Alabama, Montgomery County Court Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

United States Alabama Mongomery County

What is in the Collection?
The records consists of digital images of circuit and city court case files including primarily divorces and disputed estates. They also include chancery court case files. Chancery courts are courts of equity, so they hear primarily property disputes, often including disputed estates and sales of slaves. The collection covers the years 1870 to 1950. Wills usually mention the names of heirs and frequently specify how those heirs are related. Wills may also list names of children and married names of daughters. Probate records may not give an exact death date, but the death most often occurred within a few months of the date of probate.

Probate records of Alabama have been kept by the probate court since the counties were created. These courts have records of estate, guardianship, and juvenile cases. The Gandrud and Jones Alabama Records Collection includes some of these records.

These records were created with the intent to determine lawful ownership of family possessions and estates in the event of death or divorce.

The death date, residence, and other facts that were current at the time are quite reliable, though there is still a chance of misinformation. The records may omit the names of deceased family members and those who have previously received an inheritance, or the spouse mentioned may not be the parent of the children mentioned.

What Can these Records Tell Me?
The records usually contain the following information:


 * Names of interested individuals
 * Court date
 * Name of court
 * Location of court
 * Details of the dispute or case
 * Monies assessed or exchanged
 * Names of witnesses

How Do I Search the Collection?
You can search the index or view the images or both. To begin your search, it is helpful to know:
 * The name of the individual
 * The date of the event or the name of a parent or spouse

View the Images
View images in this collection by visiting the Browse Page.
 * 1) Select County
 * 2) Select Record Type, Date Range and Volume

How Do I Analyze the Results?
Compare each result from your search with what you know to determine if there is a match. This may require viewing multiple records or images.

For more tips about searching on-line collections see the on-line article FamilySearch Search Tips and Tricks.

What Do I Do Next?
Whenever possible, view the original records to verify the information and to find additional information that might not be reported. These pieces of information can lead you to additional records and family members.

I Found Who I was Looking for, What Now?

 * Use the information to find other records such as birth, christening, census, land and death records.
 * Use the information to find additional family members. Witnesses or bondsmen were usually relatives.
 * Repeat this process with additional family members found, to find more generations of the family.
 * Church Records often were kept years before government records were required and are a good source for finding ancestors before 1900.

I Can’t Find Who I’m Looking for, What Now?

 * Try viewing the original record to see if there were errors in the transcription of the name, age, residence, etc. Remember that there may be more than one person in the records with the same name.
 * Collect entries for every person who has the same surname. This list can help you identify possible relations that can be verified by records.
 * If you cannot locate your ancestor in the locality in which you believe they lived, then try searching records of a nearby locality in an area search.
 * Standard spelling of names typically did not exist during the periods our ancestors lived in. Try variations of your ancestor’s name while searching the index or browsing through images.
 * Remember that sometimes individuals went by nicknames or alternated between using first and middle names. Try searching for these names as well.
 * Search the indexes and records of Alabama, United States Genealogy.
 * Search in the FamilySearch Library Catalog.

Citing this Collection
Citing your sources makes it easy for others to find and evaluate the records you used. When you copy information from a record, list where you found that information. Here you can find citations already created for the entire collection and for each individual record or image.

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