Alabama Methodist Church Records

Laurel Baty shared the following information with the Jefferson County Rootsweb E-mail List. She was kind to grant permission to me to share on the blog.

An index to “Memorial Sketches of the Lives and Labors of the deceased Members of the North Alabama Conference, 1870 -1912″ by W. T. Andrews can be found on the webpage of Birmingham Southern College Library, under Special Collections:

Index to Memorial Sketches of the Lives and Labors of the deceased Members of the NAC

There is also an index to Memorials of Methodist Ministers who died in the North AL Conference from 1870 - 2003:

Index to Memorials of Methodist Ministers who died in the NAC from 1870-2003

There is an inventory of Methodist Church records held at Birmingham Southern:

Inventory of Methodist Church Records Held at Birmingham Southern

Visit the Special Collections, North Alabama Conference UMC Archives page for links to all resources:

North Alabama Conference UMC Archives page

Published in: on May 23, 2008 at 4:48 pm Comments (0)

Alabama Archives updates 1867 Voter Registration Database

The Alabama Department of Archives & History has updated the 1867 Voter Registration database online.

1867 Voter Registration Database
The entries for the counties of Morgan and Perry have been added. Now you can search all names from the following counties: Wilcox, Winston, Walker, Tuscaloosa, Tallapoosa, Talladega, Sumter, St. Clair, Shelby, Russell, Perry, Pike, Pickens, Macon, and Morgan Counties.

Published in: on May 19, 2008 at 2:04 pm Comments (0)

Don’t Forget - AGS Seminar May 3rd at Samford

The Alabama Genealogical Society (AGS) will host its Spring Seminar May 3rd at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. The speaker will be Hank Jones, Jr. For additional information and registration, click here. You must register prior to April 23rd to have your surnames included in the surname book. Registrations can be submitted after April 23rd, but your surnames will not be included in the book.

While visiting the AGS website, be sure to check out the Loose Records Project Index. They have added several new counties since we last posted about the index in December 2007.

Published in: on April 19, 2008 at 9:06 am Comments (0)

Alabama Archives Add Letters “U” & “V” to the Civil War Service Database

The Alabama Department of Archives & History has updated the Civil War Service database online:

Civil War Service Database
Surnames beginning with letters “U” and “V” have been added to the Civil War Service database. Now surnames starting with the letters A through V can be searched at the site.

Published in: on April 14, 2008 at 11:31 am Comments (0)

Piper, Bibb County, Cemeteries Rediscovered

The Birmingham News has an article online from Friday’s (4/11/2008) newspaper titled “Remnants of Bibb County mining towns uncovered in the woods.” The article gives some historical background on the mining towns of Piper and Coleanor, while mentioning Belle Ellen briefly. It gives much detail on how the cemeteries were discovered - (2) African-American cemeteries and (1) White Cemetery thus far. There is speculation about another there as well. A few names from the marked graves are mentioned… unfortunately it appears that many are unmarked.

Published in: on April 12, 2008 at 8:39 am Comments (0)

Alabama Archives “Second Saturday” Programs

From the press release:

Starting Saturday, January 12, 2008, the Department of Archives and History (ADAH) will offer a new series of programs to help people learn more about resources and services of the Department. Tips, Tools, and Treasures will introduce researchers to the vast array of research materials available at the Archives and will provide tips on how to make best use of the department services. Archives staff will present these programs the second Saturday of each month in 2008 from 10:00 - 11:00 A.M. The programs are free and do not require pre-registration. All programs take place in the Alabama Power Auditorium at the Alabama Department of Archives and History, 624 Washington Ave., Montgomery Alabama. Attendees will learn more about Archives resources such as newspapers, photographs, maps, state publications, and military records, or can gain valuable research knowledge on topics such as researching African-American family history or using Ancestry.com for family history research

A listing of all of the programs for the year is located here.

The next program scheduled is April 12, 2008, “Photographs at the ADAH”. Details on the program are located here.

Published in: on March 30, 2008 at 6:27 am Comments (0)

New Book on Researching African-American Ancestors in Alabama

Tina Sansome, BellaOnline’s Genealogy Editor, posted an article this week about Frazine Taylor’s new book, Researching African-American Genealogy in Alabama: A Resource Guide.

Frazine is the Head of Reference for the Alabama Department of Archives and History (ADAH) and very experienced in researching African-Americans in pre-Civil War records. I had the pleasure of attending a lecture she gave a few years ago.

Published in: on February 28, 2008 at 9:23 am Comments (0)

Alabama Archives Add “T’s” to Civil War Soldier Index

The Alabama Department of Archives & History has updated the Civil War Service database online:

Civil War Service Database
Surnames beginning with “T” have been added to the Civil War Service database. Now surnames starting with the letters A through T can be searched at the site.

Published in: on February 3, 2008 at 11:48 am Comments (0)

Shelby County GenWeb Site Adds Marriage Indexes Through 1936

I surfed over to the Shelby County (Alabama) GenWeb site today to double-check the birth and death register indexes on the site (yes, some are PRE-1908) and much to my delight I found that they had added the indexes to Shelby County Marriages through 1936. The post-1900 indexes have been available for sale and at some libraries for a while now, but never before online. Of course, I was immediately distracted by browsing the listings.

As Shelby County is just to the south of Jefferson County, many people moved between the two counties. Be sure to check out the indexes and all of the other “good” information on the website. Shelby County has one of the better GenWeb sites thanks to Bobby Joe Seales, webmaster for Shelby County GenWeb and President of the Shelby County Historical Society.

Published in: on January 24, 2008 at 5:18 pm Comments (0)

StoryCorps Griot Coming to Montgomery

StoryCorps Griot is a national oral history initiative designed to collect the stories of African Americans.

The Birmingham African-American Genealogy Study Group, a special interest group of the Birmingham Genealogical Society, will be participating in StoryCorps Griot in Montgomery on February 15th.

Six slots for interviews on Friday, February 15th 2008 in Montgomery have been allocated to BAAGSG. The interviews will be 45 minutes and two people at a time.

Most of you have wonderful stories about your family. You will be given a copy of your interview via CD before you leave, and copies will be given to the National Museum of African American History and Culture and to the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Selected stories are broadcast on NPR. Think of a person you would like to be in the interview with because you will be interview each other.

If you would like to participate, please contact Josephine Govan at (205) 510-2670 or (205) 631-9818 as soon as possible.