Alabama State Census, 1866 - FamilySearch Historical Records

United States Alabama 

What is in the Collection?
This collection covers individuals living in Alabama in 1866.

The State of Alabama conducted state censuses in the following years: 1818 (partial), 1820 (partial), 1821 (partial), 1823, 1850, 1855, 1866, and 1907.

The information is generally reliable. However, use the information with some caution, since the information may have been given to a census taker by any member of the family or by a neighbor. Some information may have been incorrect or deliberately falsified.

The census was compiled to obtain a count of the population of the state to determine how many representatives the state would send to Congress.

What Can this Collection Tell Me?
The index contains the following information:


 * Names of individuals or heads of families
 * Residence
 * Film number
 * Digital folder number
 * Page number
 * Image number

The census generally includes the following information:


 * Name of the head of household
 * Number of persons in each family
 * Relationship to head of household
 * Age
 * Sex
 * May list number of deceased or disabled soldiers in the family
 * May list former slaves

How do I Search the Collection?
To begin your search it is helpful to know:
 * First name
 * Identifying information such as the residence

Search by Name by visiting the Collection Page: Fill in the requested information on the search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information about the individuals in the list to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct family or person. You may need to compare the information about more than one person to find your ancestor.

Keep in mind:
 * There may be more than one person in the records with the same name.
 * You may not be sure of your own ancestor’s name.
 * Your ancestor may have used different names, or variations of their name, throughout their life.
 * If your ancestor used an alias or a nickname, be sure to check for those alternate names.
 * Even though these indexes are very accurate they may still contain inaccuracies, such as altered spellings, misinterpretations, and optical character recognition errors if the information was scanned.

For tips about searching on-line collections see the on-line video at FamilySearch Search Tips.

What Do I Do Next?
When you have located your ancestor’s record, carefully evaluate each piece of information given. Download a copy of the record, or extract the genealogical information needed. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details. Add this new information to your records of each family.

I Found Who I was Looking for, What Now?

 * Use the names, county, and page number to locate your ancestor in the actual census.
 * Use the names and location to locate your ancestor in the 1850 and 1860 federal censuses of Alabama.
 * Use the residence to locate additional records such as church and land records.
 * If you do not have the full name, use the surname. If you know the county where your ancestor lived put the name in the residence box.
 * Remember, this is only an index.
 * If the surname is unusual, you may want to compile the entries for every person of the same surname.

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

 * Check for variant spellings of the surnames.
 * Search the indexes and records of nearby localities.

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.. Collection citation:

Record citation (or citation for the index entry):