The Tuskaloosa Gazette Index

This index was prepared from a diazo copy of a microfilm master from the Alabama Department of Archives & History. Some of the issues filmed at the Archives were blurred and damaged, rendering a few of the names illegible. I have included such entries under an "Unknown" index rather than trying to interpret the missing letters.

In all other cases, I have retained the original spellings of all names and phrases as they appeared in The Tuskaloosa Gazette. The name "Van Hoose", for example, was always written without the space: "VanHoose." It was also common in the Gazette to use military references for former Civil War officers, as in "Capt. J.S. Kennedy," and I have used those titles wherever they seem consistent to assist users in identifying particular persons. Titles such as "Rev." or "Miss" and ethnic references are also used to aid in identification. The first Editor-Publisher of The Tuskaloosa Gazette, Montgomery I. Burton, had a good sense of humor and sprinkled his pages with a variety of local nicknames, private jokes and personal anecdotes which sometimes confuse researchers. The businessman Thomas Maxwell, for example, often appears as "King Bee" and his store as the "Old Beehive." I have included such references as well as the personal or business names because they are so pervasive. In the case of repetitive classified ads, legal notices, and announcements, I have indexed only the first few appearances of such names to reduce redundancy.

Each name is followed by at least one volume and number reference, so that users can go immediately to the particular issue in question. Microfilm readers often have mechanized drives which will permit fast access to the desired issue. Each early number of the Gazette contains only four pages, so it should not take long to scan the issue for the particular name. If a number in parentheses follows the reference, it is a count of separate mentions in the same issue.

Home Page

Access