And so it begins ... in Alabama no less ...

I encountered a problem when trying to locate a copy of Columbus Haywood's birth certificate from 1885. Columbus was born in Huntsville, Alabama and like all things backwards and 'bama (hey, I can say that because I have lived in 'bama and thus know how they roll) they only started recording such things in 1908. So, I sent them a query this morning asking what they suggest I do to locate such records. The nice young lady emailed me back stating I should try ancestry.com -- you don't say? I've never heard of this mythical site that spends millions of dollars on advertising whose commercials are on TV every 30 seconds - what else you got) She then informed me that some counties kept their own records. Since Huntsville is a relatively large city (in Alabama terms anyway), I may actually have a shot of locating a copy of this record. Getting Columbus Haywood's birth certificate could mean finding where his parents Nicholas and Frances were from AND settling a hunch that I have the Frances' maiden name was Taylor. Wish me luck.

If any of your relatives are from Alabama, you may want to contact this office as well. I'm going to paste the email to the bottom of this post. It contains information that may be of interest to you. Happy searching!

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Thanks for your recent inquiry regarding older Alabama vital records. In Alabama, birth and death records were not filed with this office until 1908. Marriages were not filed with us until 1936, and divorces were not filed here until 1950. Therefore, certified copies of such older records cannot be obtained from us. However, I recommend you search two very popular genealogical websites on the Internet, www.ancestry.com and www.RootsWeb.com to see if any information is available on-line. Searching these websites could possibly incur a fee.

Some counties had information on births and/or deaths recorded locally before 1908. Some of those records are available in the Department of Archives and History. For information on their holdings, you may contact them at (334) 242-4435 or write to them at P.O. Box 300100, Montgomery, Alabama 36130. Their website is www.archives.alabama.gov. Marriages and divorces may also be obtained in the county courthouse where the marriage license was issued or where the divorce was granted.


Nicole A. Henderson, MPH
Director, Record Management and Customer Services Division
Alabama Center for Health Statistics
P.O. Box 5625
Montgomery, AL 36103-5625
Office: (334) 206-2679
Fax: (334) 206-2659
Email: nicole.henderson@adph.state.al.us