This book contains abstracts from central Alabama newspapers published between 1821 and 1877. The newspapers abstracted are Cahawba Press and Alabama State Intelligencer, Alabama Journal, South Western Baptist, Our Mountain Home and The Southern Plantation. They supply a variety of information from a wide geographic area, and information is typically more personal in nature than that found in the court house, providing an interesting view of life at the time.Abstracted information includes marriage notices (usually including residence/parent names);divorce or separation notices (name/residence);death notices and tributes of respect (usually include biographical data, residence, age);rosters of runaway slaves (personal description of slave, owner's name/residence);advertisements;notices of appointments;lists of letters at the post office;business advertisements (business/owner name);sale of land (seller's name, land location/description);renewal of lost land certificates;granting of executors;insolvent estates;estate sale notices;sheriff sale notices;crime reports;will notices;queries on whereabouts of family members;names of doctors in Alabama, by county, in 1825;etc. The lists of letters left unclaimed mention the post offices of towns such as Selma, Centreville, Old Town, Marion (Perry County), Cahawba, Perry Court House, Portland, Sparta (Conecuh County), and Canton. These are of particular importance to the researcher as many of the names found in these lists do not appear on census indexes, making them an excellent addition to census and tax records. There is a surname index containing about 2,800 names, and a separate slave name index.