Alabama Counties and Historical Facts

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.

For genealogists doing research in Alabama there is no effective replace for an on-site search of county courthouse records.

Alabama County Records

Alabama Counties were first created under the Mississippi Territory, and after that the Alabama Territory. The State of Alabama currently contains 67 counties.

Both the quantity of records and the quality of records can be quite different from one county to the next. Some are fairly complete, and others are missing large chunks of information. Some have also disappeared entirely.

List of Extinct Alabama Counties

Alabama has 10 counties counties that no longer exist because they were discontinued, renamed or merged with another county.

A lot of these counties were established and disbanded within the 19th century; county borders have modified very little since 1900.

These are important for genealogy research purposes. Pay attention where the courthouse records went to if the county was eliminated or joined with some other county.

See the History of Alabama Counties for more details.

List of Alabama Counties with Burned Courthouses

The damage to courthouses greatly has a bearing on genealogists in every way. Many Alabama counties have endured a loss of records due to courthouse fires, floods, and theft.

Not only are these historic structures torn from our lifetimes, so are the documents they housed: marriage, wills, probate, land records, among others.

Once destroyed they are destroyed forever. Even though they have already been put on mircofilm, computers and film burn up too.

However, not all records were damaged or lost in some counties.

List of Alabama Counties