Guide to Genealogy Records in Mobile, Alabama

The Denis Trenier family, circa 1950. Erik Overbey Collection

For questions about our genealogical material or to order a copy of a record, please email us at mccalllib@southalabama.edu. Many of these resources are also available through FamilySearch. Links are provided below. The McCall Library also has genealogy books for sale. Nominal fees are charged for protracted research requests. Please see our research fee page.

Census Records
These are located at the Mobile Public Library's Local History & Genealogy Division. The McCall Library has census indexes for 1820-1860 in five volumes. We also have the 1900 and 1910 censuses available on two rolls of microfilm.

Divorce Records
The McCall Library has divorce records available on microfilm for the years 1816-1918. An index to those records is available on site. Researchers should consult the Circuit Court's Domestic Relations Division for records after 1918.

Marriage Records
(White Marriages)
The McCall Library has two index books to marriage records that cover the years 1813-1875. We also have a xerox copy of the index for the years 1823-1967. Should the xeroxed index have missing pages, a microfilm copy is available for viewing. When researchers retrieve the book and page number for the marriage record from the xeroxed copy, they should take that information to the Mobile County Probate Court, where the records are held.

(Black Marriages)
The McCall Library has the colored marriage license index on two rolls of microfilm. They cover the years 1865-1967. According to the Probate Court, no records exist for the years prior to 1865. Researchers should consult the Probate Court for the actual records.

Naturalization Records
The McCall Library has the index books to naturalization records for the years 1833-1906. We also have the index available on microfilm. The microfilm contains the same information (in 99 percent of cases) as the printed index. Researchers should consult the Probate Court for the actual records. Researchers should consult the United States Federal Court for naturalization records after 1906, as naturalization took place at those locations after that date.

Naturalization records available on FamilySearch.

Orphan Court Records
The McCall Library has the Abstracts for the Orphan Court Minutes for the years 1813-1837. The Archives also has the Orphan Court minutes on four rolls of microfilm. For records after 1837, researchers should consult the Probate Court.

Orphan Court records available on FamilySearch.

Ship Passenger Lists
The McCall Library has passenger lists for the years 1838-1860 in two volumes. Microfilm copies of abstracts of Mobile passenger lists for 1832-1852 can be found in Copies of Lists of Passengers Arriving at Miscellaneous Ports on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts and at Ports on the Great Lakes, 1820-1873, National Archives Microcopy No. 575, Roll 4. For passenger lists for other years, researchers should consult Record Group 36, Records of the Bureau of Customs, National Archives. They have passenger lists for the years 1820-1905.

Birth and Death Records
These are located at the Bureau of Vital Statistics in the Mobile County Health Department.

(Birth Certificates)
In order to obtain a birth certificate, a person must be an immediate family member unless the record is approximately 120 years old. Out-of-town researchers may contact the Alabama State Department of Public Health's Bureau of Vital Statistics.

(Death Certificates)
Anyone may obtain a death certificate. The Bureau of Vital Statistics charges a fee for each record. The bureau can search by year, or by month and day of birth.

Other Sources for Genealogical Research at The Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library

(Published Sources)

Burial Records, Mobile County, Alabama, 1820-1870 (2 volumes)
Death and/or Burial Records, Mobile County, Alabama, 1871-1880
Grassroots of America (index to the American State Papers: Land Grants)
A History of Church Street Graveyard
Index to Alabama Wills, 1808-1870 (Alabama Society DAR)
Love's Legacy: The Mobile Marriages (1724-1786)
Magnolia Cemetery, 1828-1971
Mobile City Directory, 1837-2001 (some years missing)
Mobile County, Alabama, Death Records, 1876-1908 (index)
History of Alabama (biographies in vols. 3 & 4)
A Register of the Officers and Students of the University of Alabama, 1831-1901
Revolutionary Soldiers in Alabama
Roche-McKay Funeral Records, 1899-1902
The Story of Alabama: Personal and Family History (vols. 4 & 5)
Tombstone Inscriptions, Catholic Cemetery
Alabama, Friends of Magnolia Cemetery, Funeral Books, 1911-1965 available on FamilySearch.
Original Will Records Mobile Alabama 1813-1961 index 1813- 1957 available on FamilySearch.

(Microfilm Sources)

American State Papers: Land Grants and Claims, 1789-1837 (fiche)
Confederate Soldiers, Sailors, and Civilians Buried in Northern Cemeteries
Government Street Presbyterian Church, Register Books, 1831-1979
Government Street Presbyterian Church, Session Minutes, 1831-1944
Index to Real Property, Probate Court, Mobile, Alabama, 1813-1907
Jewish Synagogue Records, Congregation Ahavas Chesed
Mississippi Territory Tax Rolls (computer index)
Mobile Daily Item, 1899-1911 (for obituaries)
Will Books, Probate Court, Mobile, Alabama, 1819-1857
Miscellaneous Books, Old Series, Probate Court, Mobile, Alabama (2 rolls)
Translated Records, Probate Court, Mobile, Alabama, 1714-1841 (contains petitions for land grants)
Whistler, Alabama, Cemetery Index

(Manuscript and Photographic Sources)

Mobile County Circuit Court Records, civil cases, 1828-1917
Illinois Central Gulf Railroad, personnel records (includes GM&O, GM&N, Alton; no index available)
Erik Overbey Collection, portraits, 1880s-1950s (includes Reed Studio)(Miscellaneous Sources)
Bay and Bayou Burials of South Mobile County, Alabama
Cemetery Lists in Baldwin, Choctaw, Clarke, Dallas, Hale, Lowndes, Marengo, and Mobile Cemeteries in Mobile County
Mobile Confederate Companies in the Civil War
Plateau Cemetery, 1876-1997
Washington County, Mississippi Territory, Tax List, 1803-1816