Alabama Records Details and Resources

RECORD HIGHLIGHTS
The state health department http://www.adph.org/vitalrecords maintains birth and death records from 1908, marriage records from August 1936, and divorce records from 1950. Some county probate courts hold pre-1908 birth and death records. Before 1865, the state legislature had jurisdiction over most divorces.

A significant number of Alabama counties have lost records in courthouse disasters — few of which occurred during the Civil War. Since fires or storms rarely destroy everything, check for surviving records. Consult records in parent and neighboring counties, as well as colonial, local, state, and federal jurisdictions. Also use libraries, local historical societies, and the state archives.

Alabama is a federal land state. Its federal land patents are searchable at the Bureau of Land Management website http://www.glorecords.blm.gov. Subsequent land transactions between individuals were recorded at county courthouses.

Alabama-specific resources include territorial censuses; state censuses (1820, 1855, 1866); censuses of Confederate veterans (1907, 1921) and widows (1927); territorial militia and civil service appointments; state militia records; Confederate pensions; 1862 salt allotment lists; 1867 voter registrations; Mobile Municipal Archives; state legislative acts involving individuals and families; territorial and state tax records; Territorial Papers of the United States and Territorial Papers of the United States Senate; pre-1817 territorial records at the Mississippi State Archives; and records of depositors of the two Alabama branches of the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company (FHL microfilm 928571-72).

CENSUS RECORDS

• 1907 Alabama Census of Confederate Soldiers, 5 vols., from the Alabama Department of Archives and History (Gregath, 1982)
• Alabama Census Returns, 1820, and an Abstract of Federal Census of Alabama, 1830 edited by the Department of Archives and History and Marie Bankhead Owen, (Genealogical Publishing Co., 1967)
• Alabama Mortality Schedule 1850 by Marilyn Davis Hahn (Southern Historical Press, 1983)
• Alabama Mortality Schedule 1860 by Marilyn Davis Hahn (Southern Historical Press, 1987)
• Census of Confederate Veterans Residing in Southeast Alabama in 1907 compiled by Homer T. Jones (Pioneer Pub., 1998)

IMMIGRATION RECORDS

• Declarations of Intention, Naturalizations, and Petitions, 1855-1960 from the US District Court, Southern District of Alabama
• Lists of Ships’ Passengers, Mobile, Alabama, 2 vols., compiled by Lucille Mallon Connick (L.M. Connick, 1988)
• Naturalization Records, Mobile, Alabama, 1833-1906 by Clinton P. King and merrem A. Barlow (Gateway Press, 1986)

LAND RECORDS

• English Land Grants in West Florida: A Register for the States of Alabama, Mississippi, and Parts of Florida and Louisiana, 1766-1776 by Winston DeVille (W. De Ville, 1986)
• Old Cahaba Land Office Records and Military Warrants, 1817-1853 by Marilyn Davis Hahn (Old South Print & Publishing Co., 1981)
• Old Huntsville Land Office Records and Military Warrants, 1810-1854 compiled by Marilyn Davis Barefield (Southern Historical Press, 1985)
• Old Land Records of Colbert County, Alabama by Margaret Matthews Cowart (M.M. Cowart, 1985)
• Old Land Records of Franklin County, Alabama by Margaret Matthews Cowart (M.M. Cowart, 1986)
• Old Land Records of Jackson County, Alabama by Margaret Matthews Cowart (M.M. Cowart, 1980)
• Old Land Records of Lauderdale County, Alabama by Margaret Matthews Cowart (M.M. Cowart, 1996)
• Old Land Records of Lawrence County, Alabama by Margaret Matthews Cowart (M.M. Cowart, 1991)
• Old Land Records of Limestone County, Alabama by Margaret Matthews Cowart (M.M. Cowart, 1984)
• Old Land Records of Madison County, Alabama by Margaret Matthews Cowart (M.M. Cowart, 1979)
• Old Land Records of Marshall County, Alabama by Margaret Matthews Cowart (M.M. Cowart, 1988)
• Old Land Records of Morgan County, Alabama by Margaret Matthews Cowart (M.M. Cowart, 1981)
• Old Sparta & Elba Land Office Records & Military Warrants, 1822-1860 by Marilyn Davis Hahn (Southern Historical Press, 1983)
• Old St. Stephen’s Land Office Records & American State Papers, Public Lands, Vol. I, 1768-1888 by Marilyn Davis Hahn (Southern Historical Press, 1983)
• Old Tuscaloosa Land Office Records & Military Warrants, 1821-1855 compiled by Marilyn Davis Barefield (Southern Historical Press, 1984)
• Private Land Claims, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida by Fern C. Ainsworth (F. Ainsworth, 1978)
• Robert Armstrong’s Survey Book of Cherokee Lands: Lands Granted from the Treaty of 27 February 1819 by James L. Douthat and Robert Armstrong (Institute of Historical Research, 1993)

MAPS

• Atlas of Historical County Boundaries, Alabama edited by John H. Long, and compiled by Peggy Sinko, compiler (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1996)
• Dead Towns of Alabama by W. Stuart Harris (University of Alabama Press, 1977)
• Handbook of Alabama, 2nd edition, by Saffold Berney (Reprint Co., 1975)
• Historical Atlas of Alabama by Donald B. Dodd (University of Alabama Press, 1974)
• A List of Nineteenth Century Maps of the State of Alabama by Sara Elizabeth Mason (Birmingham Public Library, 1973)
• Yesterday’s Faces of Alabama: A Collection of Maps, 1822-1909 edited by Society of Pioneers of Montgomery and John H. Napier III (Brown Print Co., 1978)

MILITARY RECORDS

• Compendium of the Confederate Armies, 11 vols., by Stewart Sifakis (Facts on File, 1992-1995)
• First Tennessee and Alabama Independent Cavalry, 1863-1864, Roster: Companies A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H compiled by John L.T.N. Potter and the US Army Alabama and Tennessee Cavalry, 1st, Vidette Cavalry (Mountain Press, 1995)
• An Index to Alabama Society Sons of the American Revolution, Members and their Ancestors, 1903-1996 compiled by Clifford D. Black and the Sons of the American Revolution, Alabama (C.D. Black, 1996)
• Law’s Alabama Brigade in the War Between the Union and the Confederacy by J. Gary Laine and Morris M. Penny (White Mane Pub. Co., 1996)
• Revolutionary Soldiers in Alabama by Thomas McAdory Owen and the Alabama Department of Archives and History (Genealogical Publishing Co., 1975)
• Volunteer Soldiers in the Cherokee War, 1836-1839 by James L. Douthat (Mountain Press, 1995)
• World War II: A Family Historian’s Guide by Debra Johnson Knox (MIE Publishing, 2003)

PROBATE RECORDS

• Index to Alabama Wills, 1808-1870 compiled by the Daughters of the American Revolution, Alabama Society (Genealogical Publishing Co., 1977)

VITAL RECORDS

• Alabama Marriages Early to 1825: A Research Tool compiled by Liahona Research, Inc., Jordan R. Dodd and Norman L. Moyes (Precision Indexing, 1991)
• Alabama Notes, 4 vols. by Flora Dainwood England (Genealogical Pub. Co., 1977-1989)
• Bible and Cemetery Records, 2 vols., from the Birmingham Genealogical Society (1962-1966)
• Divorces Copied from Printed Acts of Alabama, 1818-1864 by Donald F. Watson (Alabama Department of Archives and History, 1971)
• Marriage Certificates, 1936-1992; Index, 1936-1959 from the Alabama Department of Health (filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1993)
• Marriage & Death Notices from Alabama Newspapers and Family Records, 1819-1890 compiled by Helen S. Foley (Southern Historical Press, 1981)
• Marriage, Death, and Legal Notices from Early Alabama Newspapers, 1819-1893 compiled by Pauline Jones Gandrud (Southern Historical Press, 1981)

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From the Family Tree Sourcebook
Also available: the State Research Guide Book, State Research Guides CD and The Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy.