Category Archives: Free Resources

Alabama Archives Completes Civil War Soldier Index

The wait is finally over! The Alabama Archives has now added the remaining names (surnames beginning with W, X, Y & Z) to the Civil War Soldier Index.

From the website:

This database was created from an 8 x 5 card file maintained by the Alabama Department of Archives and History from the early 1900s until 1982. As staff came across information related to Alabama individuals during the American Civil War, a card was created. Information on individuals exempted from military service, or who served in the militia or home guard, is included. Soldiers from other states that have some connection to Alabama are also included. If new information was discovered from another source, another card was created. Multiple cards for an individual often exist. Sources include muster rolls, governors’ correspondence, veterans’ censuses, manuscript collections, newspapers, and pension records. Names, places and events are often inconsistently spelled. This card file is in no way inclusive. Not every individual who served from Alabama is present in the card file. Every card contains empty fields. Because much of the documentation relating to the Army of Tennessee was lost, soldiers that served in that army tend to be poorly documented. The cards are arranged alphabetically by last name. Since all of this information is available online, the actual cards are closed.

You can search the complete database here.

Happy searching!

Alabama Statewide Death Index 1908-1974 Available for FREE online

Exciting news! An index for Alabama Deaths reported between 1908 and 1974 is now on the new FamilySearch Labs website (FREE to access). As part of the index, they have extracted spouse and parents names (if available) as well as death date and place.

Alabama Statewide Death Index 1908-1974

or

FamilySearch Labs Record Search

Then select North America, and on the next page select “Alabama Statewide Deaths 1908-1974″ index only.

Enjoy!

Melissa

Don’t forget about Interlibrary Loan

Kimberly Powell at About.com:Genealogy has a great article on her blog today.   Her blog post reminds us about using the Interlibrary Loan (ILL) service to request books relevant to our family history research but not available locally.  I have used my local library (Birmingham Public Library) and it’s ILL service many times.

I encourage you to read Kimberly’s complete article and note the libraries she mentions that specifically lend genealogy-related books.

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.

NARA adds Immigration Records to Online Databases

Thanks to Dick Eastman for mentioning this on his blog.

NARA has added indexes to some pre-1900 passenger lists to its database online. The search is not very user friendly… names and ship information require different searches. So you have to locate the person first and then go to the ship search to get the full details.

You will find the passenger list indexes here. Be sure to read the description of each one.

Added 03/06/2008:

Also see the explanation on how to search at the Genealogy Insider blog here.

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.