Mobile Alabama Genealogy – Access Genealogy

Choctaw Culture

Choctaw Village near the Chefuncte, The women appear to be making dye to color the strips of cane beside them, by François Bernard, 1869

The Choctaws, like all of their race, had no written laws, and their government rested alone on custom and usage, growing out of their possessions and their wants; yet was conducted so harmoniously by the influence of their native genius and experience, that one would hardly believe that human society could be maintained with so little artifice. As they had no money, their traffic consisted alone in mutual exchange of all commodities; as there was no employment of others for hire, there were no contracts, hence judges and lawyers, sheriffs and jails were unknown among them. There were no beg gars, … Read more

Biography of Joseph Raymond Hampson

JOSEPH RAYMOND HAMPSON – The work in which Joseph Raymond Hampson is engaged is eminently vital and important to the welfare of the people and the progress of the civic body. Mr. Hampson has had wide experience in this general field and has executed many large and important contracts, both for private individuals and for the United States Government. His outstanding success in these various achievements has given his name unusual recognition for a man still looking forward to many years of useful and progressive activity. He is a son of Louis and Viola (Lasher) Hampson, former residents of New … Read more

The French In Alabama And Mississippi

History of Alabama and incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, from the earliest period

After the Spanish invasion of De Soto, to which allusion has so often been made, our soil remained untrodden by European feet for nearly a century and a half. At the end of that long and dark period it became connected with the history of the distant dark period it became connected with the history of the distant French possessions of Canada, which were contemporaneous with the oldest English colonies in America. For more than fifty years the French fur traders of Canada, associated with the enterprising Jesuit Fathers, had continued to advance southwestward upon the great lakes, discovering new … Read more

Tohome Tribe

Tohome Indains. A former Muskhogean tribe of the Gulf coast, speaking a dialect of Choctaw. Their cabins stood 8 leagues north of the French settlement at Mobile, on the west side of Mobile river.

Biographical Sketch of Starke Seibert Saffold

Saffold, Starke Seibert; insurance; born, Mobile, Ala., March 15, 1852; son of Judge Milton J. and Martha Harrison Saffold; educated by private instructor, Graylock and Emerson Institutes; married, Philadelphia, Pa., Sept. 1, 1881, Harriet Webb; issue, one daughter, Mrs. Wm. C. Young, of Texas, and one son, J. Webb Saffold, Cleveland; has occupied official position in eight or ten professional and business concerns, from secretary to president; from which since retired; gen. agt., since 1886, Provident Life & Trust Co.; pres. Acme Eng. & Stamps Co.; director Chippewa Lake Co.; Los Seros Copper Co.; Gold Bug Mining Co.; Ohio Lemon … Read more

Mobile Indians

Mobile Tribe: Meaning unknown, but Halbert (1901) suggests that it may be from Choctaw moeli, “to paddle,” since Mobile is pronounced moila by the Indians. It is the Mabila, Mauilla, Mavila, or Mauvila of the De Soto chroniclers. Mobile Connections. The language of the tribe was closely connected with that of the Choctaw and gave its name to a trade jargon based upon Choctaw or Chickasaw. Mobile Location. When the French settled the seacoast of Alabama the Mobile were living on the west side of Mobile River a few miles below the junction of the Alabama and Tombigbee. Mobile History. … Read more

The Meeting in 1811 of Tecumseh and Apushamatahah

Peter Perkins Pitchlynn was the Choctaw Principal Chief from 1864-1866

The meeting in 1811, of Tecumseh, the mighty Shawnee, with Apushamatahah, the intrepid Choctaw. I will here give a true narrative of an incident in the life of the great and noble Choctaw chief, Apushamatahah, as related by Colonel John Pitchlynn, a white man of sterling integrity, and who acted for many years as interpreter to the Choctaws for the United States Government, and who was an eye-witness to the thrilling scene, a similar one, never before nor afterwards befell the lot of a white man to witness, except that of Sam Dale, the great scout of General Andrew Jackson, … Read more

The Discovery Of This Continent, it’s Results To The Natives

In the year 1470, there lived in Lisbon, a town in Portugal, a man by the name of Christopher Columbus, who there married Dona Felipa, the daughter of Bartolome Monis De Palestrello, an Italian (then deceased), who had arisen to great celebrity as a navigator. Dona Felipa was the idol of her doting father, and often accompanied him in his many voyages, in which she soon equally shared with him his love of adventure, and thus became to him a treasure indeed not only as a companion but as a helper; for she drew his maps and geographical charts, and also … Read more

Slave Narrative of Charity Anderson

Charity Anderson, 101 years old, lived near Mobile, Alabama at the time she was interviewed. She was born at Belle’s Landing, in Monroe County, Alabama. Her master operated a wood yard that supplied fuel to river boats. Anderson was a house slave. She recalls that her master treated all his slaves well, but she also remembered seeing slaves torn up by dogs and whipped unmercifully.

Mound Builders

The types of the human skulls taken from those ancient mounds said to have been erected by a prehistoric race, and now called “Mound Builders” a race claimed to be far superior to our Indians are characteristic, not only of the ancient Mexicans, Peruvians and other ancient tribes of South America, but also of the ancient Natchez, Muskogee’s, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Cherokees, Seminoles, Yamases and others of the North American continent. And it is a conceded fact that all Indians ever found in North and South America possess many common features. I have seen the native Indians of Mexico, Arizona and … Read more

Memoirs of John Pitchlynn

John Pitchlynn, the name of another white man who at an early day cast his lot among the Choctaws, not to be a curse but a true benefactor. He was contemporaneous with the three Folsom’s, Nathaniel, Ebenezer and Edmond; the three Nails, Henry, Adam and Edwin; the two Le Flores Lewis and Mitchel, and Lewis Durant. John Pitchlynn, as the others, married a Choctaw girl and thus become a bona-fide citizen of the Choctaw Nation. He was commissioned by Washington, as United States Interpreter for the Choctaws in 1786, in which capacity he served them long and faithfully. Whether he … Read more

The Seminole War of 1816 and 1817 – Indian Wars

After the close of the war with Great Britain, in 1815, when the British forces were withdrawn from the Florida’s, Edward Nicholls, formerly a colonel, and James Woodbine, a captain in the British service, who had both been engaged in exciting the Indians and Blacks to hostility, remained in the territory for the purpose of forming combinations against the southwestern frontier of the United States. Nicholls even went so far as to assume the character of a British agent, promising the Creeks the assistance of the British forces if they would rise and assert their claim to the land which … Read more

Prominent White Men among the Chickasaws

At an early day a few white men of culture and of good morals, fascinated with the wild and romantic freedom and simplicity of the Chickasaw life, cast their lot among that brave and patriotic nation of people. I read an article published in Mississippi a few years ago, which stated that a man by the name of McIntosh, commissioned by British authorities to visit the Chickasaw Nation and endeavor to keep up its ancient hostility to the French, was so delighted with the customs and manners of that brave, free and hospitable people that, after the accomplishment of his mission, he … Read more

The Biloxi and Pascagoulas

The French in making their voyages of discovery along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico in 1712, under the command of Iberville, anchored one evening near an island (now known as Ship Island) which they discovered to be intersected with lagoons and inhabited by a strange and peculiar animal seemingly to hold the medium between the fox and cat, and they give it the name Cat Island, by which it is still known; thence they passed over the main land, where they discovered a tribe of Indians called Biloxi, among whom they afterwards located a town and gave it the name Biloxi … Read more

Memoirs of Nathaniel Folsom

I will here present to the reader the memoirs of Nathaniel Folsom the oldest of the three brothers who cast their lot in their morning” of life among” the Choctaws, and became the fathers of the Folsom House in the Choctaw Nation, as related by himself to the missionary, Rev. Cyrus Byington, June, 1823, and furnished me by his grand-daughter Czarena Folsom, now Mrs. Rabb. “I was born in North Carolina, Rowan County, May 17th, 1756. My father was born in Massachusetts or Connecticut. My mother was born in New Jersey. My parents moved to Georgia, and there my father … Read more

Memoirs of the LeFlore Family

The Old Farm House: The Pioneer Home of a Choctaw Chief, Leflore, and of the Oak Hill School

The Cravat families of Choctaws are the descendants of John Cravat, a Frenchman, who came among the Choctaws at an early day, and was adopted among them by marriage. He had two daughters by his Choctaw wife, Nancy and Rebecca, both of whom became the wives of Louis LeFlore. His Choctaw wife dying he married a Chickasaw woman, by whom he had four sons, Thomas, Jefferson, William and Charles, and one daughter, Elsie, who married- a white man by the name of Daniel Harris, and who became the parents of Col. J. D. Harris, whose first wife was Catharine Nail, the … Read more

Alabama Funeral Home Records

This page links to known Alabama Funeral Records whether they be available online or offline. Funeral records are an invaluable source of genealogical information that can provide insight into the lives and deaths of our ancestors. They offer a wealth of details on the deceased and their family, including their names, ages, dates of death, causes of death, and other key information. While funeral records can be found in a variety of places, genealogists must be careful when interpreting the information they contain, paying close attention to accuracy and cultural context. By using funeral records in their research, genealogists can gain a deeper understanding of their ancestors and build a more complete picture of their family history.

Biographical Sketch of Judge Mark W. Delahay

Judge Mark W. Delahay, of Leavenworth, a pioneer newspaper man of that place, founder of the first paper at Wyandotte, a father of the territory and the state and an honored Federal judge during the later period of his life, was a native of Maryland. Although his father was a slaveholder, his maternal ancestors were members of the Society of Friends, and he was averse to buying and selling slaves. Soon after attaining his majority he located in Illinois, where he wrote for different journals; studied law, and was admitted to the bar. In 1853 he went to Mobile, Alabama, … Read more

Journey of Bartram Through Alabama

William Bartram, the botanist, passed through the Creek nation, and went from thence to Mobile. He found that that town extended back from the river nearly half a mile. Some of the houses were vacant, and others were in ruins. Yet a few good buildings were inhabited by the French gentlemen, and others by refined emigrants of Ireland, Scotland, England, and the Northern British Colonies. The Indian trade was under management of Messrs. Swanson and McGillivray. They conducted an extensive commerce with the Chickasaws, Choctaws, and Creeks. Their buildings were commodious, and well arranged for that purpose. The principal houses … Read more

Biography of Quitman U. Newell, M. D.

Dr. Quitman U. Newell, gynecologist and obstetrician, has followed the tendency of the age. toward specialization and in this branch of the profession has developed wide capability and power, bringing him to a prominent position in the ranks of the medical fraternity in St. Louis. He was born in Whistler, Mobile county, Alabama, June 14, 1886, and is a son of William H. and Minerva A. (Thompson) Newell. The father, a native of Louisiana, belonged to one of the old families of New York of Scotch-Irish descent. He became a pattern-maker by trade and had long followed that pursuit. His … Read more