County Resources

Alabama Department of Public Health - Vital Records- you can order birth and death certificates here

Susette Cook can provide uncertified photo copies of Alabama death certificates from 1908-1959 for $2.00 and photocopies of 1866 Alabama state census

Lamar County Genealogical and Historical Society
P. O. Box 357
Vernon, AL  35592
MWCLIB@fayette.net

Dues are $16.00 per year, per family which includes 4 issues of Links to Lamar County.  All back-issues are available at a cost of $4.00 each.  The genealogical society has an ongoing project of identifying abandoned cemeteries with roadsigns and marble markers.  Please contact Dianne Woods (woods@fayette.net) if you have a cemetery that needs identification and/or if you would like to contribute to this very important project.

Mary Wallace Cobb Memorial Library
(genealogical society collection housed here)
110 1st Ave. NW
Vernon, AL  35592
205-695-6123
email:  mwclib@fayette.net

Sulligent Public Library
55188 Hwy. 17
Sulligent, AL  35586
205-698-8631
email:  sulllib@fayette.net

Links Column in the Lamar Democrat
This genealogical column is printed weekly.
Info about how to submit your queries for publication

Lamar Democrat (newspaper)
P. O. Box 587
Vernon, AL  35592
205-695-7029

Lamar Leader (newspaper)
P. O. Box 988
Sulligent, AL  35586
205-698-8148

West AL Gazette (newspaper)
P. O. Box 249
Millport, AL  35576
205-662-4296

Lamar County Courthouse
Hwy. 17
Vernon, AL
Judge of Probate, Johnny Rogers
205-695-9119

Records room (1st Floor) open M T Th F 8-5, Sat. 8-12.  Records are listed below that are housed there:

1. Marriage records with indexes beginning 27 Aug 1867.  (Vol. 3 begins Brides' index)

2. Deed records with direct and reverse indexes from 7 Dec 1866.

3. Mortgage records with indexes from 1 Nov 1891 (vol. 1-18 missing)

4. Order books containing administrations of estates from 24 Sep 1873 (vol. 1 missing)

5. Estate records (mostly the same as above) beginning 30 Apr 1869 (in Vol. 1-4).

6. Old Lamar Co. newspapers beginning in 1879 (another set available at the Cobb library but they cannot be photocopied).

7. Wills from 1844-1910.  In one small volume.  Not kept very well.

8. Civil War Pension Records.

9. Real estate records from 1892.

10. Discharge records from members of the Armed Forces beginning 1943.

11. Judgments and Decrees from 1915.

12. Tract record book dating from the early 1800's.

Note:  All these records were microfilmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah and are available through the LDS Church branch genealogical libraries and the AL Dept. of Archives and History.

Note:  Lamar County was once part of Marion and Fayette Counties before becoming Jones County then Sanford County.  The dividing line between the two was at the present-day Oak Hill Church on Hwy. 17 between Sulligent and Vernon.  The dividing line ran straight across the county.  If you are searching for ancestors in the northern part of the county before 1867, then look in Marion County records; if south of the line, look in Fayette Co. records.

Other records include:  divorces, abandonments, bastardy bonds, civil suits, criminal suits.  These records are housed in a locked vault on the third floor of the courthouse and may only be viewed with permission of the circuit clerk.

Lamar County Engineer - Jim Smith - 205-695-7136
Has an excellent map of the county showing exact locations for all cemeteries as well as showing Range, Township, and Section for ancestor's land identification.