that exist with regard to our history. Unlike a printed book, a website can be continuously updated and corrected as new information and photographs come to light.
My father, Joel Bruce McRee, many years ago started researching and documenting our family's history. I would say he started sometime back in the 1970's. I know he has spent many hundreds, if not thousands of hours, studying old photographs, census records, old telephone directories, newspaper articles, and other documents in search of information about our family and ancestors. Of course he also spent a lot of time asking questions of family members and relatives and writing letters of inquiry to distant relatives in other states.
Many might find this exercise in discovery to be an unproductive pursuit, but I find it quite meaningful. I found out, for instance, that my great grandfather, Max Paul Moritz, was one of the nine men who printed the very first edition of the Tampa Daily Times (South Florida's first daily newspaper) in 1893. My father has preserved a newspaper clipping with a photo of those nine men.
Through sheer serendipity, I discovered that there is a local nonprofit organization, Reclaiming Our Heritage, Inc, whose mission is to locate, preserve, and share every surviving article from the Tampa Daily Times. Evidence of the first 20 years of this publication have been missing for generations. Now they are slowly uncovering lost copies and clippings stored away in attics and scrapbooks. We were able to provide several articles, which provided new information to Reclaiming Our Heritage.
My intent is to publish, on this website, photographs and information relating to the McRee family of Manatee County. This would include information on (but not limited to) the following families: Hendrix, Kratz, Moritz, and McRee.
