Our Mission

To procure, preserve, restore, maintain, study, and promote records, charters, manuscripts, instruments, evidence, and documents of a public or private nature that may have statistical, legal, or historical significance to Limestone County, Alabama, its government, or residents, or such documents as might be desirable to the association and to encourage public interest therein.

About Us

The Limestone County Department of History and Archives was established by the Limestone County Commission in 1980. In 2004 Limestone County purchased the 1905 L&N Depot and remodeled it to house the Archives.

The Archives are the official repository for records produced by various county departments. These departments include the Probate Court, Circuit Court, Revenue Commission, County Commission, Board of Education, and Board of Registrars. It also contains personal family histories, family photographs, periodicals, and microfilmed newspapers.

Records dating before 1900 include the following:
Deeds | Marriages | Tax Blanks | Voter Registration | Wills | Court Cases | Plat Books

Preserving and sharing the legacy of Limestone County

View Limestone County’s Monuments, Memorials, and Markers by clicking below on the Map

Documents
The Limestone County Archives has more than 6,000 books and files dating to the county’s beginnings in 1818. Discover the documents located here, including marriages, deeds, wills, court cases, tax records, school census records, and more.

Master Index
Every name on every page of nearly every book, file, and photo in the Limestone County Archives is in this searchable index of more than 350,000 entries. Search the Master Index to find your records.

Underlined titles will link directly to the document or book in our online documents. Or you can browse our online documents.

Digital Archives
Browse, search, view, save, and share digitized Limestone County government records, historic photos and documents, and local history articles and videos on our online portal.

In Memory
Search this database of nearly 60,000 Limestone County death records compiled from newspaper obituaries, tombstone inscriptions, and funeral programs dating from the 1800s to daily-updated current records.

Friends of the Archives (F.O.A.)

A support organization called the Friends of the Archives focuses on maintaining a small library and collecting material pertaining to Limestone County. They also are the publishing arm of the Archives.

The Friends of the Archives meets quarterly, on the third Tuesday of February, May, August, and November, at 5 p.m. at the Limestone County Archives. Membership is $10 a year.

For more information about the FOA, click HERE to visit the FOA Facebook page.

Order Copies

To search for records by keyword, visit the Master Index. Clicking on underlined records will open the image of that record online. If you want copies of any indexed items not available online, print the index, circle the items on the index printout, and return them with a check or money order made payable to Limestone County Archives for $1 per document. 

Send to:
Limestone County Archives
102 W. Washington St.
Athens, AL 35611

Copies are sent by e-mail (please print e-mail address) or add $1.00 postage for every 10 documents ordered. Certified copies are $5.00. Chancery & Probate Court “loose” files require a special quote for copying as they are several pages long and can only be copied as a unit. We are authorized to copy only Limestone County government records that appear on our index printout. This excludes census records, newspaper articles (not appearing on the index), family files, or documents from private collections. Enlistment and discharge records are available from the Probate Judge’s Office.

Copies of photographs can be obtained for a non-refundable fee – $3 (4X6), $6 (5X7), $12 (8X10), or $3 for a JPEG. Photographs with a page number beginning with PH may not be available.

Allow 2 to 4 weeks for processing after the remittance. Due to restrictions and our limited staff, we cannot do research. You may need to contact a researcher for further assistance.