ALABAMA SUPREME COURT CASE FILES

In October 2020, the Alabama Department of Archives and History (ADAH) launched a project to provide online access to the case files of the Alabama Supreme Court from 1820 through 1877, which include lower court rulings, interrogatories, exhibits, motions, and other details not included in the published rulings of the Court. Although available for in-person research at the Archives for many years, these ledger-bound records are difficult to use due to their original, inconsistent organization and fragile condition. Making the records available in the ADAH Digital Collections will greatly increase their accessibility to scholars, genealogists, attorneys, and educators. The project will be a multi-year endeavor, requiring the digitization of almost 500 volumes, but it will dramatically increase the accessibility of historically rich content related to the state’s early development, slavery, wartime, emancipation, and Reconstruction.

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As scanning continues, the ADAH needs virtual volunteers to transcribe selections from the the handwritten documents. The transcription project utilizes FromThePage, an online platform the ADAH has used for several years to successfully conduct similar crowdsourced projects. This work is done on a standard web browser and requires no special software or equipment. Anyone with an Internet connection can participate.