Alabama Cemeteries

Alabama tombstone transcriptions date from the early 1800s. Tombstones and sextons’ records may give birth and death dates, age at death, name of spouse, names of children, and maiden names. Birth places are infrequently mentioned. Tombstones may have symbols or insignias suggesting military service and social, fraternal, or religious affiliations. Family members may be buried in the same plot or nearby.

The Gandrud and Jones Collection, Alabama Records, and the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) collection contain tombstone inscriptions from many Alabama cemeteries. The Gandrud and Jones collection is described in Alabama Genealogy. The Daughters of the American Revolution collection is:

Daughters of the American Revolution (Alabama). Miscellaneous Records. Salt Lake City, Utah: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1970. (On seven FHL films beginning with 835113.) There are 44 other microfilms in the DAR collection for Alabama. See the Family History Library Catalog, Author/Title

Search the microfiche catalog, under Daughters of the American Revolution (Alabama), for a list of the other films. This collection consists of transcripts of Bible records, cemetery records, church records, marriages, deaths, obituaries, and wills. It was microfilmed in 1970 and 1971 at the DAR Library in Washington, DC. The volumes are generally arranged by county and many have individual indexes. These records are indexed by surname in E. Kay Kirkham’s An Index to Some of the Bibles and Family Records of the Southern States, cited in Alabama Genealogy.

Genealogical society members often copy and publish tombstone inscriptions. The USGenWeb Archives Project has records from cemeteries listed on their Internet site at:

The Alabama Tombstone Transcription Project. In The USGenWeb Archives Project, N.p.: USGenWeb Archives, 17 February 1999 [cited 15 July 1999].

A county-by-county list of cemetery record transcripts and the book and film numbers to locate them at the Family History Library as of 1988 is:

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Family History Library (Salt Lake City, Utah). Index to United States Cemeteries. Salt Lake City, Utah: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1988. (FHL films 1206468–94.) FHL film 1206468 includes Alabama through Arkansas.

You will find many cemetery records transcribed and published in genealogical periodicals. See Alabama Periodicals for indexes to periodicals.

Cemetery records are listed in the Place Search of the Family History Library Catalog under:

ALABAMA- CEMETERIES

ALABAMA, [COUNTY]- CEMETERIES

ALABAMA, [COUNTY], [TOWN]- CEMETERIES