Chapter 8
Introduction to County Records
In this section, emphasis is on records pertaining to African Americans that are located in each county probate judge’s office. Refer to Chapter 3 for a description of Alabama’s Federal and State census records. This section lists only the census records that are not covered in Chapter 3 and that are located in county records because of the difference in format and arrangements.
Records listed in this section can be found in the microfilm area at the Alabama Department of Archives and History (ADAH), or the originals can be found in each county courthouse throughout the state. References to the records can be found on the ADAH web site at www.archives.alabama.gov under the heading “Search our Collections” and then the subheading “Local government records on microfilm.” Records that are listed in this section but are not found in the ADAH are located at the county courthouses. In searching Alabama county records you will notice that many of the records that have the same information will have different titles in each county. Be aware of title changes when searching for land information. You might find what you are seeking with the title, deed records, direct and reserve index to deed records, direct and indirect records, and index to deed and mortgage records, just to name a few of the titles used throughout the county probate system. The Orphan’s Courts (1819–1849) and the Probate Courts (1850–present) recorded the same records, just in a different time frame; the Orphan’s Court was the predecessor of the Probate Court. The dates of records listed for each county are meant to be used as guides for further research. As more and more county information is located and becomes more accessible, the dates will expand. Keep this in mind and check for the recent dates before you begin your research.
Example of listing of marriage license records not returned. Records like this example can be found in court records.
Vital records for the state of Alabama can be located through the Alabama Center for Health Statistics electronically or via mail. The web address is ph.state.al.us/chs/vitalrecords/vrecords.html and the mailing address is Alabama Vital Records, P. O. Box 5625, Montgomery, AL 36103-5625; phone: (334) 206-5426. You may also obtain records from any county in Alabama from the county’s health department.
Since 1908, the Alabama Center for Health Statistics has filed certificates for births and deaths in Alabama. By Alabama law, birth certificates are confidential records with restricted access for 125 years from the date of the birth, and death certificates are confidential records with restricted access for twenty-five years from the date of the death. Death certificates older than twenty-five years are public records and may be obtained by anyone upon payment of a fee; death certificates less than twenty-five years old may be obtained by the deceased’s next-of-kin. For more information on these restrictions, visit the the Alabama Center for Health Statistics web site in the previous paragraph.
However, Alabama death records from 1908–1959 can also be obtained from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Family History Center in Birmingham for ten cents per copy and at Wallace State Junior College in Cullman for twenty-five cents per copy. You will need to contact both places for their procedures for accessing these records.
In 1950, the Alabama Center for Health Statistics began filing certificates for Alabama divorces. Information for divorces prior to 1950 must be obtained from the circuit court in the county where the divorce was granted. By Alabama law, divorce certificates are not confidential and may be obtained by any individual upon payment of the proper fee.
The Alabama Center for Health Statistics began filing marriage certificates in 1936 for Alabama marriages. Information for marriages prior to 1936 must be obtained from the probate office in the county where the marriage license was issued. By Alabama law, marriage certificates are not confidential and may be obtained by any individual upon payment of the proper fee.
I have mentioned how to obtain vital records in this section because they are a big part of the records that family historians often research, and learning what is available and how to obtain it is important.
All county historical sketches in this section are adapted from the Alabama Department of Archives and History (www.archives.alabama.gov). In addition, the ADAH web site has a list of all of the Alabama counties’ historical and genealogical societies. Some of the societies will conduct research for you if you become a member.
More detailed information on individual counties can be located in Marcia K. Smith’s Alabama County Data and Resources, (2nd ed., 1999) and Robert Davis’s Tracing Your Alabama Past (2003). Davis outlines most of the records located in the sixty-seven counties in Alabama including references to the records listed below. As some county resources use the county code instead of the county’s name, county codes are listed after the name of each county.
Resources
Internet links in a publication such as this one are troublesome for two reasons. First, they change frequently and in a print publication are likely to be outdated by the time the publication sees the light of day. Second, the URL or link must be typed by the reader into his or her web browser, and if a single character is mistyped or omitted, the link does not work. After careful consideration, my editor decided it would be more useful to readers to post these links on a web site for the book rather than to print them in the book. His reasoning was that if a reader was going to use the links, then the reader obviously had Internet access, so it would be easier to provide one URL to look up, and there we can post a list of helpful Internet addresses for each county. These links could then be updated by me as necessary, and they could be clicked by the user rather than having to be laboriously typed in. This made sense, so that is what we have done.
To find the current list of Internet resources for each county, go to www.newsouthbooks.com/aagenealogy. In addition, I will be posting corrections and additions and other resources for researching African American genealogy in Alabama.
Quick Locator for Counties