All great points Pat. New at the Franklin county archives are the Leighton Newspaper on microfilm. Starting about 1890's also. The volunteers of the Franklin county archives have finished the project to make an index?for the obits that were in our papers. Index is available from 1899 to 2008 for the Franklin county times. Except for some issues that were missing from the papers, plus there are no microfilmed copies of the 1920-1929 except a couple of months. The Red Bay News was also indexed and available from 1964-2008. The Franklin Citizen Times 1954-1964 also was indexed. Hope this information is of help to anyone researching the area of Franklin and Colbert Counties. Regina Madden -----Original Message----- From: Pat M Mahan <mahan123@comcast.net> To: alcolber@rootsweb.com Sent: Sat, 21 Feb 2009 5:49 am Subject: Re: [ALCOLBER] Franklin & Colbert County Alabama records Good Morning Nancy, In 1840, you are talking about Franklin County, and as we know, their courthouse burned to the ground in the early 1890s, and all records were lost. They do have a copy of the State Tract Book which was also filed in Montgomery and it dates back to the first land OWNERS. In some cases, people did re-file their deeds. Franklin County does have an archives: http://www.lifesweaving.com/index.html The director is Chris Ozbirn ( mcozbirn@aol.com) 300 Limestone Street, Russellville, Alabama 35653 Primary Phone: 256-332-8827 Alternate Phone: 256-389-8854 Fax:: 256-332-8827 Don't overlook the surrounding counties. A good example of this is the 'triangle' that was taken from Lawrence County and added to Colbert County about 1895. This includes the Leighton area and their earlier records are in Lawrence County. And, Lawrence County, Alabama does have an archives: Lawrence County Archives 698 Main Street or P.O. Box 728 Moulton, AL 35650-0728. Phone: 256-974-1757 E-Mail: LAWCOARCHIVES@AOL.COM Fax: 256-974-2538 One of Colbert County's earliest record is the 1867 Voter's List which was required in all states that had been CSA. This list is supposed to include all males of voting age - black or white. So far as I know, it is available for all Alabama counties at the archives in Montgomery. With the exception of the year that Colbert reverted to Franklin [the parent county] all records at Colbert are intact. A good source for local information is the early newspapers. Again, don't overlook the neighboring counties. For instance, In many cases, the Florence papers that have survived have news about neighboring counties. Unfortunately, the farther back in time, the less likely personal information will be found and even if found, if they were not well-known it probably consists of only one or two lines. Obituaries seldom give survivors or other personal information. Sometime marriages were reported, this also depended on how well-known the people were or something else tha t made the marriage newsworthy - like holding the ceremony in a canoe in the middle of the Tennessee River <grin>. It's important to understand the 'flavor of the times' when doing research, and newspapers are one of the best sources for that. Also, don't overlook the ads! If your ancestor was not a farmer, he may have an ad publicizing his business or service. Is he selling his property? Is there a court ordered publication for non-resident heirs? Did the editor have a column in which he wrote about people that had 'come by' the newspaper office or that he had seen elsewhere? Is there a column reporting letters left at the post office? Are there columns for communities within the county? These papers are not lengthy - usually about 4 - 8 pages - and were published weekly so it doesn't take long to go through a whole year. A list for the newspapers published in Alabama held by ADAH may be found here: http://www.archives.state.al.us/ge.html One thing to consider is that while a family may move, did the entire family leave? Did a married daughter or son stay behind? Do letters exist? Have you followed these members of the family? Does a niece or nephew show up in 1880 or later census records that you can't connect to the family as you have it in your records? Was he or she born in another state AFTER the family left? Did the family that moved file a power-of-attorney where they moved to for someone in another state? It is important to think outside the box - especially when you are dealing with a burned county. Hope this helps, at least a little. Pat Pat M. Mahan CC Colbert Co AL www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~alcolber/ ----- Original Message ----- From: "Nancy Blackwell" <nnblackwell@sbcglobal.net> To: <alcolber@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, February 20, 2009 9:43 AM Subject: Re: [ALCOLBER] Off topic e-mails > Thanks Pat for keeping us going - Is there any way we can find out if > there are other, non-official records available. Our family left > Colbert about 1840. It is very frus trating to have no records, > basically. > Nancy Blackwell > ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ALCOLBER-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message