Death in Alabama's mines was a grim fact in the first half of the 20th century. Falling rocks, cave-ins, explosions, electrocutions, fire, machinery accidents, and runaway mine cars took the lives of Alabama miners both collectively and one by one. From 1898 through 1938, Alabama mine inspectors recorded 2,188 deaths in the coalmines. The Alabama Coal Mine Fatalities Database compiled in the Government Documents Department of the Birmingham Public Library identifies the miners, the mines, the dates the men died, and the accidents that killed them.

The Alabama Episcopal Church Registers are a part of the records of the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama preserved in the Archives of the Birmingham Public Library. The Alabama Episcopal Church Registers lists confirmations, baptisms, marriages, burials and more for 14000+ people in a growing list of Alabama parishes.

Be it known that I, Mary Anderson, a citizen of the United States, residing at Birmingham, in the county of Jefferson and state of Alabama, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Window-Cleaning Devices, of which the following is a specification. So begin the words of the famous patent granted on November 10, 1902, for the first version of windshield wipers. Within ten years, this Alabama innovation became a standard feature on automobiles. Scanned images of the original documents of this patent and thousands of others issued to inventive Alabamians are available from the United States Patent and Trademark Office by way of the Alabama Inventors Database, a project of the Government Documents Department of the Birmingham Public Library.

The Birmingham Black Barons, one of the most successful baseball teams in the Negro Leagues, played from the 1920's until the 1950's. The team played their home games at Rickwood Field. This database is a keyword index to articles that appeared in local newspapers including the Birmingham News and the Birmingham World. The Government Documents Department of the Birmingham Public Library is compiling this database which is being updated regularly.

Jefferson County Probate Court, Loose Records is an Index for Boxes 1-637 (Birmingham) and Bessemer - 1916-1936. (Note: Boxes 1-637 refers to the Woodruff Boxes (Drawers) the cases were originally filed as -- not the archival boxes they are in now.)

In 1871 the City of Birmingham purchased from the Elyton Land Company 21.5 acres of land for a city cemetery (later named Oak Hill). The deed was issued December 29, 1873. As the first city cemetery, Oak Hill became the resting place for virtually all of the Birmingham pioneers. Although the majority of burials at Oak Hill Cemetery date back before the 1930's, it remains an active cemetery, averaging fifteen burials per year.

The Obituary Index : Birmingham Area Newspapers database is an ongoing project of the Government Documents Department of the Birmingham Public Library. Obituaries from several Birmingham area newspapers are included: the Birmingham News, Birmingham Reporter, Birmingham Times, the Birmingham World, the Methodist Christian Advocate, and the Shelby County Reporter.

Birmingham's startling growth in the late 19th century brought instant prosperity and fame for the privileged. To the less fortunate, urban life delivered its portion of misery, disease, and poverty. In 1888 Judge Alexander O. Lane purchased land on the south side of Red Mountain to create a burial ground for the indigent dead. By 1906, 4,711 paupers were buried in Red Mountain Cemetery, now the site of Lane Park and the Birmingham Zoo. The database for the Red Mountain Cemetery Record of Interments preserves the records of these deaths and provides fragments of information about the lives these individuals once lived.

Shadow Lawn was originally deeded in 1889 as a "colored" burial ground and is the largest African American cemetery in Birmingham. The database for the Shadow Lawn Memorial Gardens Cemetery Interments is a work in progress and does not currently include the name of every person buried at there. When the database is complete, it will include the name and grave location for every person identified in the cemetery's surviving records.

The "WPA Index to Alabama Biography" was a Works Progress Administration project begun in the 1930's then abandoned when funding for the WPA was curtailed. Although the index was never completed, over 97 titles such as Who's Who in America, other biographical dictionaries, and local histories were indexed by the workers. It is an invaluable tool for researching Alabama biographical sources.