Crucial Alabama Vital records need digitization and indexing

LegacyUser

Cynthia G. Mills said: Request for priority digitization of Tuscaloosa, Alabama Marriage records, 1823-1933; indexes, 1823-1874 - all films: indexes and records; so they can be viewed on computer in FS libraries.

Southern US research is very difficult due to lack of vital records. Marriage records are extremely important in establishing family relationships.

LegacyUser

A van Helsdingen said: I assume you are referring to:
https://www.familysearch.org/search/c... film numbers 1290745 to 1290757.

The column titled "DGS" indicates whether the records have been digitized, according to what has been said on this forum before.

All these records have DGS numbers but are microfilm only. This means that the record custodian, who is probably Tuscaloosa County, has not (yet) given consent for these records to be made available online.

You should firstly contact Tuscaloosa County and ask why they object to the records being online. There is a good chance the reason is that they charge people to view the records and they don't want to lose the revenue.

This may or may not be legal in Alabama. The organisation Reclaim The Records (https://www.reclaimtherecords.org/) has a good track record of forcing government agencies to make records public, and they recently won public access to vital records in neighbouring Mississippi. You could contact them to see what could be done.