Alabama Genealogy

Alabama Genealogy Facts

Alabama’s history as a state began in 1819 when delegates gathered in a cabinetmaker’s shop in Huntsville to write the Alabama Constitution. In 1819 construction began on what was later to be called Fort Morgan at Mobile Point.

  • Alabama became a Territory on 3 March 1817
  • Alabama entered the union as a state on 14 December 1819 as the 22nd state.
  • It has 67 Counties.
  • Alabama has had five capitals during its history. The first was the territorial capital in St. Stephens in 1817, followed by the state convention in Huntsville in 1819, then the first “permanent” capital in Cahaba in 1820. It was then moved to Tuscaloosa in 1826, until moving to its current location in Montgomery in 1846.
  • It is bordered by Florida (south), Georgia (east), Mississippi (west) and Tennessee (north).
  • It has a land area of 52,423 square miles making it the 30th largest state.
  • The 2010 population was 4,779,736.
  • The  largest cities are Birmingham (231,483), Montgomery (200,127), Mobile (191,544), Huntsville (166,313), Tuscaloosa (81,358), Hoover (67,469), Dothan (62,713), Decatur (54,909), Auburn (49,928), Gadsden (37,405). [All pop. number are as of 2005].
  • The State name  is dirived from the Alabama River by early European explorers and named “Alibamu” after the local Indian tribe.
  • The State Nickname is Heart of Dixie, “Yellowhammer State”.
  • The State Motto is “Audemus jura nostra defendere” – We Dare Defend Our Rights.
  • Washington County is the oldest county of Alabama which was created on June 4, 1800 and Houston County is the youngest which was created on February 9, 1903.

Alabama County Genealogy

Alabama County records vary widely from county to county in both quality and quantity. Some have been carefully preserved while others have been much abused and neglected.

Some Alabama records have simply disappeared. Other scattered records are now preserved by the Alabama Department of Archives and History, the University of Alabama Library, and the Samford University Library.

Each County Page includes genealogy and Family History information and addresses for County Court Records , Probate Records, Land Records, Tax Records, County Census Records, Birth Records, Marriage Records, Divorce Records, Death Records, Cemeteries, Graveyards, Church & Bible Records.

For genealogists doing research in Alabama there is no effective replace for an on-site search of county courthouse records. County level records have not yet been centralized. No single county’s records have been significantly abstracted or transcribed, making a courthouse visit essential.

Select a County Below

Alabama contains some counties that no longer exist because they were discontinued, renamed or merged with another county. These are important for genealogy research purposes. Those counties are:

  • Benton County: (Formed 1832 from former Creek Indian territory and named for Colonel Thomas Hart Benton. Renamed Calhoun County in 1858, honor of John C. Calhoun of South Carolina)
  • Jones County, Alabama: (Formed 1867, renamed Sanford County in 1868, Renamed Lamar County in 1877)
  • Hancock County: (Formed 1850, renamed Winston County in 1858)
  • Sanford County: (Formed in 1867 as Jones County, renamed Sanford County in 1868, renamed Lamar County in 1877)
  • Cahawba County: (Renamed Bibb County in 1820)
  • Baine County (renamed Etowah County in 1868)
  • Baker County (renamed Chilton County in 1874)

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Alabama Genealogy Links

Submit a website link, report broken links for Alabama County Government Websites

See Alabama County Genealogy for County Links. These genealogy links fall into 3 categories: Commercial Sites, Personal Sites or Organization Sites. Some are have free access some require a payment. This is just a list that has been collected or submitted. I do not endorse or promote one genealogy site above another. Feel free to submit your own favorite genealogy or family history related sites.

Alabama State History

The first lasting European settlers in Alabama were French. The LeMoyne brothers, Pierre LeMoyne, Sieur d’Iberville, and Jean Baptiste LeMoyne, Sieur de Bienville, sailed into Mobile Bay in 1699. By 1702, Fort Louis (on the present site of Mobile) had been settled as the capital of the French colony called Louisiana. With the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the French ceded most of Louisiana to Great Britain. When Spain declared war on Great Britain in 1779, the American Revolution came to Alabama. In 1780, Bernardo Galvez captured Mobile from the British. The Treaty of Paris in 1783 ceded to Spain the British holdings in the Mobile region.

In 1795, the Treaty of San Lorenzo more specifically stated that all Alabama lands below the 31st parallel belonged to Spain, and lands above the 31st parallel belonged to the US and successively to the Native Americans living there. Simultaneously the Ellicott Line was being surveyed, “squatters” (those having no legal claim to the lands they settled) began to move into Alabama, forcing the various tribes off their lands. The area below the 31st parallel was added to Mississippi Territory in 1812. Later counties were created as more white settlers entered ceded native lands until Alabama Territory was created on 3 March 1817. Alabama became a state on 14 December 1819 and, in 1835, the last native lands were ceded. Massive waves of settlement from both Europeans and African U.S citizens came with the opening of this territory as federal lands.

During the early years of statehood the most significant genealogical event was the opening of lands formerly held by Native Americans to white settlers between 1802 and 1838. By 1840, all but a couple of scattered remnants of tribes had been moved west beyond the Mississippi River. Alabama suffered economic and agricultural problems in the 1840s and 1850s. The financial panic and depression that swept across the United States in 1837 lead to banking problems that caused many Alabamians to lose their savings. Crops were ruined by drought, and various epidemics of yellow fever brought added suffering.

On 11 January 1861, Alabama seceded from the Union and joined the Confederate States of The States. When likened to other Confederate states, Alabama, with the exception of the Mobile area, experienced relatively little military action. Although, the conflict devastated the cost-effective, political, and social life of the state. The state was readmitted to the Union on 25 June 1868, though the Reconstruction period led to deepening poverty and mass migration. In the 1860s and 1870s, 10 to 15 percent of the whole white population of Alabama migrated, with a third of these migrants going to Texas.

Railroads were built across the state in the 1870s, expanding the industry of mining of Alabama’s rich mineral deposits of coal, iron ore, and limestone. By 1880, steel, iron, lumber, and textile industries were rapidly expanding, creating the urban centers of Anniston, Birmingham, and Cullman.

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