Alabama Cohabitation Records
Alabama State Law
Section 1: Be it ordained by the people of the State of Alabama in convention assembled, That all marriages between freedmen and freedwomen, whether in a state of slavery or since their emapcipation, heretofore solemnized by any one acting or officiating as a minister, or any one claiming to exercise the right to solemnize the rites of matrimony, whether bond or free, are hereby ratified and made valid, provided the parties are now living togher as man and wife; and in all cases of freedmen and freedwomen who are now living together recognizing each other as man and wife, be it ordained that the same are hereby declared to be man and wife, and bound by the legal obligation of such relationship.[1]
1866 Alabama State Census
Alabama created a state census in 1866 which can be used as an equivalent to the cohabitation registers. Both "white" and "colored" enumerations are included together in the record itself. The top of each page identifies which enumeration you are reviewing.
| County | FHL Film |
| Autauga | 1533830 items 11-12 |
| Baldwin | 1533830 items 15-16 |
| Barbour | 1533830 items 17-18 |
| Bibb ("white" enumeration) | 1533830 item 19 |
| Bibb (continues "white" enumeration and begins "colored" enumeration) | 1533831 items 1-2 |
| Blount | 1533831 items 4-5 |
| Butler | 1533831 item 9 |
| Calhoun | 1533831 items 6-8 |
| Cherokee | 1533831 item 10 |
| Clarke | 1533831 item 11 |
| Coffee | 1533831 items 13-14 |
| Conecuh ("white" enumeration) | 1533831 item 15 |
| Conecuh (continues "white" enumeration and begins "colored" enumeration) | 1533832 item 1 |
| Coosa | 1533832 items 2-3 |
| Covington | 1533832 items 4-5 |
| Dale | 1533832 items 6-7 |
| Dallas | 1533832 items 8-10 |
| DeKalb | 1533832 item 11 |
| Franklin | 1533832 item 13 |
| Franklin | 1533832 item 14 |
| Fayette | 1533832 item 14 |
| Fayette | 1533832 item 15 |
| Greene | 1533833 items 1-2 |
| Henry | 1533833 item 4 |
| Jackson | 1533833 item 5 |
| Jefferson | 1533833 item 6 |
| Lauderdale | 1533833 items 7-8 |
| Lawrence | |
| Limestone | |
| Lowndes | |
| Macon | |
| Marengo | |
| Marion | |
| Marshall | |
| Mobile | |
| Mobile | |
| Monroe | |
| Morgan | |
| Montgomery | |
| Perry | |
| Pickens | |
| Pike | |
| Pike | |
| Randolph | |
| Russell | |
| St. Clair | |
| Shelby | |
| Sumter | |
| Talladega | |
| Tallapoosa | |
| Tuscaloosa | |
| Walker | |
| Washington | |
| Wilcox | |
| Winston |
Sources
- ↑ White, Barnetta McGhee, Ph.D.,Somebody Knows My Name: Marriages of Freed People in N.C. County by County.(Athens, GA: Iberian Publishing Co.), 1995: xxix.