Source Information

Alabama Department of Archives and History
Ancestry.com. Alabama, U.S., Death Record of State Convicts, 1843-1951 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors.
Original data:

Death Record of State Convicts, 1843–1951. Print Publication SG007527-7529, 20627, 20633; 6 volumes. Alabama Department of Corrections and Institutions. Alabama Department of Archives and History (ADAH), Montgomery, Alabama.

About Alabama, U.S., Death Record of State Convicts, 1843-1951

Death records for Alabama state convicts who died while either a prisoner in custody or on parole are in this database. The records are ordered chronologically and in the 1908–1951 records chronologically and then alphabetically.

The state prison system was first organized in 1839, prior to that all criminal punishment was conducted on a town level by either local citizens or a county official. The prison system was actually meant as a way to reform the local treatment of criminals. During the Civil War almost all convicts were pardoned and released; afterwards incarcerated prisoners were leased out to work at repairing railroads and during the late 1800s at coal mining, saw mills, and turpentine stills, which aided the state’s economy. The early 1900s saw laboring prisoners working in cotton mills and road construction; this was the beginning of portable “road camps.”

Prisons listed in these records ca 1926:

  • Wetumpka * (later the Julia Tutwiler Prison for women)
  • Speigner *
  • #4 Camp*
  • Kilby*
  • River Falls†
  • Aldrich†
  • Flat Top†
  • #5 Camp or Buyck’s Farm (farming prison)

*state owned prisons

†state leased mining prisons

Some of the above information was taken from:

  • Alabama Department of Corrections History. Employee Handbook. (Montgomery, Alabama: Alabama Department of Corrections, 2010).

Information in this database:

  • Surname
  • County
  • Race
  • Sex
  • Cause of death
  • Location of death
  • Death date

Information that may be in this database:

  • Number of years incarcerated
  • Age
  • Occupation
  • Birthplace
  • Prisoner’s number
  • Book and page number of prisoner's entry in the State Convict Record (1888–1952)

Related Websites:

Alabama Department of Corrections History