From: Mary Lu Johnson

Volunteers, mostly comprised of Bham Gen Society and AL Gen Society members, have been involved for 10-11 years indexing Shelby Co and Jefferson Co, AL court records.  Shelby Co records are indexed/filmed, and we're near completing the JeffCo records which were stored at the main court house.

I wasn't in on Shelby Co when they started with 31 people, but have been one of only 11 remaining volunteers who are finishing up the downtown Bham courthouse JeffCo records.

We are seriously considering tackling the Bessemer cut-off records.  They're piled haphazardly one on top of the other in the basement of the old Bessemer Court House, and it's estimated it will take about five years to get them organized, cleaned, de-stapled, prepared for filming, and indexed.  We MUST get commitments of 2 or 3 hours+ a week from 15 or 20 people, or we can't consider it.  There's also the matter of funding, as they must be stored in expensive acid-free folders.

Would you please spread the word that we are in dire need of warm bodies and funding?   Mostly because of lack of parking in Bessemer, the records will be transported by the county to the Jefferson Co Operations Center off AL Hwy 79 (Tallapoosa St exit) in the Tarrant area.

We are contacting the Bessemer Ch of Commerce, Hueytown Hist Soc, and others.  If you can think of anyone who might be interested, we need all the help we can get!

To volunteer, contact: