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Identifying the sources of historical information is very important. In addition to giving credit where credit is due, sources also provide the researcher with a place to go to check the facts, obtain additional information, and verify transcriptions. The following sources were used in compiling the pre-1830 Henry County, Alabama Pioneers knowledge base.



Note: Author Helon Cutler’s wishes were respected, and her “Created List of People Living in Henry Co. in 1820-1829” that appears in her book Henry County Alabama Records, Volume 1, Census Records was not used as the source of any of the pioneers or facts in this knowledge base; neither was her book Henry County, Alabama Records, Volume 2, Marriage Records used as the source of any of the pioneers or facts. The pre-1830 pioneers that may also appear in Ms. Cutler’s books were independently extracted from other – mostly primary – sources and included on this website. However, there are 38 Pre-1830 Henry County individuals that appear in Ms. Cutler’s books that are currently not in this knowledge base. Sixteen of the differences are due to either transcription differences or errors. The remaining 22 individuals are believed to be from other sources that have not yet been independently researched.


Additional Unresearched Sources


1. Henry County Court Annex: There may be untold pre-1830 treasures in the Henry County Court Annex building, such as tax lists, the 1820 Henry County census, Henry County circuit court cases from 1825 through 1829, etc. Official Henry County Historian T. Larry Smith reports that after the team of volunteers prepared the loose records for microfilming in 2001, he led a small group of people to inventory the "vast record books" in the annex building. They only completed inventorying the small court record books. A wall of court record books was leaning away from the wall and was too dangerous to deal with at the time, plus, the volunteers were exhausted after almost a year of dealing with the loose records and the small record books in the annex. The inventory of the small court record books was published in the "Henry County Orator" some years ago. It does not include any pre-1830 records, but the uninventoried 60% of the Court Annex may.

NOTE: At this time, the Court Annex is closed to the public.
2. Bounty Land Warrant Application Files: The application that was filled out when a Henry County resident who previously served in the military applied for a land warrant includes the soldier's age at the time of application, his unit's leaders, his enrollment date and place, and his discharge date and place. This information could be very valuable in determining where a pre-1830 pioneer lived prior to moving to Henry County. Bounty Land Warrant Application Files can be ordered from the National Archives for a fee of $25.
3. The Alabama State legislative acts, house journals, and senate journals for the tenth and eleventh sessions when posted on the history section of the Alabama State Legislature's website: Currently, the website contains Henry County pioneers and facts that were extracted from the first through the ninth sessions.
4. Henry County Register: There may still be additional articles about early Henry County Pioneers in the "Henry County Register" because the October 3, 1873 edition ends with: "We will give you a further history of its first settlers, trade, etc, in some future article. More Anon" The newspaper was researched through July 31, 1874, which is the end of the microfilm from the Alabama Department of History and Archives, without discovering any additional "Old Settlers" articles. Attempts will be made to obtain microfilms from other sources that include later editions of the "Henry County Register."
5. Confederate pension applications: Confederate veteran pension applications and widow of veteran pension applications contain a wealth of information. On some forms, the veteran or widow is requested to provide his or her birthplace, birth date or age. This information could be used to confirm a Confederate veteran, widow of a veteran, or (indirectly) their parents were Henry County residents prior to 1830.
6. Indian War pension applications: On July 27, 1892, Congress passed an act allowing pensions to soldiers who served in Indian Wars between 1832 and 1842 who were honorably discharged. Widows also received the benefit of the act, provided they had not remarried. Here is the Pension List for soldiers who served in Henry County units during the Creek War of 1836.
7. Henry County Official Bond Book A: Henry County Official Bond Book D is given as the source for an 1843 bond for William Lawson as constable. If Bond Book D includes an 1843 bond, then possibly, Bond Book A includes earlier bonds, perhaps even pre-1830 bonds. There is no known microfilm for the Bond Books.
8. Henry County, Alabama circuit court cases from 1825 through 1829, if they exist: The Henry County circuit court cases abruptly ends in early 1825, and no other Henry County microfilms cover court cases for the remaining years. Either records of the subsequent cases don’t exist; they were never microfilmed; or the microfilm was lost or mislabeled.
9. Box #206 at the National Archives: This box contains information on Robert Irvin's Company of the Georgia Militia in the 1st Seminole War of 1817-1818. It is believed that all the soldiers in Robert Irvin’s unit were pre-1830 Henry County, Alabama pioneers.
10. A History Of Henry County, Alabama, 1795 To 1850 by David Lewis Trawick, M.A. Thesis, Mississippi State University, 1971: A portion of David Lewis Trawik’s research was published in Henry County Political Return 1822-1860 and Church Records by the Henry County Historical Society, 1970, from which the pre-1830 names and facts have already been extracted and entered on the website. The rest of Mr. Trawick's thesis may contain additional pertinent information.
11. A Brief History of Henry County, Alabama by Elijah Coleman "Lidge" Glover, Abbeville, Alabama, 1916: This book is included in the bibliography of a post on Roots-Web by Steve Elliott on August 28, 2006. Since the topic of the post is Henry County pioneers Henry and Daniel Jackson, the book may include information about other Henry County pioneers.


Research Dead Ends

The following sources were researched and deemed dead ends because they are either unavailable or do not contain any new pioneers or facts about pre-1830 Henry County.


1. Alabama, 1821-1829, decennary census index by Ronald Vern Jackson. The only known public copy of the index is in the genealogical library of Wallace State Community College in Hanceville, Alabama (HA 222 .U54 1820-29).

The index was researched and is a dead end. The only pre-1830 Henry County individuals in the index are the brides and grooms from Henry County, Alabama Marriage Book A who have already been extracted directly from the Marriage Book and added to the website.


2. Henry County Tax Lists: Many counties preserved their old tax lists. Unfortunately, according to the Henry County Revenue Commissioner’s Office on September 16, 2009, "those records are not in the courthouse and no one here knows where they would be."


3. “Alabama Journal” newspaper published in Montgomery, Alabama: From James Nall’s 1827 estate case file, it was known that the "Alabama Journal" published notices of Henry County deaths. However, no new information was discovered in Death, Marriage and Probate Notices from Montgomery, Alabama Newspapers, Volume I (1821-1865) by Larry E. Caver, Jr. which includes the "Alabama Journal." The only three notices pertaining to Henry County were from the administrators of the estates of James Rabb, Julius Martin, and William Bannister. The information in those notices had already been extracted from the estate case files for those individuals.


4. "The Territorial Papers of the United States Vol. XVIII, The Territory of Alabama, 1817-1819" by Clarence Edwin Carter. No early Henry County residents mentioned in the volume.


5. Masonic Lodge Minutes and Membership Rolls. Henry #91, the earliest Masonic lodge in Henry County, was chartered in 1848. Hence, it’s unlikely any of the county's lodge membership rolls or minutes include pre-1830 Henry County information.



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JimChumney Additional Hidden Sources? 0 Mar 17 2009, 8:59 AM EDT by JimChumney
Thread started: Mar 17 2009, 8:59 AM EDT  Watch
Following up on my message from last week on possibly "hidden" sources for additional Pre-1830 pioneers (excerpt appended below for reference), I received a note from Gerald Whiddon yesterday in which he stated:

"I spent two hours in the courthouse this morning and didn't find anything. I did find the name Ashly Grantham as a witness to deeds but couldn't find any akin to what I sent you. It has to be there somewhere because I know I didn't just imagine it. I looked at every page of the A-B book and C book along with the index of book D. I figure it was recorded at some later date and I just happen to come across it while scanning through the deed books looking for the name William Whiddon." "He shows up several times as witness to transactions as a Justice of the Peace in the early 1830s. His son, Nathan, was born in Henry County in 1828. If I come across it at a later date I'll be sure to record where it was located."

================== Excerpt of Original Message ======================

I received an e-mail this morning from long-time research buddy Gerald Whiddon that mentioned a deed for the sale of land between Asher Grantham and Ezekiel Caraway, Jr., witnessed by William Whiddon, dated 8 November 1826 in Henry County, Alabama. This is well and good except that neither this deed nor any of the participants are in the Pre-1830 Pioneers website.

Both Steve Elliott and I researched Deed Book A-C, and we did not find William Whiddon, Asher Grantham, or Ezekiel Caraway. I methodically and meticulously researched the Deed Book through page 25 and took pictures so I could review my work. After page 25 the transactions were dated later than 1829. I scanned another 25 pages or so to make sure the dates were progressing. So ...

Where is the Grantham-Caraway deed recorded? Alas, Gerald can't remember, but he's going to retrace his steps to try to find out.

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