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General Guides to Alabama Research
- First, bookmark or print out the Family History Library Alabama Research Outline.
- Also bookmark the Family History Library Alabama Research Wiki
- Ancestry Redbook, 3rd ed. Alabama section online at the Ancestry.com wiki (note you will click the links to the right to see further topics)
Books you might purchase or use in a library include
- Davis, Tracing Your Alabama Past (Jackson, Miss.: University Press of Mississippi, 2002) - this will not contain links to much on the internet, but is an excellent guide to other available resources. (find in a librar
)
- Smith Collier, Alabama County Data and Resources (Titus, Ala.: the author, 1999--out of print ), -- a good guide to local resources (find in a library)
- Barefield. Researching in Alabama: A Genealogical Guide. Originally published 1987; revised 1998 (out of print) (find in a library)
- Elliott. Research in Alabama (out of print) (find in a library)
- Each of the three reference books listed below has a small section covering each state that includes maps, historical information, vital records coverage and a bibliography of resources for that state. (note: some libraries may have earleir editions; those are usable)
Atlases, Maps & Gazateers
For more information on finding and using maps,
see Your Guide to Atlases, Maps and Gazateers.
Statewide Genealogy Websites
Next, see what is available for your counties of interest at at one of these statewide sites. For each, use the county selection list to find out what is available for the various counties. Content will vary, but in usually you wil find the GenWeb site to be the most robust. All are volunteer driven sites; all data free, but as time goes by, the upkeep of many of these sites seems to be falling by the wayside.
Societies, Libraries and Archives
For more information on using libraries and archives, see genealogy guides to Libraries and Archives
Use the catalog at the place name box in the Family History Library catalog to find out what has been filmed covering the state of Alabama, the counties of Alabama and the cities, villages or townships within the counties.
- As you type ALABAMA in the place box, you will see an alphabetical listing of counties in the dropdown;
- once in a county, you can click in the place box on the left to see an alphabetical list of the towns, cities and villages within that county.
- This only shows areas for which material has been filmed.
- An item will likely be in one of the three, perhaps two of the three and almost never in all three of these searchs --you need to check each.
Bible: For general information, see guide to bible records, this website.
Cemetery: For general informaton, see guide to cemetery records, this website
Census: For general information, see guide to census records, this website.
Church: For general information, see guide to church records, this website.
City and County Directories: For general information, see guide to city and county directories, this website.
County and Local Histories: For general informaton, see guide to county histories, this website.
Court & Legal; For general information, see Guide to Law Libraries, this website and Guide to Courthouse Research
Land & Property: For general information, see guide to land records, this website.
Alabama is a public land state, so original patents can be searched at the BLM-GLO website. (click SEARCH in the green bar at the top of the page).
Military; For general information, see guide to military records, this website
Naturalizations; For general informaton, see guide to naturalizations, this website
Newspapers: For general information, see guide to newspapers, this website
Probate: For general information, see guide to probate records, this website
- A collection called Alabama County Probate Records are now available as unindexed digital images on FamilySearch.org. -- but at present (May, 2011) it is only the probate records of one county. Will it grow?
- Ancestry Redbook overview: Alabama Probate Records
- Family Search Wiki: Alabama Court Records
Tax Records
Vital: For general information, see guide to vital records, this website.
Queries & Help
To get help from others, see if offers at the
Also, post a query in the appropriate
More Links
- You will find many many links to Alabama research material on the web or contributed to the Alabama site Tracking Your Roots .
- There is a search engine on the front page that will allow you to search all TYR pages in one step -- but note it will not search offsite pages, so be sure to look at all approriate links. An amazing site.
- * Linkpendium's Alabama Links
* Genealogy Today's State Gen Site: Alabama
* Rootsweb U. S.Sources: Alabama
* Genealink's Alabama Page
* Access Genealogy's List of Alabama Links
* Cyndi's List Alabama Page
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