Q & A Day

7 September 2009 by Libbi.

A friend recently wrote:

Libbi — I have a quick question for you. My friend Janice was visiting this evening, and she started sharing with me some issues concerning her father’s parents. To give you an idea of how old her grandparents would be, Janice is 63. Anyway, Janice’s grandmother shot her grandfather when Janice’s father was very young. She doesn’t know whether her grandfather lived or died from the gunshot wound, and she doesn’t know whether her grandmother was incarcerated or put in some sort of asylum, etc. She’s going to give me their names and any other information she can come up with, i.e., birthdates, birthplaces, etc. Armed with that info, where could I look online for records about them? I believe they were from Alabama.Thanks for any advice you can offer. — Abigail

Abigail: My first thought is court records. Surely there was an investigation. If she was committed, it had to be in court. If she was jailed, that should be in the county records, too.

My second thought is the many newspaper archives out there, many of which local libraries subscribe to. Surely there was at least a “police roundup” article. Ancestry.com would be one place to start. If your local library doesn’t have a sub, try your nearest Mormon Church’s Family History Center. Also, my local library has a subscription to America’s Newspapers and Heritage Quest Online.

Here’s a link to some free AL info : http://publicrecords.onlinesearches.com/Alabama.htm. This lists what court holds which records, and that can help narrow your search.

If you have the ancestors in a specific town in a census year, find their address and perhaps contact that town’s historical society/club. Surely such a story is a local legend!

Finally, when you know what county in AL, go to http://www.algenweb.us/. The chair of that county will have more ideas.

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