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Research and Helpful Hints
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A genealogy is a family history, the story of your family. The following are places
to start a family history:
1. Write stories and facts that you know about your family.
2. Interview relatives starting with immediate family and working out to extended
family members.
3. Read old family Bibles. Much information on births, deaths, and marriages were
recorded in Family Bibles. Also, look at old family pictures and discuss them with
your relatives when you interview them. Pictures can often spur memories for older
relatives that may contain vital information about the individual discussed.
4. Using the names, dates and places you have discovered, consult town records,
such as birth certificates, marriage licenses, death certificates, wills, deeds,
city directories, old newspaper clippings, etc. Many of these records are maintained
at the county level, usually at the County Court House.
5. Go to the public library. Tell the librarian you are doing family research and
ask for reference books. Many libraries have an entire section dedicated to Genealogy
Research and Records.
6. Check with your State and County genealogical association or historical society.
7. If your ancestors were originally from the State of Alabama, start in the county
in which they were born. The Probate Judge's office in that county is a good place
to start. Then check with the State Department of Archives & History in Montgomery,
Alabama, at 624 Washington Ave. It houses historical records from all over the State.
8. The next step is to go to the National Archives in Washington, D.C. or the Regional
Archives in Atlanta, Georgia. The census records beginning in 1790 to date are kept
in the National Archives. These records are maintained in various media forms (paper,
CD or microfilm) and maybe accessible using the Internet.
9. The library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Salt Lake City,
Utah contains the largest collection of genealogical information dating from 1538
to 1805. It contains records from the National Archives and records from some 40
countries.
10. Below you will find links that open to information which is more detailed and
specific on research concerning the remaining significant Indian groups in Alabama.
11. Use the Bureau of Indian Affairs guide to
Tracing Your Indian Ancestry.
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