Library Services - Local history / Genealogy

Genealogy/history information contained in newspapers of Colbert, Lauderdale, & Franklin Counties

Papers before 1870 usually didn’t report a lot of local news, though they did report deaths, some marriages, county election news, Civil War company rosters, and occasional church news. Until about 1897 newspapers were generally weekly and typically four pages long, with the local news on page three.

Around 1898, most of the local papers increased to eight pages long. There were no obituary columns until the 1950’s or 60’s; consequently, a person’s obituary might be located anywhere in the paper, (though seldom on page four before 1897 or 1898). Sometimes a person had obituaries in several different papers. People, particularly from remote areas, were not always able to get an obituary into the newspaper office(s); consequently many people might not have had one.

Papers from one area often carried news from other areas; for example, the Florence papers were on exchanges with the papers from Nashville, Memphis, Waynesboro, Collinwood, Lawrenceburg, Huntsville, Athens, Moulton, Birmingham, Sheffield, Tuscumbia, Russellville, Leighton, etc., and carried local news form those places (marriages, deaths of prominent citizens known to people in several areas, political news, crimes, etc.). These papers also carried similar types of local news from Florence, and the other papers these papers were on exchanges with.

This news was published under heading such as “Local News,” “Neighborhood News” or “State News.” Local news about city and county residents was published under columns headed “Local News Notes,” “Personal,” “The Gist of Things in City and County,” or something similar. In the Florence Herald and Florence Times, these columns were carried on page three until about 1897 or 1898, when they were moved to page eight. Papers like the Lauderdale Journal, Florence Democrat, Florence Appeal, and Florence Standard – Journal, publishing in the mid to late 1890’s, published local news on page five. In March of 1898, the Florence Standard – Journal added an East Florence Page, which it continued for several issues. In the early 1920’s the Florence Times had a Wilson Dam / Muscle Shoals section, carrying reports about the dam construction and news about the workmen and their families. Some local news had headlines, much did not.

The papers also carried “River News” about the river traffic, Muscle and Colbert Shoals canals and Wilson Dam construction, as well as reports about steamships and their captains, life on the canals, accident reports, etc.. Remember to ALWAYS write the paper(s) name, issue date and perhaps page number on the back of ANY article you copy from a newspaper; for documentation purposes, many genealogical societies request you provide a copy of the front page of a newspaper.

Believe me, you WILL need this information later, and if you haven’t written it down, chances are you won’t remember the date or where it came from. Besides which, this is just a good research habit. Bear in mind that newspapers were not always 100% accurate; sometimes mistakes did occur. Allow for occasional misspelled names, incorrect ages, dates or facts. The papers attempted to make corrections if they were alerted to mistakes, but no paper was perfect and able to correct every single mistake.

Occasionally, due to carelessness during printing, a paper will have the wrong date on the front page, or in the masthead, which most papers carried at the top of the second or third page. Until the 1920’s, papers were dated only on the front page and in a masthead on page two or three. Also, until the 1920’s papers did not number their pages.

Many areas had separate newspapers for African-Americans; Florence’s black paper, which served all of Northwest Alabama, was the Watcher, edited by the Rev. J. W. Williams, which published in 1888 and 1889. Tuscumbia’s paper was the American Star, published by G. W. Trenholm from 1901 to 1912, and which served all of Northwest Alabama. When it began, the American Star was published once a month and later bi-weekly. “White” newspapers surprisingly carried a great deal of black news such as marriages, deaths, advertisements for black businesses, home builders, Confederate veterans (Lauderdale had about eight black Confederates), delinquent taxpayers, social and religious news, etc. Often a crime, murder investigation or trail, will be reported over several issues of (perhaps more than one), paper.

Types of Genealogical/Historical Information Contained in Old Newspapers c. 1818 – 1830:

1. Marriage notices / lists of those issued a marriage license within a given month.
2. Death notices / memorials / obituaries / resolutions of respect.
3. Occasional birth notices.
4. Correspondence containing news and gossip from all the local communities such as East Florence, Cloverdale, Mecca, Stutts, Threets Crossroads, Rogersville, Leighton, Cherokee, Brick, Russellville, Frankfort, etc. These columns, usually written by local people under pen names, contain lots of information on people from these communities such as who got married and where, which pastor held a protracted meeting and who got saved, whose horse threw him, who built a house, who was courting who, who moved to the Indian Territory, (I.T.), who was visiting who, etc. These columns were fairly standard by about 1893 or so, though sometimes they appear in earlier years.
5. Delinquent taxpayers notices / tax lists.
6. Civil War muster rolls / company rosters.
7. Civil War pensioners lists, both Federal and Confederate.
8. Civil War reunion notices / rosters of attendees.
9. Lists of teachers who passed their teaching examinations.
10. Appointments of ministers, rabbis, and other clergy.
11. Notices of families moving out west or back home.
12. Non-resident notices / sheriff sales / notices of estate settlements.
13. Slave sales. Often give first names, ages, and physical descriptions.
14. Runaway slave notices. Often give first names, ages, and physical descriptions.
15. Lists of people with unclaimed letters at the post office.
16. Voter registration lists.
17. Lists of the members of clubs (Study Club, Firenze Club, Literary Club, Exchange Club, Kiwanis Club, etc.), service organizations, (Red Cross, Lauderdale County Council of Womens’ Defense, etc.), and charitable groups.
18. Masonic / Order of Good Templars / Knights of Pythias / Maccabees / Household of Ruth / Eastern Star / Odd Fellows notices / members lists.
19. United Confederate Veterans / Sons of Confederate Veterans / Grand Army of the Republic / United Daughters of the Confederacy / Daughters of the American Revolution, etc. notices / membership lists.
20. Family reunion notices.
21. Historical reminiscences by local citizens.
22. Rosters of city / county officials.
23. Lists of petit and grand jurors.
24. Mayor’s Court / Circuit Court / Grand Jury reports / notices.
25. Rosters of baseball teams.
26. War casualty reports (Indian Wars, Civil War, Spanish-American War, WWI).
27. Military Rosters (Indian Wars, Spanish-American War, WWI).
28. Letters home written by WWI soldiers.
29. Church services / revival notices.
30. Lauderdale County / Colbert County / Wayne County, etc. Singing Association Notices / member lists.
31. Notices of real estate transfers / names of property buyers / home builders, etc.
32. Company stockholders notices / meetings / lists of stockholders.
33. Advertisements of businesses owned by local people.
34. Political editorials written by local citizens.
35. City ordinances.
36. Reports of crimes (murder, theft, gambling, working on Sunday, moonshining, arson, public drunkenness, swearing in the presence of females, adultery, etc), with names of offenders and their sentences.
37. Tennessee River news, including reports on the work at the Muscle and Colbert Shoals Canals, Wilson Dam, steamship notices / departure schedules, names of ship captains and masters, etc.
38. Railroad schedules / departure notice, etc. / railroad employees news.
39. Lists / recollections of early settlers.
40. Names of sick people.
41. Lists of people applying for business licenses.
42. County Medical Examiner / Health Officer’s reports / reports of County Coroner’s inquests. 43. Freedmens Bureau reports.
44. Reports of Federal and state census statistics.
45. School notices / lists of students / list of graduates
46. Academy / college notices, (La Grange Military Academy, Mars Hill Academy, Deshler Female Academy, Florence, Normal, Southern Female Academy, Female Synodical College, etc.), with lists of students / instructors / professors / faculty / trustees.
47. Names of census enumerators.
48. Reports of school census statistics.
49. Lists of guests registered to local hotels / resorts, (National hotel, Jefferson Hotel, Bailey Springs, etc.).
50. Agricultural grange notices / membership lists
51. Names of people visiting friends, relatives, etc.
52. Names of candidates running for office in local elections / names of election officers / election returns, etc.
53. Lists of members of political clubs / organizations / societies.
54. Womens’ Christian Temperance Union notices / members lists
55. News from local factories, (Pump and Lumber Company, Stave Factory, Florence Wooden Ware Works, Sweetwater Shoe Manufacturing Co., Sloss Furnace, Florence Wagon Factory, etc.) / notices about employees
56. Weather statistics
57. Lists of Civil War veteran recipients of the U.D.C. Military Cross of Honor
58. Reminiscences of Civil War skirmishes / life during the war.

Click here for an index of Florence newspapers since the 1800's.