Facts on Local Church Records

Baptist

The Baptists form the largest denomination in Alabama. The first Baptist church was founded 2 October 1808 on Flint River near Huntsville. The Baptists are the only denomination having some form of centralized state and congregational historic records. Their records are housed in the Samford University Library, Birmingham, Alabama. Included are not only microfilmed minutes of defunct and active congregations, but also the personal papers of many churchmen and a run of the denomination's state newspaper, the Alabama Baptist (1835-present).

Roman Catholic

The state's oldest denomination, Roman Catholic, has records dating from the coming of Iberville's colony near Mobile in 1699. Most parish records are maintained by the local parish.

Episcopal

The first ordained Episcopal minister in the state was licensed in 1764 to minister to British settlers. The WPA Historical Records Survey in 1939 compiled a volume surveying the records of the Protestant Episcopal church in Alabama. The inventory contains a brief history of each parish, a statement on extant parish records, and an index by location and by parish names. Parish records are maintained by the parish. A copy of Alabama Historical Records Survey, Inventory of the Church Archives of Alabama, Protestant Episcopal Church , is at the Birmingham Public Library.

Methodist

Methodist missionaries were sent by the South Carolina Conference into the Tombigbee area in 1809. Today, some Methodist records for north Alabama churches are housed at Birmingham Southern College, and south Alabama church records are housed at Huntingdon College, Montgomery. Birmingham Southern College has a run of the state denominational newspaper, the Christian Advocate (1880-present).

Presbyterian

The first Presbyterian church was organized in 1818 at Huntsville. Historical records for active Presbyterian churches are usually maintained by the local congregation. Some records of defunct churches are held by Samford University and the Alabama Department of Archives and History."

Back to top

Facts on Local Cemetery Records

   No statewide systematic or comprehensive inventory of cemeteries or bibliography of published transcriptions have been compiled. Scattered volumes have been published by various patriotic, historical, and genealogical societies. Many individual cemetery transcriptions have been published in periodicals.

   Cemetery records and gravestone inscriptions are a rich source of information for family historians. Cemetery and other sources of information associated with death include:

Back to top