Hi! I made an error regarding my post that the ADAH will furnish the counties with a CD. Let me repeat my post with the correction. The ADAH is working with the Utah Genealogy Society (The Mormons) and filming loose papers in all Alabama Counties. Some, what have fewer records have been completed. Some counties are just finding records, such is the Divorce records now being prepped for filming in Tuscaloosa. Once the filming is done, the Mormons will provide the ADAH with a Silver Premium Master Film Copy and ADAH will in turn provide the county with a Diazo Reference Film. A few things I want to stress. First Mr. Tom Turly of ADAH and the folder passed out by him states that any records could be filmed, with the permission of the court involved. ADAH also said the county could do as they wish with their copy. It is my understanding that some records have already been filmed at the Tuscaloosa County Courthouse, so my question is what has become of the film and can a copy of it be placed at the Tuscaloosa County Public Library? Let me say again that Probate Judge Hardy McCollum has always been friendly to genealogist, so when contacting him or his office, let's be friendly also. There are two things at play here. One, ADAH will not have records filmed, if they aren't aware they exist. That is why we must contact Tom Turly. Secondly, the county will not authorize a copy if they do not know the interest exist, so we need to contact both the Probate office and the Circuit Court Office and make a request. Please make the request that a copy be placed at the library. How else will they know!! Now comes the real crunch. I have already said that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Somebody has to pay for this work and some of us need to volunteer as best we can. There are shifts set up for the loose paper project but if you can only spend an hour, come on down. You will be more than welcomed!!! Let's keep this discussion going, so we can all be informed. Let us correct each other in a friendly manner and post any corrections so we can stay on track. Take care. Bye, Mike [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> PS: No one has replied about the Tuscaloosa County Courthouse burning in 1860. Does anyone know. I've never heard of this before. Also, a member of this list contacted me on my e-mail address, which I will always provide and said they have found records of their ancestors dating back to the 1820's, so there are many pre-Civil War records at the Tuscaloosa County Courthouse. These records need to be preserved and copies made for the library. This is not an unreasonable request.

Mike, Tuscaloosa does not appear on any list I've seen of county courthouses that were burned. Part of the University campus was destroyed, but I don't think the courthouse was. According to Bentley's COUNTY COOURTHOUSE BOOK, these records are available at the courhouse: Land records from 1818 Marriages from 18232 Probate records from 1821 Margaret L Smith